Skip to main content

Innovation Challenges

Overview

For over a decade, the Academy has worked with partners across industry, academia, and government to offer Innovation Challenges, virtual competitions that engage student innovators to apply their curiosity and creativity to solve real-world problems. Using the Academy’s unique online platform, Launchpad, participants collaborate on project-based activities while spanning time zones and cultures. Browse our current Innovation Challenges as well as past Challenges below.

Active Challenges

Food Waste

Preventing the billion metric tons of food wasted each year could reduce world hunger, minimize greenhouse gasses, and prevent habitat and biodiversity loss across the globe. In this challenge, you are asked to design solutions that reduce food waste with an eye towards promoting sustainability, equity, and responsible consumption.
Read More >

Marine Biodiversity

Offshore wind farms can offer a renewable energy source, but there are also some environmental drawbacks. The construction and presence of wind turbines can disrupt marine life behavior and more. Design and plan offshore wind farms with the least negative impact on marine life that support and even increase biodiversity.
Read More >

Energy Infrastructure: Solar Power

In an increasingly electrified world, shifting from fossil fuel dependence to renewable energy is necessary to sustainably meet the growing demand. Making this transition will require 2 areas of innovation. What innovative solution could you design to make the shift from traditional energy sources to renewable solar energy a reality?
Read More >

Previous Challenges with Resources

Living in the Extremes

Our world is constantly changing; with the rise of severe natural disasters mainly due to climate change and our growing world population, we must explore ways to live in more extreme environments. In this challenge, you will focus on one “extreme environment” and propose a comprehensive solution to sustain life there.
Read More >

Air Quality & Health

Air quality has been a known health issue to people and cultures around the world for hundreds of years. Today air pollution is believed to account for 7 million deaths annually, most of which are the result of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Design a technical solution to address a key source of pollution.
Read More >

Ethical AI

AI is changing the landscape of the world as we know it. How can we maximize the benefits of AI while also implementing useful boundaries to minimize the disadvantages and dangers? In this challenge, you will develop a solution to address one specific issue that AI poses.
Read More >

From the Academy Blog

An inside look at our innovation challenges teams and their impressive accomplishments.

Eco-twisters

“When redesigning our solution, we prioritized accessibility and eco-friendliness and ended up reducing the size.”
Read More >