Harnessing the Inventive Energies of Youth
Student innovations can create thriving businesses — and could help solve the world’s biggest problems.
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| Phil Weilerstein, Executive Director, National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA) |
Because U.S. competitiveness and prosperity depend on innovation, in the current economy it is more important than ever that we harness the creativity and energy of young innovators.
Each year, college and university students invent breakthrough technologies, some of which eventually spark important new products and successful businesses. Advancing more of these ideas toward the marketplace could help spur job creation and economic growth.
Demonstrating the huge potential of young innovators, tens of thousands of U.S. college students are working in teams right now to devise new technologies that may help solve some of the world’s toughest problems. The teams hope their ideas will be good enough to earn them an invitation to Cambridge, Massachusetts.
That’s where the U.S. finals of Microsoft’s Imagine Cup 2009 will be held, in May. Imagine Cup is one of the world’s largest student technology competitions; last year, more than 185,000 students participated in 100 countries. The competition encourages young people to apply their imagination, passion and creativity to technology innovations that address global challenges such as reducing extreme poverty, halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education.
Hundreds of America’s most innovative and creative students will compete in Cambridge at Microsoft’s New England Research & Development Center. Because enabling young people to pursue social entrepreneurship is central to the mission of the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance, we are proud to partner with Microsoft on its Imagine Cup 2009.
The NCIIA stimulates technology innovation and entrepreneurship in higher education through grants, workshops, mentoring and seed investments. With a membership of 200 colleges and universities across the United States, the NCIIA engages more than 5,000 student entrepreneurs each year.
The NCIIA has sponsored hundreds of courses and product development projects over the past 14 years. Some 42 patent applications have resulted from projects supported by our grants, which have also helped create 60 new businesses, including many based here in New England. These companies manufacture and sell products in many industries: wireless technology, medical devices, alternative energy, construction, safety and transport.
At the Imagine Cup finals, the NCIIA will help evaluate projects to determine which teams go on to the world finals in Cairo, Egypt. Students will learn the fundamentals of technology entrepreneurship at a NCIIA Invention to Venture workshop. And they will be eligible for NCIIA e-Team grants of up to $20,000 to help advance their technology discoveries through the commercialization process.
To solve the world’s big problems, we need all the help we can get. Young people bring fresh perspective, energy, enthusiasm and the freedom to take big risks in pursuit of big goals. By helping young people learn to use the tools of entrepreneurship to amplify their abilities, the NCIIA — and Microsoft’s Imagine Cup — are helping change the world.
