Innovative IDEAS
The world may be complicated and full of problems — but the 37 teams of students in this year’s MIT IDEAS Global Challenge each envisioned a way to make it better.Now in its 11th year, the IDEAS Global Challenge recognized 13 of those teams at its annual awards celebration — “the Oscars of social impact at MIT,” in the words of Alison Hynd, one of the award presenters — on Thursday evening in the Stata Center. Teams were awarded a total of $72,500 in juried awards, with individual awards ranging from $5,000 to $10,000. Bridging gapsThree other teams whose projects won the most online votes — Samanvai Green Products, Smart COOPS and IndianRaga — received Community Choice Awards of $1,500. Upon receiving awards, team members stepped to the podium to give brief overviews of their projects.MIT junior Srikanth Bolla won funding for Samanvai Green Products, a company that would employ...