Contact:
Lacey Graverson, Kauffman Foundation, LGraverson@kauffman.org, 816-932-1116
Joseph Hunter, Olin College, joseph.hunter@olin.edu, 781-292-2255
(KANSAS CITY, Mo.), Feb. 4, 2010 – The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation has awarded a grant to Olin College of Engineering to fund an award program highlighting outstanding student contributions to solving the major challenges facing the world today.
The "Extraordinary Stories Student Awards" will be given to students who have completed science and engineering projects that tie directly to the 14 Grand Challenges as outlined by the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) at a national summit in March 2009. The Grand Challenges are a grouping of critical problems in areas such as environment, energy, education and security that must be solved to ensure a sustainable future.
"By awarding students who create innovative ideas to solve world problems, we hope more young people will take on Grand Challenges," said Lesa Mitchell, vice president of advancing innovation at the Kauffman Foundation. "Sharing these creative ideas with the world also might inspire entrepreneurs to turn these innovations into the new business models of tomorrow."
Over the next few months, nominations will be solicited from students and recent graduates who have made special contributions toward one of the Grand Challenge problems or areas. Nominations may be in the form of an essay or a video, may come from anywhere in the United States and may be for an individual or group of students ranging from pre-college through graduate school and a few years beyond. The nomination should demonstrate how the work addresses a Grand Challenge problem or area and provide information about the educational context, formal or informal, that enabled or facilitated the work.
The stories collected through this process will be showcased on a blog and at a major summit to be held April 21, 2010, at Wellesley College. Co-sponsored by Olin, Wellesley and Babson College, the summit will bring together educators, students and leaders from business and government to explore new ways to educate the next generation of Grand Challenge leaders and to celebrate the efforts of young people working to solve these problems. The winners will be selected prior to the April meeting so that high production value videos of their stories can be produced. The actual awards will be given at a special dinner the evening of the April meeting.
U.S. Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra will lead a lineup of speakers at the conference. Learn more about the summit and the student awards program.
About Olin College
Opened in 2002 and located in the Boston suburb of Needham, Mass., Olin College is a four-year undergraduate engineering college with an enrollment of 330 students. Olin offers ABET-accredited Bachelor of Science degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Engineering with concentration options in Bioengineering, Computing, Materials Science, Systems or Individually Designed majors. Olin’s project-based curriculum blends engineering, liberal arts and entrepreneurship and incorporates a strong focus on design.
