Applications Invited for Stanford Longevity Design Challenge 2021

Follow us @ngobox

About the Organization:

The Center was founded in 2007 by two of the world’s leading authorities on longevity and aging. Laura Carstensen PhD, is the founding director. . Stanford Center on Longevity accelerates and implements scientific discoveries, technological advances, behavioral practices, and social norms so that century long lives are healthy and rewarding.

Stanford Longevity Design Challenge 2021

The Stanford Center on Longevity invites university students to design solutions for people of all ages. The Stanford Center on Longevity Design Challenge offers cash prizes and free entrepreneur mentorship in a competition open to all university students around the world who want to design products and services which optimize long life for us all. This year’s challenge focuses on building longevity solutions inspired by cultural changes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Theme: “After the Pandemic: Designing the Next Version of Our World”

Challenge Goals:

• Create well-designed, practical solutions that improve well-being across the lifespan
• Encourage a new generation of students to become knowledgeable about issues associated with long lives
• Provide promising designers with a path to drive change in the world

The COVID-19 pandemic is bringing into sharper focus the cultural norms that guide us through life and is providing insights about what a new future might look like. The suddenness of this transformation is allowing us to examine daily practices, social norms, and institutions from perspectives that are rarely possible. For a short window of time, before new routines and practices replace familiar old ones, we will see with greater clarity how our lives might be improved, how current shifts could become enduring changes, what new norms might emerge, and how a new future might look.

This year, they are challenging students to design solutions for this new post-pandemic future, keeping in mind both how these solutions affect people throughout the life span, and how they can be designed in ways that are accessible to all. They should take into account what we are learning during the pandemic and how it is changing our lives.

What kinds of designs are included?

Solutions for remote or virtual access will be included in the scope of the challenge, but we encourage participants to think more broadly. These products, programs, or services can be for work, school, healthcare, fitness, personal relationships, or any other aspect of life. Here are a few examples of questions raised by the pandemic that could be addressed:

• If remote work is to become more common, are there ways in which we can re-invigorate local community connections as people spend more time at home?
• How can more people of any age access quality education from anywhere?
• How can healthcare be administered equitably with limited resources?
• What are the best ways for different generations to connect when they live apart?
• How can we maintain our health and fitness without going to the gym?
• What have we learned from our change in activity about how we can reduce our impact on the environment, and how can we apply those lessons going forward?

Benefits

Finalists will receive:

• $1,000 USD to help with prototyping and finals preparation
• Mentorship from an experienced industry professional
• Paid travel to the Finals at Stanford University in April 2021, conditions permitting. (Each team selected for the finals will be eligible for limited funds to help facilitate participation in the finals. Reimbursement will be subject to Stanford University regulations on reimbursed travel.)

Winners will receive:

• 1st place: $10,000 USD
• 2nd place: $5,000 USD
• 3rd place: $2,000 USD

 Eligibilities

• Each team must consist of at least one full-time student from any accredited institution of higher education anywhere in the world (can be undergraduate or graduate)
• Teams may have a total of up to 5 members and may include non-students
• Only students are allowed to present at the Finals

Key Dates

• Kick-off: September 14, 2020
• Phase I submissions due: December 10, 2020
• Finalists (5-8 teams) announced: January 2021
• Finals: April 2021 (exact date TBA)

For more information please check the Link