Innovations that promote safe sex, improve mental health on college campuses, assist young people making student loan decisions, and provide personalized tutoring have taken top honors in two separate but related competitions at the University of Michigan.
Teams representing students from across Michigan’s schools and colleges shared their solutions to real-world challenges at two events held this past week, the culmination of a five-month long program that began in the fall.
The Innovation in Action program challenges students to solve problems in public health and education. Panels of experts choose winners at an annual competition, with two separate events organized by the School of Public Health and School of Education.
A student-developed subscription service that promotes safe sex took grand prize in the 2018 Innovation in Action Final Showcase for the School of Public Health March 8. Busy Box offers high-quality safe sex supplies and educational resources that are personalized to the customer’s needs and delivered to their door.
Busy Box was among 11 teams to participate in this year’s public health competition and was selected as one of five teams to compete in the Final Showcase. Busy Box received a $10,000 grand prize and a $1,000 audience choice award to further develop the idea.
First Five Med, a service that trains everyday people to save a life in a medical emergency, received the $7,500 second prize, and hEARt, a mobile app that uses chat therapy to improve mental health on college campuses, received the $5,000 third prize as well as a $1,000 audience choice award.
For a third year, student social entrepreneurs gathered to present projects and products developed to address problems in education. The James A. Kelly Learning Levers Prize Competition and Innovation in Action Education competition finals for education took place on March 5.
The Kelly Learning Lever Prize encourages a culture of innovation in education, and rewards creative, interdisciplinary work.
This year’s cohort created projects which confront fake news, inform loan decisions, support college students throughout their education, connect potential collaborators, and help students retain what they learn in their courses.
The first place winner at the Education event was Dough, a text service linked to tools that assist students with student loan decisions. It not only won the top prize ($10,000) but also was the audience choice ($1,000).
Second place ($7,500) went to 1Team, an intelligent personal tutor that will help students to learn concepts for the long-term, and help them succeed in their academic work, or in the job market.
The third place winner ($5,000) was ScholarFit, a platform that provides just-in-time feedback to college students using gamification techniques to display student progress, unlock badges based on academic activities, make comparisons to similar students, predict outcomes and make recommendations.
Student teams from both competitions participated in a series of workshops over five months, which prepared them with skills in design thinking, prototyping, market analysis, and pitching proposals.
Innovation in Action starts in September, with information and team formation sessions, which include speed networking to help students find other students who are passionate about the same things, says Ann Verhey-Henke, managing director for Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship at the School of Public Health.
The student teams participate in learning modules and workshops that walk them through the innovation process and provide them with an innovation toolkit. Finally, they pitch their ideas to panel of judges made up of leaders from various industries.
“We want students to slowly and thoughtfully discover a problem and create a solution,” Verhey-Henke says. “The goal is not for students to become entrepreneurs—although some do. The tools they learn through this process can be used in any walk of life, and our hope is that innovation becomes part of their DNA.”
Other innovations include:
Fyltr
Deceptive information is everywhere around us- news articles, social media, even product labels. Fyltr is committed to improving information literacy in children. Through fun and engaging games, we build the fundamental skills necessary to critically evaluate information.
Intend to Attend
This team is exploring how to use digital technologies to support rural high school students as they prepare for and apply to college.
Perch
For many students, undergraduate research is their first experience working on real-world problems. Perch aims to reduce barriers to undergraduate research through an online platform that centralizes communication between research faculty and students, as well as a standardized system of training and certifying research skills.
Refugees to College
Everyone deserves access to a good education. Supported by aid organizations such as Samaritas and Washtenaw Refugee Welcome, this project provides one-on-one support and college readiness workshops to refugees and their families. Learn more at www.refugeestocollege.org.
Univentures
Univentures is a networking and skills-sharing web platform that allows students across disciplines to connect and collaborate on projects. All students will be provided with an online portfolio populated with project details, their role on the team, and the impact they had upon completion of the projects.
3 Peas
Designed for individuals with chronic disease, 3 Peas is a mobile app that works as a virtual kitchen assistant, simplifying at-home cooking and connecting users with registered dietitians to personalize nutrition based on health and lifestyle needs.
Donum
Donum is a web-based interactive platform that aims to increase organ donor registration rates at the University of Michigan, and eventually nationwide. The platform educates people and helps them make informed decisions about becoming an organ donor and creates a community for social support that aims to inspire people to register as organ donors.
