[This is the latest newsletter from MIT IDEAS Global Challenge. If you'd like to subscribe, add your name and email here.]
Happy New Year from Cambridge, Massachusetts!
So far this year, 39 teams are entering; teams are currently working to develop their ideas like a hand-powered centrifuge that aims to improve the diagnostic capabilities in India’s medical clinics to water distribution machines who’s goal is to reduce bottled water consumption by 90% on college campuses within a year.
There are 70 requests for help at the moment – teams are looking for people to help with business models, design questions, market research, programming and much more. See if you can help: http://globalchallenge.mit.edu/help/wanted.
We welcome you to log into globalchallenge.mit.edu, get to know the teams entering this year through their profiles, offer your help and feedback to teams.
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@ IDEAS Global Challenge EVENTS
Generator Dinner: Last October, we hosted 200+ people at our Generator Dinner as a space for people to gather and learn more about IDEAS Global Challenge, for people to join teams , and for teams to pitch about their projects and recruit team members. More than 30 people pitched an idea at the Generator Dinner and you can read more about their ideas by clicking here. If you’re in the Boston area, join us for the next Generator Dinner happening on Thursday, February 21 at MIT.
Bose Mentorship Night: We were thrilled to bring together our MIT student-led teams and Bose senior management and employees, who served as mentors in helping the 19 participating teams develop business plans, marketing strategies, and more. For the MIT News Office’s coverage of the evening, click here. We’d love to explore similar opportunities with other organizations.
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UPDATES FROM TEAMS
- Fula&Style (2012): Fula & Style works closely with tailors to make modern business attire more affordable for Senegalese consumers and help tailors potentially increase their income. Late last year, they hosted a fashion show in the African Media Leader Forum gala dinner in Senegal.
- IndianRaga (2012): Working to further opportunities for Indian musicians, Indian Raga won the Creative Business Cup 2012 and was recently featured in India Abroad, the largest paid publication for the Asian Indian community in the United States.
- Leveraged Freedom Chair (2008): The team that started in 2008, has now grown to be the not-for-profit organization GRIT. They were recently awarded $100k by MassChallenge to help them in their next big steps, including manufacturing and selling their all-terrain wheelchairs in India.
- 6Dot Braille Labeler (2009): A Braille Labeller that gives blind people an easy, portable way to label items and was developed in the capstone Mechanical Engineering class at MIT, check out 6Dot’s technology which was recently featured ABC (the founder is both a MIT and Stanford graduate). 6Dot’s other big news: they joined forces with another organization Prox Talker to further develop assistive technologies.
…and much more. To read on more updates and news on IDEAS Global Challenge teams, click here.
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MOVING FORWARD
Join us at:
- MIT Scaling Development Ventures Conference: Feb 8-9 @ MIT — We are thrilled to be part of a group of centers around MIT that are hosting the first MIT conference that explores the growth of social ventures in developing regions. We’ll be live-blogging the event and send out the link later. Stay tuned.
- Spring IDEAS Global Challenge Generator Dinner: Feb 21 7:00 – 9:00pm @ MIT
Get involved:
YOU CAN HELP TEAMS through the IDEAS Global Challenge site. Teams request help and individuals offer their help. Come help out! http://globalchallenge.mit.edu/help
YOU CAN HELP IDEAS GLOBAL CHALLENGE! Our work this year wouldn’t have been possible without our enthusiastic volunteers. If you’re interested in helping us plan and run events, reviewing proposals, and more, email globalchallenge (at) mit.edu.
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CONTACT AND ABOUT
We are part of the MIT Public Service Center. Meet this year’s teams: http://globalchallenge.mit.edu/teams. We blog at: http://mitpsc.mit.edu/globalchallenge. We share events and deadlines, at MIT and beyond at: bit.ly/tzkMJm. We tweet through @mitchallenge. Email us globalchallenge (at) mit.edu
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