Ideas to Serve Promotes Students who 'Dare to Care'

Update (4/16/2018): Summary of the Awardees from the Ideas to Serve Finals 

Ideas Track Winner: Nopneu - A rapid, diagnostic test to diagnose pneumonia in a fraction of the time and cost of conventional methods with easy to read, color-coded results. Created by Georgia Tech graduate student Temiloluwa Adeniyi (BioID).

Ideas Track Runner-up: Oasis - Low-cost water quality test that anyone can use, allowing people in developing countries to test their own water. Created by Georgia Tech undergraduate student Arjun Bir (CE).

Ideas Track Third Place and MBA Award: Enabyl A.I. - a framework that will help Parkinson’s patients live safer and more independent by predicting the onset of symptom that results in injury. Team members include PhD students Jonathan Zia (joint Emory-Georgia Tech MD/PhD program), Vince Monardo (EE) of Carnegie Mellon University, and Carlos Renteria (BME) of University of Illinois at U.C.

Advanced Track Winner: Inspirit - Democratizing access to mobile VR content for education, and thus providing students of all backgrounds engaging and meaningful learning experiences. Created by Georgia Tech undergraduate student Aditya Vishwanath (CS).

Best Video Award: FetBeats - A convenient and reliable stick-on patch for monitoring for fetal health and/or early detection of fetal distress. Founded by husband-wife team: Muneeb Zia (PhD in ECE) of Georgia Tech and Rabia Zia, recent graduate (MBBS) of Allama Iqbal Medical College.

Best Poster Award: Creative Composting - A garbage disposal that can manage organic food waste without changing any user habits or increasing the number of household appliances. Team members include Georgia Tech undergraduate students Mari Nguyen (MSE), Manuel De Juan (ME), Mallory Parker (MSE), Ramon Sosa (MSE), Michelle Lin (BME), and Andrew Hanna (ME).

People’s Choice Award: Thrive - improving mental health literacy and reducing the barriers to access to mental health resources for students in urban India. Team members include Georgia Tech undergraduate students Maithili Appalwar (IE), Yash Punjabi (CS), Krrish Dholakia (CS), and undergraduate Sarayu Kantheti (Business and Economics) of the University of British Columbia.

Original Post

The Institute for Leadership and Entrepreneurship will host the finals of the annual Ideas to Serve (I2S) competition Thursday, April 12, from 6 to 8:30 p.m. in the Scheller College of Business atrium. The event is open for the campus community and public to attend.

Team and individual finalists will present solutions to pressing social, economic, and environmental challenges. The purpose of the event is to encourage creativity and entrepreneurship for the public good.

The poster competition marks the end of a long journey in which participating teams have partnered with mentors from Scheller’s MBA program and VentureLab, attended a competition boot camp, drafted an executive summary, and produced a 60-second pitch. Though the event features 18 finalists, all teams are invited to present their posters and compete for special prizes such as the MBA Social Impact Award and People’s Choice Award.

This year’s finalists include Project Intercept, a team that is developing a web platform to enable victims of human trafficking to contact local aid and support organizations. Another finalist, Thrive, seeks to expand access to mental health resources for students living in urban areas in India. Other teams are tackling issues such as food waste, managing chronic health conditions, and testing for clean water. Judges representing local businesses and nonprofits will decide who takes home the top prize of $3,000. Last year’s winner, Amanzi Solar, now operates as a startup producing self-cleaning and cooling solar panels to optimize the efficiency of solar energy production.

“What sets I2S apart is that social impact is at the core of these innovations," said Dori Pap, assistant director of the Institute for Leadership and Entrepreneurship. "The solutions these students work on are designed to move the needle on pressing social and environmental issues like access to quality health care, STEM education inclusion, better mental health outcomes, environmental conservation, sustainable agriculture, or LGBTQIA resources — and to do it with market-based solutions,” she said.

The I2S finals will showcase a wide range of ideas and students, with five of Tech’s six colleges represented. Learn more about the event and see a list of prizes below.

I2S is supported by on-campus partners including the Cecil B. Day Program for Business Ethics, CREATE-X, Innovation and Design Collaborative, The John Woodall Servant Leadership Endowment, LEAD Program, Steven A. Denning Technology and Management Program, Tedd Munchak Chair in Entrepreneurship, Center for Serve-Learn-Sustain, Engineering for Social Innovation Center, The Global Development Program @ The Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, and Speechworks.