Past Teams
Learn about the winners of past competitions here!
We often get the question, “what do Innovation in Action teams focus on?” With over 1000 students participating over nine years, IIA teams have tackled an incredible array of problems. From food insecurity, climate change, and aging in place to homelessness, literacy, and advocating for trans rights, IIA teams are not afraid of ‘big challenges.’ Take a look at the breadth of topics our past teams have covered:
2021-22 Participating Teams
Team Name & Description:
Beyond Barcode
Beyond Barcode empowers everyday consumers with the knowledge of toxic products in the retail market. It is a mobile application that provides toxicity information real-time via a quick barcode scan when household shopping. Concise, easy-to-understand information will be returned to the user, as well as a list of alternative products. However, Beyond Barcode takes the next step by harnessing the ability of a single consumer to influence friends, family and community and express gratitude via social media.
Members:
Paolo Mutia, School of Information
Pratik Mangtani, School of Information
Yiwen Yang, School of Information
Cityzen
Cityzen is a platform to help young people (18-24) map power and create change in their communities using a dialogue and rewards system, virtual mapping, and direct communications between constituents and elected officials. Our goal is to reorient young people towards local issues and reenvisioning political engagement through a community-based approach.
Members:
Chue Lor, School of Information
Jawuan Walters, School of Information
Nina Chen, School of Information
The Climate Optimist
Our team focuses on bringing awareness about Climate change through an optimistic approach. Through our newsletter we share stories about startups and big organizations alike and how they are fighting climate change. The newsletter is also designed especially for students and working professionals; sharing stories in a bite-sized format.
Members:
Dev Desai, Ross School of Business
Kartik Verma, Ross School of Business
Eatclusive
Eatclusive aims to implement a NASA technology to grow cultural produce that is inexpensive, portable, and low maintenance to food pantries who can provide and communicate with local community members through an app.
Members:
Faizan Darsot, College of Engineering
Jihee Yoon, College of Information
Equityish
Equityish calculates a candidate’s salary wage through transparent personalized data to maximize pay equity in an organization.
Members:
Catherine Lumanauw, School of Information
Chris Jubinsky, School of Information
Leen Habbal, School of Information
Pawanrat Pasawongse, Ross School of Business
Friend Time
Friend Time helps parents of children in grades K-2 coordinate social time with friends.
Members:
Patrice Johnson, School of Information
Taryn Cyrus
FUSE
The FUSE team is committed to empowering refugees to find their way in the US financial system and take control of their new lives: by allowing users to visualize and manage their financial assistance, find additional sources of income, and take advantage of additional financial orientation — when they need it, wherever they need it, and in any language they speak.
Members:
Christian Neubacher, School of Public Policy
Margo Steinhaus, School of Public Policy,
Pisacha Wichianchan, School of Public Policy, School of Information
Girrup
Our team focuses on addressing the accessibility and sustainability challenges in outdoor recreation by leveraging the power of the shared economy. Through our peer-to-peer platform we connect owners that have underutilized gear to adventure-seekers that otherwise might miss out.
Members:
Jake Calzavara , Ross School of Business
Vaibhav Mummalaneni, Ross School of Business
Manvendra Singh, Ross School of Business
Grow Together
Our team is committed to alleviating the widening wealth gap by beginning with access to financial education resources in a way that is culturally relevant and easy to understand.
Members:
Steph Wong, Ross School of Business
Yasmin Abdulhadi, Ross School of Business
HearQueer
HearQueer is an all-queer team addressing issues and challenges for their community in the areas of LGBTQIA wellness.
Members:
Dev Lamba, School of Information
Douglas Tsui, College of Architecture & Urban Planning
Hana Chung, School of Information
Manvitha Madem, School of Information
Yiting Zheng, School of Information
i4Maker
We recognize that managing project based learning in a k-12 classroom is difficult, due to limited time and tools. i4Maker is a project management platform specifically designed for the Gen Z classroom, that helps students build community and stay accountable not only to the teacher but also to one another.
Members:
Grace Lee, School of Information
Francisco Parra Camacho, School of Education
Devon Riter, School of Education
Cindy Wang, Ross School of Business
JackLion
Prioritizing and integrating health in companies holistically—supporting the employee, the system, and the environment they create to prevent and reduce illness and disease and to thrive.
Members:
Jackie Varela, School of Public Health
NFT Vault
NFT Vault makes Non-Fungible Tokens accessible to the average consumer while also offering exposure and sales to artists that might otherwise struggle to find the resources to share their art. NFT Vault is a collectable pack of cards with embedded NFT art to be sold in large stores.
Members:
Kaveh Ashtari, School of Public Health
Pacaya
Sustainable apparel and outdoor gear that promotes advocacy within the environment and supports, through research, sponsorship, and health.
Members:
Ben Brummell, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts
Oudio
Oudio: Creating safe spaces to talk about real stories and vulnerabilities
Members:
Akhila Kosaraju, STAMPS School of Art & Design
Didsayachai Prirungruang, Ross School of Business
Jihee Yoon, College of Information
Zelda Hu, School of Information
Sea-Spider
Our goal is to improve the identification of ghost nets in sensitive coral reefs in order to assist volunteer organizations in their ocean clean ups. We aim to remove harmful fishing nets and conserve the environment.
Members:
Adam Zhang, College of LSA
Audrey Huang, College of LSA
Flora Luo, College of LSA
Joe Huang, College of Engineering
Joseph Vogelpohl, School of Information
Rim Bououdina
Trash.py
Vision of team trash.py is trying to increase recycling and improve user’s experience while disposing waste inside the university buildings. We are designing a smart waste bin which will itself detect whether the waste is recycling or landfill and will segregate it in the correct way, hence establishing a better method of waste management and uplifting user’s experience.
Members:
Ethan Davis, College of Engineering
Marcela Lebrija, College of Engineering
Shaivi Ganatra, School of Information
WILD
WILD (whether in life or death) is an all-in-one destination that offers users a new and better way to plan for funerals. We empower you to take control of your life by thinking about and planning for the inevitable, which reduces time, money, and stress.
Members:
Danni Xiao, School of Information
Maura Mclnerney-Rowley, Ross School of Business
Saniya Shahid, College of Engineering
Jiming Song, School of Information
With U
Our team is committed to enhance young adults’ mental well-being and help them stay positive by connecting them with someone who has similar experiences and allowing them to vent their negative emotions anonymously without being judged.
Members:
Gingting Zhou, STAMPS School of Art & Design
Jihong Zhao, STAMPS School of Art & Design
Lulu Zhou, School of Information
Yi Cui, School of Information
2020-21 Participating Teams
Team Name & Description:
Aquaducks
The Huron River is the center of sprawling urban areas and feeds into Lake Erie; with increased human impact on the river, both human and aquatic biota are negatively affected. Our solution targets the outflow of the Ann Arbor wastewater treatment plant, as it struggles to handle increased water from large storms. We aim to reduce chlorine, phosphorous, and bacteria concentrations while educating the public on their role in keeping waterways clean.
MEMBERS:
Tao Cai, College of Engineering
Rosalia Otaduy-Ramirez, College of Engineering
Vanessa Woolley, College of Engineering
Brassi
At Brassi, our mission is to make healthy living accessible and affordable. We have built a 6-serving bulk bag of cauli oats where we boost your traditional oatmeal with a (hidden) veggie and balanced macronutrient profile.
MEMBERS:
Jaqueline Sun, Ross School of Business
Taylor Hurley, Ross School of Business
City Slickers
Our team is addressing the disparity in access to resources between those living in Ann Arbor and those living in rural townships of Washtenaw County. With the Resource Ride, we plan to provide a creative, mobile solution that will bring what people need directly to their communities.
MEMBERS:
Asa de Vries, College of Engineering
Preethi Kumaran, College of Pharmacy
Emily Manetz, College of Engineering
Madelyn Moore, College of Engineering
Zachary Rose, College of Engineering
Brandon Surhigh, College of Engineering
Classbop
A platform to help teachers collect, manage, and learn from consistent feedback from their students.
MEMBERS:
Cindy Gu, College of LSA
Edward Huang, College of Engineering, College of LSA
Raeed Rasul, College of Engineering
Ronit Tiwary, College of LSA, Ross School of Business
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
EquiHome
A platform to promote collaborative team spirit at home, using efficient communication, a fair distribution of chores, and positive reinforcement.
MEMBERS:
Mary Figueroa, School of Public Health
Mintu Joy, College of Engineering
Deepti Pandey, School of Information
FooDEI
FooDEI researched and interviewed stakeholders about the challenges surrounding food justice and anti-racism within the local food system. After learning from local experts, we modeled what the future of Ann Arbor’s food system would look like in an anti-racist world through a student’s eyes via AR.
MEMBERS:
Hannah Cary, School of Social Work
Ayana Curran-Howes, School for Environment and Sustainability
Deena Etter, School of Social Work
Catherine Lumanauw, School of Information
GastroKnowMi
GastroKnowMi is digital health application that helps people make timely and informed digestive disease management decisions through self-experiment modules and personalized health learning.
MEMBERS:
Anthony De Cicco, School of Public Health
Carlos Morla, School of Information
Shiv Saxena, School of Information
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.
MEMBERS:
Gyanesh Mishra, Ross School of Business
Eric Moreno, School of Information
Magda Wojtara, College of LSA
Bryce Worthing, Stamps School of Art & Design
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.
MEMBERS:
AunRika Tucker-Shabazz, College of LSA
MedVision.ai
MedVision is a novel approach to hospital inventory management, using IoT sensors to track medical supplies in real-time.
MEMBERS:
Raghu Arghal, College of Engineering
Anurag Bolneni, School of Information
Grant Veldhuis, College of LSA
Plucky Comics
Plucky Comics is a creative EdTech company dedicated to creating sequential art that honors and depicts the Black Queer experience.
MEMBERS:
Nathan Alston, Ross School of Business
Daniella Genarro, Ross School of Business
Regeneration
Regeneration is focused on increasing accessibility of vaccinations for community members in Washtenaw County by retrofitting AATA transit buses to be used as mobile vaccination units.
MEMBERS:
Elise Daniel, College of Engineering
Gaby George, College of Engineering
Mobin Mazloomian, College of Engineering
Riley Montgomery, College of LSA, Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning
Austin Tauber, College of Engineering
Rania Uppal, College of LSA
Renew
Renew is an up and coming student organization focused on educating Michigan homeowners about the availability of renewable energy to them and advocating for greener laws and practices. Our platform engages individuals in an interactive flowchart that easily guides them through the process of installing solar panels on their homes as well as simplifying contracts into general terms, providing credible information regarding energy efficiency and energy sources versus providers.
MEMBERS:
Elena DeLaCruz, College of Engineering
Nick Robinson, College of Engineering
Izabella Wentzell, College of Engineering
Sea Spider
Technology to remove ghost nets from coral reefs.
MEMBERS:
Joe Huang, College of Engineering
Joseph Vogelpohl, School of Information
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
TEW Scorecard
We are working on Transforming Emotional Wellness among K-12 students by promoting social and emotional learning (SEL) in schools. The TEW Scorecard aims to track student social-emotional support and skills by school district and lead to resource provision so that all young people can gain these vital skills for their future.
MEMBERS:
Anirudh Gururaj, School of Medicine
Megan Reynolds, School of Public Health
Sarah Small, School of Medicine
Marissa Uchimura, Ford School of Public Policy, Ross School of Business
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.
MEMBERS:
Jeremy Atuobi, College of Engineering
Gloria Gyakari, School of Information
2019-20 Participating Teams
Team Name & Description:
Blue Bridge to Classroom
Our team is committed to creating an online platform that connects college students in the United States with grade-school students from resource-limited rural communities in China with the mission to provide quality education and facilitate cultural exchange.
Members:
Pei Ying Goh – College of LSAYing Liu – College of Engineering, Rackham Graduate StudiesCathy Ni – College of LSAYingying Zeng – College of Engineering, Rackham Graduate StudiesLanxuan Zhao – College of Engineering, Rackham Graduate Studies
Team Name & Description:
Brightfruit
Brightfruit helps middle and high schools establish and operate experiential, project-based entrepreneurship programs through a variety of services ranging from curriculum development to providing teacher training, consultation, and instruction support.Brightfruit aims to create an engaging and fruitful educational experience through which students develop mastery of important skills that will prepare them for the future, such as problem discovery, solution development, and business model generation. Our education model will challenge students to lead their own projects, work effectively in an unstructured environment, and learn to iterate from their own successes and failures. We believe that entrepreneurship is a vehicle that allows students to engage with and solve any problem that they find meaningful, and we aim to provide the necessary tools to support students in their creative pursuits.
Members:
Navanas Chetsandtikun – School of InformationMadison Flood – College of LSA
Team Name & Description:
Bulki
Families living in low-income communities experienced multiple challenges when buying their monthly groceries such as lack of transportation options to supermarkets and lack of liquidity to satisfy the family needs for the entire month. Bulki is the first community e-commerce platform for groceries and household products. Bulki enables people from the same area to buy products together and get them delivered to a location near their residences. Our operational model allows us to offer cheaper prices than the majority of supermarkets and charge small delivery fees with the power of technology and sharing economy.
Members:
Matheus Chen – College of Engineering, Rackham Graduate StudiesJuan Sebastian Cruz – College of EngineeringDehyee Esther Tang – School of Information, Rackham Graduate StudiesNagappan Palaniappan – College of Engineering
Team Name & Description:
Detroit Contractor Connection
Connecting local contractors in Detroit with resources and opportunities to better address Detroit’s housing needs
Members:
Jamison Koeman – School of Public HealthNick Najor – Ford School of Public PolicyEmma Watters – School of Public HealthSiyin Zheng – School of Information, Rackham Graduate Studies
Team Name & Description:
Carbon Footprint Offsets Market
Our team is focused on connecting local energy efficiency and renewables projects to companies interested in purchasing legitimate and verifiable carbon offsets that are highly visible and foster a sense of interdependency through the power of collective actions.
Members:
Candice Ammori – School of Public Health, Rackham Graduate StudiesMansi Bhatt – College of Engineering, Rackham Graduate StudiesAriel Cribbins – School of Public Health, Rackham Graduate Studies
Team Name & Description:
First8
First8 is a medical and educational intervention program geared toward the promotion of positive child health outcomes. We tackle health disparities primarily in the metro Detroit area, with a focus on asthma related health concerns and improving medical literacy through multilingual intervention workshops.
Members:
Shafiul Alam – College of LSAKlea Gjonaj – College of LSALuthfor Khan – College of EngineeringAngela Shehu – College of LSA
Team Name & Description:
Guarankey
Guarankey is a web based residential renting platform that provides a comprehensive marketplace and connects stakeholders to optimize rental experience with lower costs and faster results.
Members:
Liang Huang – Ross School of Business, Rackham Graduate StudiesRoy Wang – School of Information
Team Name & Description:
Heard
For people with chronic illnesses, flare ups of symptoms can be particularly stressful. Strong emotional support is crucial during times of flare but support options are often not readily available or ideal. Our platform connects people with chronic illnesses on a peer to peer basis to receive and provide support during flares. Heard provides a listening ear for those who need it most.
Members:
Anthony Dang – School of Public HealthAnne Fitzpatrick – College of LSAJulia Dinoto – School of InformationElisabeth Fellowes – School of Information
Team Name & Description:
ReproActive
ReproActive focuses on providing adolescents and young adults the tools to communicate about and advocate for their sexual and reproductive health.
Members:
Ryan Hampton – Ross School of Business, Engineering, Rackham Graduate StudiesViggy Hampton – Public Health (Emory University)Shelbi Lisecki – School of Art & Design, School of Public HealthSnehal Yarlagadda – School of Information
Team Name & Description:
SIFT
SIFT is an aggregator platform to change the way people shop to solve the multi-faceted issue of unsustainability within the fashion industry. The fashion industry is the second-largest polluter in the world and has detrimental consequences, especially for under-resourced communities, internationally. We plan to pursue a dual closed-loop system that is inclusive of recycling and downcycling initiatives to reduce old clothes from being sent to landfills and reduce the negative impact of exported cheap textiles.
Members:
Melissa Brei – College of EngineeringKevin Liu – Ross School of Business (LSA)
2018-19 Participating Teams
| Team | Mission | Members |
|---|---|---|
Breadcrumbs |
Breadcrumbs is a mobile app that reduces food waste by providing event coordinators with reliable headcount information. Using analytics to extrapolate based on data from past events, Breadcrumbs provides event planners with an informed estimate for how many attendees to expect.1Team is building an intelligent personal tutor that knows what the student knows, does not ever let them forget it, and teaches them new things they are capable of easily grasping. This will help students to learn concepts for the long-term, and help them succeed in their academic work, or in the job market. | Alexis Ashby, School of Information
Amanda Bassett, School of Information |
Civix |
Civix is a digital civic engagement platform to unite and empower everyone to create change through meaningful and structured conversation, and breaks down the walls between government and the people by removing bureaucracy from communication. | Amita Peter, Ross School of Business
Angelina Schneider, Ross School of Business Jacqueline Salamack, Ross School of Business |
Detroit Space Academy |
We are on a journey to change the future face of space. Detroit Space Academy is a curated box subscription experience that provides the tools that students need to learn more about the space industry while also learning applicable concepts that reinforce the curriculum that is being learned in the classroom. | Angelica Okorom, College of Engineering
Chalse Okorom, School of Information Greg McMurtry, College of Engineering |
HIRO |
HIRO wants to empower the consumer by helping them understand and navigate their health insurance policy. Additionally, HIRO plans to create a more fiscally responsible consumer by educating consumers about the costs of their healthcare. | Amged Eidelsafy, School of Public Health |
Out5mart |
Out5mart aims to put the control of social situations into the hands of the customer. With advanced technological and chemical properties fit into a sleek and discreet adhesive sticker, phone case, wallet card, and more, our product has the ability to test for the alcohol percentage of a given drink and the presence of date-rape drugs. This allows for the customer to understand the contents of their beverage in order to have a better and safer going-out experience. | Madison Bryce, College of Engineering
Mia McCrumb, Ross School of Business Naomi Goodman, College of LSA Nina Graham, School of Nursing |
Malama |
Malama is addressing the physical and social repercussions of breastfeeding with a smart bra. This product is able to detect plugged ducts within the breast and provide a customized massage. It will stimulate more milk production, decrease pumping time, and work according to your body’s needs. The smart bra will be able to provide consumers with their own data to make informed decisions for themselves. Designed for comfort and the convenience of the consumer, Malama is every mother’s personal assistant. | Libby Murray, School of Information
Lara Mutluay, College of LSA Parth Thawani, School of Public Health Yash Ramchandani, College of LSA |
Portal Spaces |
Portal Spaces is virtual reality meeting space. Within our virtual reality application you can meeting with anyone, from anywhere. In your meeting you can use your virtual web-browser to display presentations, or draw on the smart VR whiteboard to convey your ideas. Your heads up display will show you all the information you need to execute effective, productive meetings from anywhere. | Kyle Zappitell, College of LSA
Noah Wolfe, College of Engineering |
Practical Prosthetics |
Practical Prosthetics integrates 3D printing in the prosthetic manufacturing process, developing functional prosthetics operated by an independent and intuitive control system. The technology necessary to make affordable and accessible prosthetics exists—Practical Prosthetics is simply putting it to use and challenging the notion that building a prosthetic needs to be complicated and expensive. | Ethan Russo, Ross School of Business
Harrison Price, College of Engineering Joseph Schuman, College of LSA |
Right Step Forward |
Right Step Forward’s goal is to make first-generation students and students from immigrant families better prepared for college. RSF will provide educational, financial, and social support through seminars and private advising appointments. Students and their families will be informed of their options, allowing them to make better decision regarding their success on a career path. | Jasmine Kim, Ross School of Business
Kush Dawar, Ross School of Business + School of Education Nabeeha Shakil, College of LSA Pooja Varanasi, College of Engineering |
Send Word |
Send Word is a simple communication solution for citizens in post-disaster areas. It empowers community leaders to streamline communication with people’s loved ones to let them know that, despite all, you are alive, you are safe, and you will overcome this. | Colleen Clark, Stamps School of Art & Design
Ilka Rodriguez-Calero, College of Engineering Marianna Coulentianos, Rackham School of Graduate Studies |
Stride |
STRIDE is a self-paced, tablet based redesigned inclusive digital education. STRIDE is a module-based downloadable educational program that will provide structured digital literacy education, from basic computer skills to internet safety, to currently incarcerated individuals. Bridging the gap in knowledge of, and familiarity with technology formed during prison, STRIDE will help individuals navigate job employment more easily and more confidently, which will in turn lower the high rate of recidivism. | Elisabeth Fellowes, School of Information
Julia Dinoto, School of Information Quinton DeVries, School of Information |
Swiftship |
Swiftship is building a personalized and adaptive career planner for the millions of undecided undergraduate students, to explore and find the best fitting career options. As the job market evolves through artificial intelligence, automation, and atomization, we want to help students find an alternative career path. Our approach integrates data about students’ personalities, courses, and extracurricular activities to connect them to greater experiential learning opportunities for skill and career development. We want to give students the option to identify relevant careers tracks, in a way that reduces exploration costs, compared to any other solution on the market. We aim to be the platform of choice for students’ career guidance and exploration. | Corey Kosmin, College of LSA Nader Alrawahi School of EducationRyan Morrison, College of LSA |
SynergicMap |
SynergicMap replaces conventional lectures with a collaborative learning environment where students extract knowledge from multiple references and share the essence of what they learn with each other through generating questions and visualizing relations between them. They study each others’ questions and relations and vote on how helpful they are, which results in reputation development for each student in the learning community. Research has shown that these learning activities over time improve students’ deep and meaningful learning. Moreover, using SynergicMap, students learn how to extract and filter knowledge from the Internet to solve the problems in-hand instead of being limited to a few references, which facilitates their transition from academia to their future career. | Iman YeckehZaare, School of Information
Kallen Cohane, College of LSA |
The Returning Citizens Project |
The Returning Citizens Project seeks to reduce recidivism by giving a returning citizen key items and resources at the time of his or her release. We believe in the capacity of something as simple as this sort of starter pack can clarify an individual’s re-entry journey and set them on the path to success as they return to their lives and communities. | Marjorie Biel, School of Public Health
Shannon Weber, School of Public Health Onawa Gardiner, School of Information |
The People Project |
Change the narrative surrounding homelessness towards a more inclusive, hands on approach where everyone contributes to the solution. | Brandan Pierce, Ford School of Public Policy
Chloe Canon, School of Public Health + School of Information Jose Lujano, Ford School of Public Policy |
Vitamin See |
A platform that empowers stroke survivors to communicate normally over text messaging and email. Through communication Vitamin See creates space to address stroke survivors’ emotional and physical needs. | Linda Weng, Novi High School
Maxwell Weng, College of Engineering |
2017-18 Participating Teams
| Team | Mission | Members | Challenge |
|---|---|---|---|
1Team |
1Team is building an intelligent personal tutor that knows what the student knows, does not ever let them forget it, and teaches them new things they are capable of easily grasping. This will help students to learn concepts for the long-term, and help them succeed in their academic work, or in the job market. | Paul Hur, School of Information
Iman Yeckehzaare, School of Information |
Education |
3 Peas |
3 Peas is a mobile app that works as your virtual kitchen assistant, simplifying at-home cooking connecting you with registered dietitians to personalize nutrition based on your health and lifestyle needs. Designed for individuals with chronic disease, 3 Peas makes it easy to plan, purchase, and prepare food for your health. |
John Barbour, Ross School of Business Lili Bentley, School of Public Health + Ross School of Business Nikhil Kalambur, Ross School of Business + School of Information Sarah Rubin, School of Public Health |
Public Health |
Busy Box |
Busy box makes the tools for having safe sex convenient, affordable, and accessible to all. Each busy box contains high-quality sex supplies and educational resources that are personalized to the customer’s needs, and shipped right to their front door. | Kayla Carter, School of Public Health
Alison Elgass, College of LSA Sarah Mason, School of Education Monica Smolinski, School of Public Health |
Public Health |
Clinico |
Meet Clinico. A web-based tool to help clinical research investigators design interventional clinical trials. It leads investigators through key aspects of study design, providing data analytics that assists with designing objective-oriented and patient-centric studies. |
Kady Jesko, Stamps School of Art and Design
Young Eun Kim, School of Information Alex Park, Law School Kelly Speth, School of Public Health |
Public Health |
DonUM |
DonUM is a web based platform to increase organ donation registration rates at the University of Michigan, and eventually nationwide. | Rebecca Grossman-Kahn, Medical School + Ross School of Business
Kashvi Gupta, School of Public Health Kosuke Kikuchi, Ross School of Business Bruna de Souza Oewel, Stamps School of Art and Design Amanda Wasserman, College of LSA |
Public Health |
Dough |
Dough is a education text service linked to tools that assist students make more informed student loan decisions. | Yahya Bajwa, Ford School of Public Policy
Catalina Kaiyoorawongs, Ross School of Business Alfredo Novoa, School of Public Health |
Education |
Fyltr |
Deceptive information is everywhere around us- news articles, social media, even product labels. Fyltr is committed to improving information literacy in children. Through fun and engaging games, we build the fundamental skills necessary to critically evaluate information. | Deepti Bettampadi, School of Public Health
Sophia Chiu, School of Information Juan Marquez, School of Public Health Jonathan Overstreet, School of Education Jasmine Wang, Law School |
Education |
First Five Med |
The First Five trains everyday people how to save a life in the first five minutes of a medical emergency while the ambulance is on the way. Workshops focus on hands-on learning and medical scenarios to make training realistic and memorable. Learn more at www.firstfivemed.com . Anyone can save a life. | Alex Farding, Medical School
Stephen Hobson, Medical School Haley McCalpin, Undergraduate Medicine |
Public Health |
GenZen |
Toshi Kumazawa, Ross School of Business
Clare Rauch, School of Public Health Vidhi Verma, School of Public Health |
Public Health | |
Healthcare Progressors |
Healthcare Progressors is interested in reducing health disparities that result from pharmacy deserts. Our goal is to improve pharmaceutical services for underserved population. | Sameer Arora, College of Engineering
Casey Chmura, College of LSA Jennifer Gonzalez, School of Public Health Sahar Gowani, College of LSA Aaron Kelley, College of LSA |
Public Health |
hEARt |
We aim to improve mental health on campus by creating a mobile app centered around chat therapy. We hope to design an effective resource for students that makes them feel comfortably connected and more involved in their own self-care. | Aastha Dharia, College of LSA
Aria Thakore, College of Engineering Sheily Shah, College of LSA Swathi Sampath, College of LSA |
Public Health |
Intend to Attend |
Our team is exploring how we could use digital technologies to support rural high school students as they prepare for and apply to college. | Jake Baker, Ross School of Business
Sean Bolourchi, School of Public Health Hannah Chen, Ross School of Business + School of Information MaryRose Clark, College of LSA Olivia Ouyang, School of Information Megan Taylor, School of Education |
Education |
Keystoria |
Keystoria is improving how patients and health care professionals deal with electronic health care data. We see that health records are progressively becoming more digital but less streamlined across the country. We aim to address these issues of fragmented data by creating a portal that will ease access to patients and providers, in order to create a more efficient health care process. | Sam Ehnis-Clark School of Information
Kelly Hou, School of Information Harita Vidari, School of Public Health |
Public Health |
MindWorks |
Olubisi Ajetunmobi, School of Public Health
Mattie Ellis, College of LSA Jin Xiu Lu, School of Public Health |
Public Health | |
Perch |
For many students, undergraduate research is their first experience working on real-world problems that may provide widespread impact and help people in the future. Research is a chance for students to apply what they’ve learned in class to the real world, to venture boldly beyond the maps of the known. Not to mention that undergraduate research experience is now necessary rather than an added bonus when applying to graduate school, industrial R&D jobs, and numerous other career paths. However, there are many social and financial barriers that make it difficult for an undergraduate student to locate and get accepted into university research positions. Perch aims to reduce barriers to undergraduate research. We plan to achieve this through an online platform that centralizes communication between research faculty and students, as well as a standardized system of training and certifying research skills. | Benjamin Bear, College of LSA
Carolyn Giroux, Rackham School of Graduate Studies Nolan Kataoka, College of Engineering Akira Nishii, College of Engineering Akshay Rao, College of Engineering |
Education |
Refugees to College |
Refugees to College believes that everyone deserves access to a good education. Supported by aid organizations such as Samaritas and Washtenaw Refugee Welcome, we provide one-on-one support and college readiness workshops to refugees and their families. Learn more at www.refugeestocollege.org. | Sean Anderson, School of Music, Theater, and Dance
David Kamper, School of Music, Theater, and Dance |
Education |
Spirituality & Telehealth |
Katherine Jones, Stamps School of Art and Design
Chris Lezama, School of Public Health Geila Rajaee, School of Public Health Yiwei Yin, College of Pharmacy |
Public Health |
2016-17 Participating Teams
| Team | Mission | Members | Challenge |
|---|---|---|---|
Abaca Games |
Abaca Games is a social impact game design start-up focused on creating video games that educate players about how to take action to mitigate climate change. | Jatin Gupta, School of Information
Chris Karounos, School of Natural Resources and Environment Chia Ju Lee, School of Education |
Education |
AllCareZone |
Reinventing a community-based virtual platform to facilitate personalized care for patients with Alzheimer’s Disease living at home. | Chen Liang, School of Public Health
Lulu Shang, School of Public Health Cong Wang, School of Public Health Zheng Xu, School of Public Health Yongwen Zhuang, School of Public Health |
Public Health |
Amashuwi |
Seeking solutions for maternal and child health problems in Sub-saharan Africa. | Anuhya Bhogineni, School of Public Health
Charlie Brink, School of Social Work Change Kwesele, School of Social Work + Psychology |
Public Health |
ArborThotics |
Innovative and swift production of orthotic devices using 3-D printing. | Brett Jia, Ross School of Business + College of Engineering
Dom Parise, College of Engineering Eric Pfeifer, School of Information + School of Public Health |
Public Health |
Biblio Care |
Increasing collaboration between social work and library/info sciences to support the whole student experience in the library. |
Aayat Ali, School of Social Work
Adrienne Bombelles, School of Social Work Marna Clowney-Robinson, School of Public Health + School of Social Work |
Education |
Books for a Benefit |
Books for a Benefit is a student organization that works at providing accessibility to literacy resources for students who face barriers to education due to race and socioeconomic status. Our team’s experience with Books for a Benefit led us to develop an app that would provide additional structure for language development to students in English as second language programs. Much of the students we work with through Books for a Benefit are immigrants and refugees, so this app would directly impact their academic development. Our product is unique because it harnesses our access to our volunteers to work directly with students in our community in a personal structure that fosters development. Also, our app is specifically designed to build off a pen pal program we used in our organization. | Essam Al-Snayyan, LSA
Kush Dawar Nadine Jawad, Ford School of Public Policy Corrina Lee, LSA Noreen Nader, LSA Neha Tiwari, LSA |
Education |
Canopy |
Canopy facilitates the conversations about the end of life that we aren’t having, but maybe should be. It’s a simple web app that walks users through the questions and answers they might need someday. It helps to clarify their wishes with the people they love. To learn more, visit https://canopy.tools/ | Ann Duong, School of Public Health + School of Information
Brandon Keelean, Stamps School of Art & Design Elisabeth Michel, School of Public Health |
Public Health |
Caravan |
Caravan focuses on improving mobility for people with limited access to transportation, particularly those without phone data or credit; however, the service can be used by anyone to get where they need to go.Think of it as an AirBnB for transportation: Simply put your trips into Caravan and we’ll find a way to get you there whether it’s walking with a neighbor to the grocery store, booking a nonprofit transportation provider to get to a doctor’s appointment, or sharing a ride with another community member to get to work. Likewise, you can list your availability to provide trips whether you’re a nonprofit transportation provider, faith-based organization, city transportation department, or even a community member looking to help fellow residents get around. By ensuring access to safe, reliable, and affordable transportation, we hope to improve access to education, nutritious foods, employment, healthcare, and leisure. Website: http://gowithcaravan.weebly. |
Tran Doan, School of Public Health
Kenny Fennell, Ford School of Public Policy Ben Morse, Ford School of Public Policy + School of Natural Resources and Environment |
Public Health |
CHEF |
Hours of sitting, unhealthy meals, eating alone at a desk, skipping lunch, and lack of interaction with workplace colleagues are commonplace behaviors in many office settings. CHEF (Community, Health, Energy, and Food) aims to address these barriers to healthy eating in the workplace by connecting small businesses to convenient, local, and healthy food options for lunch and snacks. | Hadlee Garrison, School of Public Health
Nosheen Hayat, School of Public Health Katie Hettenbach, LSA Takuro Miyazaki, School of Public Health Isaac Pohlman, School of Public Health Cole Zingas, LSA |
Public Health |
DiaBEATit |
A tool to help individuals to better self-manage their type II diabetes. | Alexandra Babcock, School of Public Health
Nuha Mahmood, LSA Nadia Syed, School of Public Health |
Public Health |
Epiphany Health |
EHR AI-driven Auto population Systems. | Brian Chen, School of Public Health + School of Information | Public Health |
Evergreen Experience |
The Evergreen Experience is a hands-on, agriculture-based dementia program connecting older adults to meaningful and stimulating activities. The program focuses on sensory (touch, smell) activities that also benefit the community. The goal of this program is to help support older adults with dementia who are living in the community so that they are able to remain living in the community, for longer. This adult-day program would also ideally become a break opportunity for overburdened caregivers of persons with dementia. | Melissa Daily, School of Public Health
Allison Ewert, School of Social Work Erica Goble, School of Social Work Ashley Miller, School of Public Health Erin Mobley, School of Public Health + School of Social Work |
Public Health |
FoodFleet |
FoodFleet works to combat food waste by connecting caterers, restaurants, businesses, and organizations who have food left over from conferences, parties, or other events, to food pantries, community centers, and shelters in the area. In addition to saving food from being thrown out, these donations can assist these local shelters and food banks in their efforts to fight food insecurity in the community. FoodFleet makes the whole process easy and convenient for both the donor and the recipient, providing packaging and transport, with a simple and user-friendly mobile platform to post and source donations. | Adam Gitterman, School of Public Health + School of Information
Rachel Jonassen Bittman, School of Public Health Anju Madan, School of Public Health |
Public Health |
Green Heights |
Team Green Heights is looking to change the way plants are incorporated into the infrastructure of a city. By bringing together science education, microbiology, urban farms, and green technology, our team is invested in changing the health of buildings in order to change the health of communities. | Haley Cropper, LSA, Biopsychology Cognition Neuroscience
Jules Gilbert, School of Public Health Chris Pathman, LSA |
Education |
Health Promotion/ Disease Prevention |
Nate Love, School of Public Health
Brennan Sieck, School of Information |
Public Health | |
ImproveRx |
Working to decrease information asymmetry so that providers, payors, and patients can make better decisions about their care, while improving the patient experience by increasing their engagement in the prescription process. | John Crist, School of Public Health
Jake Cross, School of Public Health Dave Fife, School of Public Health Radhika Kolathumani, School of Public Health + School of Information Saurav Gangopadhyay, School of Public Health |
Public Health |
Indie Incubator |
Incubate educational video games in an accelerator, focusing on providing access to publishers, marketing and business tools, and funding. | Arshan Ahmad, Ross School of Business
Kara Foley, Ross School of Business Abby Poats, School of Education + Ross School of Business |
Education |
Innovations in Health Inequities |
Engaging local adolescents in preventative care activities to improve health disparities among underserved youth in the Detroit-metro area.. | Erin Bagazinski, School of Public Health + School of Information
Michelle Falkenbach, School of Public Health Danielle Knapic, School of Public Health Minna Wybrecht, LSA |
Public Health |
JoyU |
Sili Jiang, School of Information | Public Health | |
Knowledge Village |
Knowledge Village is an online community of experience available to students worldwide. Similar to how AirBnB and Lyft provide value and access to resources that people already possess, Knowledge Village will provide a similar platform for the greatest untapped resource: our collective experiences. Professionals, experts, and activists from wide-ranging fields will be available in a searchable database. Educators in schools, after-school programs, summer programs, and other learning environments will be able to reach out to those speakers and arrange online video visits within the Knowledge Village. Students will be able to interact with speakers in real-time, learning first-hand about the life paths of others. Knowledge Village will assist educators with introducing students to an entire world of possibilities. | Sid Chhatani, School of Information
Gabriel DellaVecchia, School of Education Makie DellaVecchia, EMU Kathleen Easley, School of Education |
Education |
Limitless |
Within merely 1.4 million of transgender population, the percentage of transgender people who are conducting self-medication, self-surgery, and illegal activities is much higher than that of general public.
We have identified that the cause is either lack of access to updated and reliable information hub about gender transitions, or lack of financial capability to support the transitions supervised by professionals.
Team Limitless aims to create an information hub to 1) provide updated and reliable details regarding each transition step, 2) provide contact, expertise and reviews of transgender friendly doctors and service providers, 3) create individualized financial planning services to support transitions.
|
Victoria Alden, School of Public Health
Hanna Sasakura, Ross School of Business Rishabh Sharma, Ross School of Business |
Public Health |
LYNC |
93% of students in Detroit are not proficient in reading, according to data from the Department of Education’s National center for Educational Statistics. Because of the tumultuous climate in Detroit Public Schools, tutoring organizations are working to support students through after school tutoring; however, they are lacking access to tutors forcing them to turn students away from their programs. LYNC is a web platform designed to connect tutoring organizations to tutors in the Detroit community so more students are able to get the support they need. | Casey Burkard, School of Education
Dave Spallina, Ross School of Business Parth Valecha, LSA + Ross School of Business Kate Wilhelmi, School of Education Daishar Young, School of Education |
Education |
MedCar |
MedCar is a logistics platform connecting non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) providers to patients suffering from chronic illnesses. Via an intuitive application and/or web portal, patients can find and arrange transportation from local NEMT providers or independent contractors for both recurring hospital visits and on-demand trips to appointments. In doing so, the MedCar platform simultaneously increases the access to healthcare for patients, lowers the burden on patient caretakers, helps NEMT providers meet latent industry demand and combats healthcare operational costs associated with patients arriving late or missing their appointments. | Jason Chen, Ross School of Business
Thomas Jahnke, Ross School of Business Jeremy Raisky, School of Public Health |
Public Health |
MYWILL |
The app, MYWILL, will put people’s wellness into their own hands and make goals more interactive and thus more achievable. Through teamwork and friendly competition, people will improve their quality of life. | Jessica Hirsh, College of Engineering
Tiffany Loh, LSA Luke Shenton, School of Public Health Varun Malhotra, Ross School of Business + LSA |
Public Health |
Prerna |
Per a 2016 report by the Alzheimer’s Association, an estimated 5.4 million Americans of all ages have Alzheimer’s disease and the numbers are expected to escalate as the baby boom generation has begun to reach age 65 and beyond. Apart from seeing a loved one suffer from memory loss, family members also undergo anxiety, financial fears and social stigma when caring. Prerna helps first-time caregivers cope with these fears and anxieties, helping them provide better care to their loved ones. | Aakanksha Parameshwar, School of Information
Priyanka Raju Dantuluri, Stamps School of Art & Design Asha Shenoy Kudupi, School of Information |
Public Health |
Prometeo |
Prometeo is a step-by-step interactive tool to explore purpose in live, develop will, and commitment to goals using myth images and practical exercises. Is designed to help clarify goals and develop the will to transform ideas in reality. It can be use for youth empowerment, career advice and project design. | Ruben Urbieta, School of Education | Education |
SPEDucation |
Team SPEDucation aims to empower parents and students by creating an interactive reference application that will help them navigate the complex landscape of special education. | Rebecca Gadd, School of Education
Ebony Perouse-Harvey, School of Education |
Education |
Wellwith, PBC |
Wellwith is the wellness rewards network built for local businesses, their customers, and the planet. Our mission is to cut single-use waste in half, starting with coffee cups. Existing incentives (typically 10-cent discounts) for bringing one’s own mug to a coffee shop are painfully ineffective (60 billion cups end up in landfills every year in the US alone). Wellwith creates better incentives by not only saving customers money but also empowering them to make a difference. By facilitating cross-promotions between local businesses, creating savings through reductions in single-use cup costs, and committing a portion of those savings to Water.org, we’re creating value for customers, businesses, a fantastic charity, and the people and places it serves. And by capturing a portion of those savings ourselves and making transparency a priority, we’re able to operate sustainably, too. Wellwith is continuing to connect with local businesses and excited to launch on March 22 — World Water Day! For more info, visit www.wellwith.com | Mike Westcott, Ross School of Business + School for Environment and Sustainability | Public Health |
2015-16 Participating Teams
| Team | Mission | Members | Challenge |
|---|---|---|---|
Aether |
Behind every entrepreneur is a network of people to help them bring their idea to fruition. Aether is a mobile application that helps people with great ideas to build a network of advisers, co-founders, and investors to support them in the process of developing their company. Individuals submit their ideas or skills as “cards” to the network, sort through other cards in their “stack”, and then they can message and meet up with others they are interested in. Aether begins anonymously to help people feel safe sharing their ideas on the platform, and the network is geo-located to make it easy to find people nearby to quickly meet and begin collaborating. | Mackenzie DeWitt, School of Information
Rohita Tikoo, School of Information Rachel Jaffe, School of Information and School of Urban Planning Muneed Ahmad, School of Computer Science |
Education |
Benbo |
Benbo is a non-profit social enterprise that employs homeless individuals to create, cook, and vend affordable, healthy, and quick to-go meals. Homeless people are capable and filled with potential, but many face discrimination and challenges to attaining employment and are stuck in the cycle of poverty.Benbo breaks them free from that cycle with its proven empowerment business model that capitalizes on their strengths and enables them to succeed. | Quan Pham, School of Public Health
Minhee Choi, School of Social WorkLawrence Yong, School of Information |
Public Health |
Confertia |
Redesigning the patient provider experience through personalized education. | Eric Pfeifer, School of Public Health and School of Information
Hanwenbo Yang, School of Public Health and School of Information Dom Parise, College of Engineering Sid Chhatani, School of Information |
Public Health |
Confluence Health |
Confluence Health is a mobile app for patient communication, patient progress tracking & triaging, to optimize Community Health Workers’ (CHW) workflow. CHWs are recognized today as a vital element in care coordination of patients after they are discharged from provider organizations. They are particularly important in helping vulnerable populations suffering from chronic diseases become healthier and staying out of hospitals. However CHWs today are having to use outdated tools to do their jobs, which result in wasting valuable time performing procedural activities that do not add value to their clients or employers. Confluence Health provides a modern solution to CHWs that enables them to optimize their work week and triage their clients. By helping CHWs become more efficient, Confluence Health enables healthcare payers to optimize their care coordination resources which play an important role in improving health outcomes and reducing the cost of care. | Leah Abrams, School of Public Health
Andrew Munfakh, School of Public Health Prem Bodagala, School of Information Kai Yu, Stamps School of Art and Design |
Public Health |
Covered |
Covered’s mission is to provide families of children with uncontrolled asthma access to allergen-proof mattress covers for their child’s sleeping space. Research shows the effectiveness of mattress covers in reducing asthmatic children’s exposure to irritating dust mites that can cause inflammation in the lungs and subsequent asthma attacks. Through participation in our free mattress cover program, families will also be eligible for assistance with a free home assessment to determine which additional environmental services they may need to reduce exposures in their home. Covered will also work with families in accessing health and social services that may help them better manage their child’s asthma. | Ariel Herm, School of Public Health
Kristin Bevilacqua, School of Public health Angela Wan, School of Public Health & School of Natural Resources and Environment |
Public Health |
Ditto |
Over one-half of all American adults live with one or more chronic medical conditions. Often called “invisible illnesses,” feelings of loneliness are pervasive among these populations as patients do not feel fully understood or interpersonally connected, resulting in a high prevalence of depression. Ditto is an app-based platform that seeks to be a comprehensive, integrated solution to combat the issue of loneliness associated with the demands of daily management of one or more chronic medical conditions. Our app seeks to connect these individuals (and their caregivers) to others living with at least one of the same chronic medical conditions in their local area for opportunities to meet up. Additionally, the platform’s forum feature allows individuals to interact solely online, or in combination with the opportunity to meet others in person. With Ditto, individuals with chronic illness can find a support system whenever and wherever they need it and begin to feel like “it’s not just me.” | Parisa Soraya, School of Public Health
Brianna Wolin, College of Engineering |
Public Health |
Embrace Your Face |
Embrace Your Face is seeking to help manage chronic skin diseases. | Christine Campbell, School of Public Health
Suzie Genyk, School of Public Health Nosheen Hayat, School of Public Health |
Public Health |
Formativity |
Formativity seeks to improve the frequency and quality of formative assessment in early learning environments, leveraging technology to (i) reduce the amount of direct supervision-time required to administer assessments, (ii) establish a tailored, engaging experience for learners, and (iii) provide informative and actionable feedback to educators and caregivers. | Megan Blair, Ford School of Public Policy
Jeff Stern, School of Information Sania Zaidi, School of Education Brandon Patterson, School of Education and School of Information |
Education |
FreshFridge |
Over 40% of the food in the United States goes uneaten. This wasted food eats up valuable energy, fresh water, and land, just to end up rotting in landfills and emitting the most potent greenhouse gas, methane. Americans are currently throwing away the equivalent of $165 billion in food annually. Our mobile app, Fresh Fridge, is a tool to help people use their perishable food before it goes bad by helping to track what they’ve purchased, when it’s expiring, and the money they’ve wasted in the process. Fresh Fridge partners with local grocery stores in order to access an existing customer base, recruit new customers and sales for the store, and provide consumers with deals and metrics that feel good and save them money. | Hannah Gordon, School of Public Health
Jana Stewart, School of Public Health and School of Natural Resources and Environment Christina Hecht, School of Public Health and School of Information Trevor Dolan, LSA |
Public Health |
Hatch |
The quality of teaching has long been known to be the most significant factor in affecting student learning; however, research has shown most students are not experiencing teaching and learning that is “up to standard”—that is, at or exceeding the intellectual demands of new rigorous college and career standards and assessments, such as the Common Core. Enter Hatch, a web-based learning platform designed to support ambitious instructional practice in the core content areas. Leveraging structured guidance and user-generated content, Hatch provides teachers the tools and supports to plan inquiry-based instruction that exceeds the rigor of the Common Core; our student-facing interface ensures teachers can enact their plans in ways that are engaging and technology-rich. | Carolyn Giroux, School of Education
Brad Cawn, School of Education Rebecca Gadd, School of Education Crystal Wise, School of Education Vaishnav Kameswaran, School of Information |
Education |
HealthyKid |
Today, American parents do not know how to feed their kids anymore. Our product, HealthyKid, is a nutritional meal box with a supportive app targeted towards parents with kids ages 1-6. HealthyKid gives parents the tools and resources to ensure that their children’s diets are well-balanced and well-proportioned. In doing so, we are helping children develop healthy eating habits that can last a lifetime. | Iris Yuefan Shao, Psychology / School of Public Health
Patricia Yeh, School of Public Health Anita Sebastian, School of Public Health Suyu Sang, College of Engineering Jodi McCloskey, School of Public Health |
Public Health |
Honey |
3 million unplanned pregnancies occur annually. An unplanned pregnancy can lead to worry and derailment of women’s aspirations. More women are pursuing higher education and professional achievement and many do not know how to make reproductive choices that fit their lives and goals. With no open and positive resources to guide these choices, women are left turning to other women around them for answers or scouring the internet for a credible source. Honey is a community-focused web platform where women can learn and shop for their contraceptive needs. Through crowd-sourced reviews and a sex-positive online community, Honey users will be empowered to make the contraceptive choices that align best with her needs. With Honey, busy women no longer will have to worry about pharmacy hours or the shame of buying emergency contraception in-person. Honey users will have peace of mind with convenient and confidential home delivery of contraception that fits into their demanding lives. Sex is fun and Honey wants to make it protected and informed. | Teresa Tran, School of Public Health
Adriana Saroki, School of Public Health and School of Information Tianyi Hua, College of Pharmacy Samantha Madson, School of Public Health Jessica Lin, School of Public Health |
Public Health |
Lend a Hand |
According to the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, a third of all teachers leave the profession within three years. It is no secret that teachers are overworked and under-appreciated. Through our research, we identified different workplace stressors teachers face. Our team aims to provide an “appreciation kit” for teachers to serve their unique mental and physical health needs, while strengthening the relationships between teachers and the individuals they serve. | Mary-Catherine Goddard, School of Public Health
Maxwell Dziku, School of Education Eleanor Axson, School of Public Health Xiao Liu, School of Public Health and School of Information |
Education |
MI Cares |
MiCares envisions the Medicaid application process as one that is oriented toward customer service. Other aspects of the health care, such as hospital systems, are re-orienting themselves to focus on customer service and have found that doing so improves patient satisfaction and health outcomes and reduces costs. MiCares will partner with Managed Care Organizations to offer interactive sessions for DHS case workers designed to increase customer perspective and understanding. MiCares will also offer evaluation services to measure applicant and employee satisfaction and monitor changes in the application process. | Elliott Brannon, Medical School
Kristen Harden, School of Public Health Sunyang Fu, School of Public Health and School of Information Dolorence Okullo, School of Public Health and School of Information Shreyas Ramani, School of Public Health and School of Information |
Public Health |
ProNetwork |
High school students are not learning essential professional skills in the traditional classroom. They often feel lost when it comes to tasks such as writing a resume or learning about unique career paths. However, it’s more than just lacking the skills to recruit for an internship or confidently asserting oneself at a career fair in college— students today are unable to communicate effectively with professors, company representatives, or persons of interest in a field they are simply curious about. Thus, ProNetwork is a team committed to teaching high school students professional skills through a series of interactive modules. By teaching interpersonal and communicative skills in a social setting, we strive to educate and mentor the next generation of high schoolers, enabling them to pursue their dreams. | Sanjay Koduvalli, Ross School of Business
Isabelle Wong, College of Engineering Sabrina Ivanenco, LSA Jiten Parbhoo, LSA Sarah Tsung, Ross School of Business |
Education |
Sweet Dreams |
A child born in Slovenia or Cuba is more likely to live to their first birthday than in the state of Michigan. The majority of these deaths are preventable. A high proportion of these babies suffocate due to unsafe sleeping conditions, despite extensive educational and outreach campaigns. This problem disproportionately affects African American families in the Detroit area. Based on a series of interviews with African American mothers, we found that while they know the safe sleep guidelines and have safe baby beds, other barriers to safe sleep prevent them from following the recommendations. Our solution takes a different approach from current campaigns, by making the safest choice the easiest choice. We have designed a mattress that allows safe sleep while also providing opportunities for bonding and easy nighttime feeding. Using our product provides mothers peace of mind, a good night’s rest, and sweet dreams. | Charlie Brink, School of Social Work
Tilly Finnegan, School of Social Work |
Public Health |
Through My Eyes |
There is a clear cultural divide when it comes to racial diversity in tech. 11% student of computer science and computer engineering students from top universities are Black or Hispanic yet, make up only about 5% of the top technology companies. Through My Eyes aims to reduce these disparities by utilizing virtual reality technology to change reality. Based on published research by leading social psychologists, Through My Eyes is building a virtual reality app that places users as black character in a virtual reality world with the ultimate goal of decreasing subconscious racism and increasing real-world empathy and understanding. Through My Eyes is diversity training for the 21st century and will first disrupt the way hiring is accomplished in the most technological place in America: Silicon Valley. | Kenji Kaneko, Ross School of Business
Ashley Adams, School of Public Health |
Education |
Verbalyze |
Verbalyze is a mobile application that allows college students to manage stress by putting their thoughts into words. They can access a supportive community wherever they are, and read what others are thinking as well. Our app is designed with helpful writing and commenting prompts that encourage reflection and compassion. | Jason Lam, School of Social Work and School of Information
Amy Bromley, School of Social Work and School of Information Bharathi Ramachandran, School of Public Health Peter Gray, School of Information |
Public Health |
Village |
The mission of Village is to redesign child transportation coordination by connecting parents who have complementary needs and streamlining existing tools used to coordinate child transportation. | Michelle Jackson, School of Information
Betty Ku, School of Information Nishan Bose, School of Information |
Public Health |
2014-15 Participating Teams
| Team | Mission | Members |
|---|---|---|
BlueSky |
BlueSky aims to provide a supportive space for people who face significant language and cultural barriers in accessing mental health resources. | Anirudh Vinnakota, College of Engineering
Kruthi Sabnis Krishna, School of Information Alyssa Gregory, School of Social Work Lucia Lee, School of Public Health and School of Information |
Change of Mind |
For patients suffering mental disorder to manage, progress and overcome their symptoms. | Evan Gennrich, School of Information and LSA
Lei Yu, School of Public Health Lamees Mekkaoui, LSA Sushmitha Diraviam, LSA Sean Ma, College of Pharmacy |
Effortless |
There is a lack of adherence in both the aging population and patients of said population when it comes to monitoring one’s own body weight. By mitigating the burden on the user, we are expecting an increase in adherence rate (users will continue to monitor their own weight). In order to reduce burden on the user, we hope to integrate a smart-scale into an anti-slip bathroom floor mat. By doing this, users will automatically step on the scale each day without realizing. This mat will also serve a dual-purpose of ensuring less slippage. | Linglu Zhou, LSA
Hanwenbo Yang, School of Public Health and School of Information |
FoodMood |
FoodMood seeks educate people on healthy eating options in a simple and fun way. | Kristina Halverson, School of Public Health
Michael Grisafe, School of Public Health and School of Information Rachel Atwood, School of Public Health and School of Information Shruthi Reddy, School of Public Health and School of Information Wei Wang, School of Information |
Fresh Fare |
According to the the US Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service in 2013, 14.3% of the population—17.5 million Americans—“lacked access to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members.” Our team presents an innovative solution to a debilitating barrier to food access—lack of reliable transportation—by partnering established grocery retailers and a rideshare program to get more food insecure individuals shopping for healthy foods in well-stocked grocery stores. Our product provides a membership for customers to utilize rideshare vehicles at a subsidized low price to and from grocery stores, with an incentive for grocery stores and rideshare companies to gain a larger customer base and sell grocery store gas to the rideshare drivers. Both the grocery retailer and the rideshare company would be able to demonstrate a concentrated effort for social impact and reducing pressing public health issues, while drivers and customers deepen their sense of connection to their communities. | Ali Jensen, School of Public Health
Mikael Rodkin, School of Natural Resources and Environment and Ross School of Business Stacy Matlen, School of Public Health Christine Priori, School of Public Health and Ross School of Business |
Healthy and Delicious |
Healthy and Delicious makes healthy choices accessible, appealing, and affordable! | Abigal Schachter, School of Public Health
Carly Thanhouser, School of Public Health Lily Hamburger, Ross School of Business Molly Maher, School of Public Health and School of Information Margaret Dowling, School of Public Health Shaila Chhibba, School of Public Health and Ross School of Business |
ID It: Infectious Disease Surveillance, Modeling, and Communication |
ID It is an app where medical professionals in hard-to-reach areas can find real-time data on local disease hotspots, use up-to-date mathematical models to predict disease spread, and contact appropriate health ministries and organizations to request resources. | Abir Viqar, School of Public Health and School of Information
Kathleen Marinan, School of Public Health and School of Information Sarah Bassiouni, School of Public Health |
LivPoz |
When faced with an ongoing, life-altering illness, how does a person cope? For HIV patients, managing a strict medication and lifestyle regimen is quite literally a matter of life or death. This constant need for vigilance lends itself to a sense of overwhelm, leaving plenty of room for serious errors to occur. Our mobile app, LivPoz, alleviates this burden. LivPoz is a tool for HIV patients to manage their medications and maintain a healthy, positive mindset. | Jin Zhang, College of Engineering
Maria Gosur, School of Information Ramit Saraswat, College of Engineering Ryan Gourley, School of Natural Resources & Environment Ryan Sanii, School of Public Health |
MedMarket |
MedMarket is a virtual marketplace that aims to connect medical equipment to communities in need. | Ashka Dave, School of Public Health and Ross School of Business
Elizabeth Scarola, School of Public Health Tanya Taveras, School of Public Health Yousuf Ahmad, School of Public Health Linda Bi, School of Public Health |
Mind Matters |
Mind Matters is a tool for teachers to be agents of change in the classroom via recognition, restructuring, and interdisciplinary connection to promote mental well-being. | Peter Ceglarek, School of Public Health
Rae Hu, School of Information Sarah Buranskas, School of Public Health Surabhi Rajaram, School of Public Health Annie Zhu, School of Information |
Mindful |
Composed from students across five schools, this team’s disciplines will give a fresh perspective and interdisciplinary approach to the innovation of manageability of symptoms present in mental illness through the use of technology. | Erika Martinez-Nieves, Rackham Graduate School
Izhar Buendia, School of Information Jamie Munoz-Velazquez, Rackham Graduate School Lauren Mancia, College of Engineering Mayra Rivas-Rocha, School of Public Health |
Native H.O.M.E. |
Native Americans are more than twice as likely to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus than non-Hispanic white adults. While this is the result of multiple factors, the prominent challenges include the lack of youth involvement in diabetes awareness, limited access to resources for diabetes prevention and management, and the absence of initiatives directed towards the support networks of people with diabetes. These main concepts will be addressed through a culturally-tailored diabetes community group | Ashley Shar, College of Pharmacy
Stephanie Burke, College of Pharmacy Emily Hearst, School of Public Health Emily Stebbins, School of Public Health |
A.C.E. Care Management |
A.C.E. Care Management aims at developing pragmatic and easy-to-use tech solutions for reducing preventable hospitalizations in the elderly population. | Jashanjit Kaur, School of Information
Sheridan Cook, School of Social Work Elizabeth Timoszyk, School of Public Health Yang Li, School of Public Health and School of Information Yichi Zhang, School of Information |
Printed Human |
Printed Human uses print media and aesthetics to cultivate communities around public health problems stemming from socioeconomic inequality and social stigmas. | Kate Sutcliffe, School of Public Health
Sabrina Riera, School of Public Health |
SnowFerret |
SnowFerret optimizes the layout, allocation, and flow of care to accelerate care delivery. | Lawrence Chang, School of Public Health and School of Information
Zhaoxian Hu, School of Public Health and School of Information Kejia Shao, School of Information Zhou Shen, School of Education and School of Information Danny Wu, School of Information |
Sugar-Free |
Sugar-Free seeks to integrate an optical sensor into the apple iWatch to non-invasively and continuously monitor blood sugar levels. | Saurabh Kukreti, School of Public Health
Preeti Padaley, School of Public Health |
Tal Como Tu |
Diabetes management and prevention in Hispanic populations through a culturally-conscious cooking and nutrition education-focused smartphone app. | Gabriel Martinez-Santibañez, Medical School
Naomi Hernandez, School of Public Health and School of Information Nehal Molasaria, School of Information Nora White, School of Public Health David Zhang, School of Information |
2013-14 Participating Teams
| Team | Mission | Members |
|---|---|---|
AthlEAT |
AthlEAT is a nutrition management platform for athletes and their sports dietitians (RD). AthlEAT allows sports RDs to continually track the diet habits of their athletes. By receiving more consistent feedback, athletes can fuel properly to improve performance and mitigate injury and illness related to poor nutrition. | Andrew Miller, School of Public Health and School of Information
Bryan Blake, School of Public Health and School of Information Bo Borgnakke, School of Public Health and School of Information Ikponmwosa Olomu, School of Public Health and School of Information Gerald Shaeffer, School of Public Health and School of Information |
Consumer-Owned Health Insurance Entities at the Base of the Pyramid |
Consumer-Owned Health Insurance Entities at the Base of the Economic Pyramid aims to improve public health by making regular, preventive care relatively more affordable by reducing the risk of catastrophic health care expenditure shocks, through easily-scalable consumer-owned and driven health insurance entities. They differentiate themselves by aiming to create and multiply social impact at every step of the process and by having the consumers themselves shape the entities and the instruments which they deploy. In doing so, they hope to be able to improve public health – and thereby accelerate the process of economic development – in the communities in which people work. | Pritika Dasgupta, School of Public Health
Denise Bronner, Medical School Alison Corace, College of Literature, Science and the Arts Napapond Fay, International Institute Jessica Hill, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy |
Digital Shepherd |
Digital Shepherd is a sleep application for personalized sleep education, monitoring sleep habits and disorders, like obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. The app will provide strategies for improving sleep hygiene, which include the modification of habits like caffeine consumption, exercise, tobacco, alcohol use and excess use of electronic devices. It will also improve tracking of sleep patterns, detecting sleep length and time estimates, and engaging people with good sleep habits. | Chandra Bondugula, School of Public Health and School of Information
Hariharan Subramonyam, School of Information |
enliven |
enliven is an interactive mobile phone application that aims to promote health and wellness in young adult women between the ages of 18-35. The goal of enliven is to decrease symptoms of anxiety and depression (irrational fear, worry and sadness) through the promotion of positivity. Based in positive psychology, the application aligns with the theory that most individuals want to lead meaningful and fulfilling lives by cultivating their best characteristics. This application allows individuals to more fully engage with specific “character traits” through a series of “Daily Do’s,” or challenges. The application includes features to track individual growth, provide daily inspiration, and allows users to see what other users are doing. The hope is that through this application, symptoms of anxiety and depression will decrease by people becoming more aware and accepting of themselves, more engaged with daily life, and better to others. | Elizabeth Cotter, School of Public Health
Meghan Cotter, School of Nursing Ni Yan, School of Information |
Healthy Baskets |
According to the Center for Disease Control, approximately only 30% of U.S. adults eat the recommended daily amount of fruit and vegetables. Among students and staff surveyed at the University of Michigan, many listed time constraints and commuting distance as common barriers to consuming the recommended amount of produce. Healthy Baskets aims to solve some of their problems. Their model was inspired by the Tom’s Shoes “Buy one, Give one” model. Healthy Baskets provides consumers with a fresh produce basket and for every basket purchased by a consumer, Healthy Baskets will provide an additional basket to an individual in need. | Adriana Diaz-Marinelarena, School of Public Health
Ileisha Sanders, School of Public Health Wendy Tay, College of Literature, Science and the Arts Mirella Villalpando, School of Public Health |
LiquidGoldConcept |
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that mothers exclusively breastfeed for the first six months of life. When compared to formula fed infants, breastfed babies have a reduced risk of developing asthma, obesity, lower respiratory infections, and type 2 diabetes later in life. When mothers return to work, they utilize breast pumps to be able to continue to provide their babies with breast milk. Unfortunately, traditional breast pumps do not effectively express breast milk and do not promote long-term breastfeeding behaviors. The breast pump designed by LiquidGoldConcept will be convenient, user-friendly, efficient, and will increase the duration and prevalence of breastfeeding through a novel technology (patent pending). | Ileisha Sanders, Schoo of Public Health
Samantha Koehler, Schoo of Public Health and School of Social Work Taichi Murata, School of Public Health and College of Engineering Anna Sadovnikova, School of Public Health and Center for Russian, Eastern European, Jeff Plott, College of Engineering |
My Waiting Room |
My Waiting Room is a unique and revolutionary mobile application that provides a personalized waiting room experience for family and friends during a patient’s surgical procedure. The app engages all audiences with a variety of entertainment options, keeps patients and loved-ones better informed about their clinical care, increases transparency in the health system, and provides comprehensive and accessible health education. By offering access to My Waiting Room, health care facilities can expect improved patient satisfaction, increased patient loyalty, increased patient adherence to care plans, and a reduction in post-operative complications and readmissions. My Waiting Room transports health care facilities into the future of patient experience! | Zubana Ali, School of Public Health
Nathan Falstad, Ross School of Business Molly Gordon, College of Literature, Science and the Arts Nikhi Kasihotla, School of Public Health Saurabh Kukreti, School of Public Health Juliana Stebbins, School of Public Health Tom Riley, School of Public Health |
Play it Forward |
Play it Forward is a mobile application that gives users the opportunity to do good for others while doing good for themselves. Users earn money for local nonprofits every time they log their workouts or complete special fitness challenges. This money goes directly to the nonprofit, to fund projects selected by users. In this way, users’ personal healthy habits go further, translating into a thriving, healthy community. It provides the motivation to take better care of ourselves, and the means to take better care of our neighbors. Play it Forward, aims to revolutionize the worlds of fitness and philanthropy. | Sarah Richardson, School of Public HealthRachel Chalat, School of Natural Resources & Environment and College of Literature, Science, and the ArtsRyan Gourley, School of Natural Resources & EnvironmentPascale Leroueil, Ross School of BusinessAysha Siddique, School of Information |
Qx |
As a patient, have you ever gone to a clinic visit and felt like you didn’t have a chance to get answers to the questions you really wanted to ask? Maybe you have had questions that you were unsure how to put into words? As a doctor have you ever felt like more of the 15 minutes with a patient could be spent in education and goal setting rather than information gathering? Qx is a product that enables an improved patient-clinician interaction by gathering a patient’s clinical history and questions for their clinician via text and email in the weeks leading up to a patient’s visit. By the day of their visit, the patient history is completed and a set of questions, the ones the patient wants answered, are provided to the clinician on one simple sheet of paper. | Nick Reid, School of Public Health and School of Information
Joe East, School of Public Health and College of Engineering Monica Guo, School of Public Health Ann Lokuta, School of Public Health Justin Mitchell, School of Public Health |
RIME |
Neonatal jaundice and lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) both impose a significant burden on the wellness of India’s impoverished. Rural Innovations in Medical Engineering (RIME) is working to combat these health disparities through the implementation of a combination pulse-oximeter and bilirubinometer, accompanied by a community health education plan. Equipped with their device, clinicans will be empowered to rapidly and noninvasively screen for both neonatal jaundice and LRTIs. With their education plan, RIME hopes to work along side local leaders to teach mothers on the importance of getting their newborn screened, as well as how to manage any post-diagnosis behavior. | Nicholas Cobane, College of Engineering
Zishaan Farooqui, School of Public Health Harish Kilaru, Ross School of Business Alex Blythe, Stamps School of Art & Design Dominic Calabrese, College of Engineering Hannah Cheriyan, College of Engineering Neha Chopra, College of Engineering Yooree Chung, College of Engineering Meg Erkkinen, College of Engineering Howard Hsu, College of Engineering Jennifer Joseph, College of Literature, Science and the Arts Santosh Mohan, College of Engineering Vedant Ram, College of Engineering Aditya Shankar, College of Engineering Sudhanva Sreesha, College of Engineering |
YES: Youth Empowerment Solutions |
YES: Youth Empowerment Solutions addresses youth violence within urban communities by involving community youth in a curriculum-based program. This curriculum engages participants to become active members of the community via the planning and implementation of community projects and thus aims to reduce youth violence within the community while also bringing awareness to positive community change. | Jody Cook, School of Public Health |
