Congratulations to our 2023 finalists!
Innovation in Action Winners:
First Place — AudioOdyssey
AudioOdyssey is building a platform designed to prevent drowsy driving accidents among truck drivers through engaging and interactive audio entertainment. Our mission is to stop accidents on the road and save lives.
Members:
Zoe Drasner, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts
Joe Huang, College of Engineering
Adam Zhang, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts
Second Place — Urban Oasis
Urban Oasis is an initiative with the goal of developing resources and communities for students in Urban Areas to get involved with indoor gardening to benefit their mental health and environmental consciousness.
Members:
Adriana Chen, School of Information
Kaanan Datt, College of Engineering
Hyeri Lee, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts
Andrew Yang, College of Engineering
Zhiyuan Zhang, School of Information
Third Place — UtilPlastic
We are developing a way to recycle the plastic in the community of Pancho Mateo, located in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. The core belief of our project is that community engagement, with the addition of the right technology and training, can lead to effective recycling. In collaboration with the New Horizons Foundation, which provides education and recreational programs to the kids of Pancho Mateo, we aim to establish a sustainable recycling program, where community members can recycle their own plastic into new useful products that they could use or sell.
Members:
Sarah Waldman, College of Engineering
Audience Choice Award — Save the Planet
Save the planet is an application that enables consumers/utility companies to take measures for consuming ,producing and
saving renewable sources using IOT and machine learning.
Team Members:
Richa Chachra, Engineering, U-M Dearborn
Kruthika Gopinathan, Engineering, U-M Dearborn
Poverty Solutions Best Innovation in Economic Mobility — UnfoldKit
UnfoldKit is a comprehensive toolkit for developers and architects to build affordable housing with community voice and input. We address the need for effective public engagement in the design of low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) housing. With the application of human-centered design and participatory planning methods, UnfoldKit not only moves communities towards a place where affordable housing is understood and welcomed by its neighbors, it also pushes the design boundaries of innovative and equitable community housing.
Members:
Anna Lam, Ross School of Business, Taubman College of Architecture & Urban Planning
Maddie Tong, School of Social Work
Zell Lurie Institutes “Most Maximized Team Strengths” Award — AudioOdyssey
AudioOdyssey is building a platform designed to prevent drowsy driving accidents among truck drivers through engaging and interactive audio entertainment. Our mission is to stop accidents on the road and save lives.
Members:
Zoe Drasner, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts
Joe Huang, College of Engineering
Adam Zhang, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts
Zell Lurie Institutes “Most Maximized Team Strengths” Award — AudioOdyssey
Equityish calculates a candidate’s salary wage through transparent personalized data to maximize pay equity in an organization.
Team Members:
Catherine Lumanauw, School of Information
Chris Jubinsky, School of Information
Leen Habbal, School of Information
Pawanrat Pasawongse, Ross School of Business
C-SED’s “Best Community Engagement” Award — Musica Para la Gente
Our team wants to implement a musical resources in low-income Latino communities for access to instruments, recording equipment, and mentorship.
Team Members:
Giancarlo Medrano, College of Engineering, School of Music, Theater, & Dance
Paulo Zepeda, Ross School of Business
U-M School of Information “User-Centered Solution” Award — ImmiHealth
The ImmiHealth team is driven to serve immigrants through healthcare in foreign countries, like the United States. ImmiHealth is a non-profit platform that focuses on easing the struggles of immigrants and uninsured populations in healthcare by offering a health-technology platform that connects these populations to health resources at affordable rates, simultaneously offering a community network and health-related education. Though the project started in November 2022, there is a high chance that ImmiHealth will increase the transparency of the US healthcare system for recent immigrants. The ImmiHealth platform (web or mobile app) helps people connect with free health clinics and programs and get informed by health professionals on various health educational topics. Health scholarships that ImmiHealth offer will provide one to three percent coverage of medical expenses associated with a first-time, general medical visit. We have collaborated with free clinics in Michigan, like the Hope Clinic, to allow immigrants to envision their first clinic visits in America, informing them about scheduling appointments, what documents to bring, estimated appointment length, and questions to ask their doctor. ImmiHealth has networked with many healthcare professionals to create an interactive experience on the web app by understanding the population’s needs through 100+ interviews, surveys, discussions, and personal experiences.
Members:
Jacky Jiang, Eastern Michigan University
Lucas Kapala, Michigan State School of Osteopathic Medicine
Medha Kapoor, School of Nursing
Harshang Patel, College of Engineering
Tirth Patel, College of Engineering
Sania Srivastava, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts
Areeba Wali, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts
To read about all the teams that competed this year, visit our Teams page.
Innovation in Action Winners
Congratulations to our 2021 finalists!
VIDEO: To watch all Final Showcase presentations, view the playlist here.
Innovation in Action Winners:
First Place — EquiHome
A platform to promote collaborative team spirit at home, using efficient communication, a fair distribution of chores, and positive reinforcement.
Team Members:
- Mary Figueroa, School of Public Health
- Mintu Joy, College of Engineering
- Deepti Pandey, School of Information
Second Place — Plucky Comics
Plucky Comics is a creative EdTech company dedicated to creating sequential art that honors and depicts the Black Queer experience.
Team Members:
- Nathan Alston, Ross School of Business
- Daniella Genarro, Ross School of Business
Third Place — General Intelligences
General Intelligences is a peer-to-peer organization that aims to mitigate education inequity and help students 17-26 years old domestically and internationally from disadvantaged and marginalized backgrounds. GI aims to do so via cultivating an understanding of how to navigate the “hidden curriculum”, providing free & high quality resources for developing important adult life skills and building students’ social capital. We provide students from disadvantaged and historically marginalized communities with resources for post-graduate socioemotional wellbeing and professional success across numerous fields.
Team Members:
- Gyanesh Mishra, Ross School of Business
- Eric Moreno, School of Information
- Magda Wojtara, College of LSA
- Bryce Worthing, Stamps School of Art & Design
Audience Choice Award — Visionary Central
Visionary aims to be a collaborative, co-working community space where young people in Accra, Ghana can develop their entrepreneurial ventures through access to practitioners, professionals, and business development toolkits to accelerate their visions.
- Jeremy Atuobi, College of Engineering
- Gloria Gyakari, School of Information
Poverty Solutions Best Innovation in Economic Mobility — LifeLink
We need to refinance senior living.
At Lifelink, we believe aging should be accessible and affordable for all. We make getting older easier, empowering you to live life: locked and loaded. Instead of slipping and falling into assisted living, our company helps low income families take their first steps to senior living. Our “LifeLink Library” features multi sector, human centered design that revolutionizes residential housing towards a more just future. Lifelink. Life: Locked. Loaded.
Team Members:
- AunRika Tucker-Shabazz, College of LSA
“Envisioning an Anti-Racist World” Challenge Prizes
Designing Access
We recognize that truly inclusive spaces lead to better outcomes – no matter what you’re measuring. To help achieve those outcomes, we created Designing Access: an online toolkit that helps people in the public, private, and non-profit sectors intentionally create inclusive and accessible events.
MEMBERS:
- Sofie Aaron, School of Social Work
- Amy Belfer, School of Social Work
- Flavio Di Stefano, School of Social Work
- Hannah Lefton, School of Social Work
- Callie Torkelson, School of Social Work
Shift
Shift is a personalized platform dedicated to helping individuals become more anti-racist one day at a time. Our goal is to encourage and support them in their shift to a commitment to lifelong learning and a growth mindset. Through our humanized, user-centric design, we aim to improve trust, transparency, accountability, and culture in communities.
MEMBERS:
- Kelly Chan, School of Education
- Gabriela Chen, Rackham Graduate Studies, School of Public Health
- Robin Kocher, School of Information
- Amoolya Sandeep Kumar, College of Engineering and Computer Sciences, UM-Dearborn
Plucky Comics
Plucky Comics is a creative EdTech company dedicated to creating sequential art that honors and depicts the Black Queer experience.
Team Members:
- Nathan Alston, Ross School of Business
- Daniella Genarro, Ross School of Business
To read about all the teams that competed this year, visit our Teams page.
