MIT IDEAS Social Innovation Challenge
Tara Cunningham
Advancing Business Transformation & Enhancing Corporate Culture through Disability & Neurodiversity Inclusion | Keynote Speaker | Professor | Author | Eoin, Charlie and Emilia's Mom
Beyond-Impact's CEO Tara Cunningham is a proud Mentor at MIT IDEAS Social Innovation Challenge. The projects and innovators are from 19 teams, across seven sectors and 12 countries--they blew her away.
Two stuck out--as they have an enormous opportunity to help blind people and the aging population (which can be applied to people with disabilities as well)! Check out the teams, vote for your favorite, and join the Virtual Showcase on April 24, 2021 at 1:00EST.
MIT IDEAS Social Innovation Challenge
The MIT IDEAS Social Innovation Challenge is MIT’s 20-year old social entrepreneurship program housed in the PKG Center for Public Service. This year's 19-team cohort spans projects across seven sectors and 12 countries. Nine are Cis-female gender-led teams! The cohort is a mix of graduate and undergraduate student levels. Additionally, 13 MIT disciplines are represented in this cohort. True to its ethos of inclusivity, there are 48% non-MIT participants in the cohort from all over the world, including several other academic institutions.
Vote for your Favorite
Visit https://bit.ly/IDEASshowcase21 to meet the teams and vote for your favorite project and share! Voting is open through 1 PM EST on April 24th. You may also register to join us at the live-streamed Awards Ceremony on April 25 from 1-2 PM EST to celebrate the cohort receiving up to $21,000 in grants to launch their social innovations.
A bit on my favorites:
Project Aakaar
Project Aakaar - Higher education in STEM disciplines from international universities is mostly inaccessible to Visually Impaired (VI) students in India due to the unavailability of cost-effective tactile educational tools for those students. Our team is working on a circular economy model for these devices that minimizes financial investment while maximizing social impact.
GRACELY
GRACELY - is an IoT platform that aims to democratize accessible and affordable senior care through sensor technology and motion-based machine learning embedded in senior living environments.
For more information about Beyond-Impact visit www.beyond-impact.com.