Born Global Foundation Competition for Innovation in Sustainability

$9,000 in total prize money for BU student teams to create a newly formulated solution to a real-world sustainability problem.

Boston University’s College of Engineering is pleased to announce a novel design competition for innovations to impact the global challenge of sustainability, The Born Global Foundation Competition for Innovation in Sustainability. The competition is jointly run by the College of Engineering and the Institute for Sustainable Energy at Boston University. The competition is open to BU undergraduates and masters students. Submissions must come from interdisciplinary teams. First place will receive $5,000, second place $2,500 and third place $1,500.

Winning teams will bring an interdisciplinary approach to create a newly formulated solution to a real-world sustainability problem with a focus around one of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The interdisciplinary teams must include engineering students as well students from non-engineering majors such as students from the Questrom School of Business, the College of Arts and Science, the School of Public Health, or the College of Fine Arts.

Last year more than 20 students participated. This year while projects related to all aspects of sustainability are welcome, the particular focus area is on applying principles of biomimicry to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Winning teams will be judged on the efficacy of the technical innovation itself along with a business model for how such an innovation might become economically and ecologically feasible compared to current methods.

The competition is made possible via a generous gift from the Born Global Foundation headed by Dr. Kimberly Samaha, an alum of BU’s College of Engineering.

A kickoff event for the competition will be held November 2nd, 2020 from 6-7 PM via Zoom at which Professor Emily Ryan, and Professor Charles DeLisi will outline the competition, and Dr. Samaha will speak. The event will give students a deeper sense of the motivation and goals for engaging innovation in this space. The timeline for the competition will also be discussed including deadlines for pre-proposals and the down-selection process.