GIX Innovation Competition
Advancing technology to improve health, wellness, and the environment while competing for over $20,000 USD in cash and prizes!
The Challenge
You’re invited to create an innovative technological or robotic solution that helps address a problem related to health and wellness or the environment. Your solution can leverage a broad range of technologies including the internet of things, intelligent hardware, low-cost sensors, drones, robotics, computer vision and machine learning algorithms, and cloud computing. For example:
- Health and wellness solutions might improve people’s ability to make informed healthcare decisions or quality of life
- Environmental monitoring solutions might provide actionable insight into energy or consumable usage
Judges will select teams to progress to the finals. Each team of finalists will be paired with an academic or industry mentor who will meet weekly with the team to provide feedback and advice in preparation for the final presentation before judges.
Contact us if you have any questions.
Past examples from the MSTI program:
Environmental monitoring: SnapSort (pictured top), an ML-powered camera system, analyzes waste and suggests to the user whether it should be composted, recycled, or put in their home trash.
Health and wellness: Garbo (pictured right), a smart, mobile trashcan, reduces the need for people with limited mobility to physically transport their waste to the street.
Prizes
1st Place: $10,000 USD
2nd Place: $5,000 USD
3rd Place: $3,000 USD
Honorable Mentions: $1,000 each
The top three teams will also receive Oculus headsets, courtesy of Meta.
Guanting Li, 2021 Competition Winner, Team Hydrofarm (pictured)
Competition Details
Competition Overview
- Final submission deadline is Friday, March 10.
- You may compete in the competition virtually
- Teams may have 2-5 members. To be eligible to compete, participants must 1) be a current undergraduate student or 2) have graduated from an undergraduate degree-granting institution within the last two years.
- Teams will be judged by an international team of experts from academia and industry
- Each team of finalists will be paired with an academic or industry mentor who will meet weekly with the team to provide feedback and advice in preparation for the final presentation before judges
Competition Phases
- Preliminary round: All competing teams must submit a 5-7 minute video presentation of their solution. Prototypes are encouraged but not required.
- Final round: Finalists will be selected to give a live virtual presentation + Q&A with judges.
Video Submission Requirements & Evaluation Criteria
- Problem and proposed solution are both clearly defined. Explanation addresses whether the solution is original or is a novel application of an existing product, service, or algorithm.
- Scope of the opportunity is addressed, with a focus on need, affordability of solution, and global impact.
- Solution fits the problem, and the rough cost of the solution fits the impact of the problem, considers user needs and perspectives, and is appropriate/feasible for target users. If applicable, model created is accurate and optimized/computationally efficient.
- Include an estimated timeline for full development or implementation of the solution, and 6-week project plan
- Quality of presentation (simulation, prototype/proof of concept, video).
- All submissions must be in English.
Submit your final entry
The submission period for the 2023 GIX Innovation Competition is now over.
Contact us if you have any questions.
2023 Winners
Shreya Chopra and Drishti Agarwal were awarded first place in the 2023 GIX Innovation Competition, for their work on an LED light bulb with user-replaceable parts, reducing the need to fully replace a non-functioning bulb when the plastic housing and socket is still fully usable.
“90% of the LED bulb body is made of aluminum and plastic, and only the remaining 10% is the LED bulb and PCB,” said Shreya. “Whenever our bulbs fail, it’s the PCB that needs to be replaced.”
“Our solution is a reusable body with a diffuser, and replaceable LED cartridge. When your bulb fails, you simply replace that part. It doesn’t require any soldering or pressing.”
2022 Winners
Cody Birkland, Amy Swanson, and Lloyd V. Dees of Team Ultropia were awarded first place in the 2022 GIX Innovation for their work on a low-energy laundry technology. Their prototype uses ultrasonic energy to clean and dry clothing, significantly reducing energy consumption and making washer-dryer technology more broadly accessible.
“This will help us implement change in laundry machine accessibility to the 5 billion people who still wash clothes by hand,” said Amy Swanson.
“I’m very impressed with the quality of the presentations,” said Adam Loving of Pioneer Square Labs. “I love the focus and the arc that they’re following from problem to solution.” Team Ultropia has since gone on to win the WSU Business Plan Competition and MIT Climate & Energy Prize.
