Do You Have an Idea for a Product or Service that:

Do You DARE to CARE?

If So, The Ideas to SERVE (I2S) Competition is for You! 

ATTEND THE 2010 I2S KICKOFF EVENT on WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 28. The LeCRAW AUDITORIUM, COLLEGE OF MANAGEMENT, 4:30. SPEAKERS, PRIZES, REFRESHMENTS, and HELPFUL COMPETITION INFORMATION.

The 2010 Ideas to SERVE Competition

The I2S is for current Georgia Tech students and recent alumni who have a very early stage product/serve idea or venture concept that is focused on creating a better world. All great ventures and organizations begin with great ideas. The I2S is a competition of ideas; where creativity, imagination, and technology are applied to:

• Solving community and social issues (for example reducing the effects of poverty, alleviating hunger, promoting physical and psychological health and wellness); and/or
• Sustaining our environment (for example improved water management, improved air and water quality, reduction of the rate of depletion of natural resources, developing alternate sources of energy).

As ideas eventually lead to organizations, to be sustainable, the organizations themselves must be able to generate sufficient income flows to provide returns for investors (for for-profits) as well as to sustain over time the mission of the organization (for for-profits as well as non-profits). Simply put, organizations today need to be focused on the triple bottom line of return on investment economically, environmentally, and socially. In the I2S Competition, teams develop an idea/concept, an initial business model, and a feasibility analysis. The idea must be based on either an innovative approach/technology to solving a social problem or uses technology to sustain the environment. Refer to 2009 I2S Finalists (below) for examples for the types of ideas that are important to this competition.

The I2S is one of three competitions at Georgia Tech that are intended to specifically encourage creativity in product design, the application of technology for new products and services, and technology entrepreneurship. The InVenture Prize (http://inventureprize.gatech.edu/) is an innovation competition for undergraduate students at Georgia Tech. Students who participate in the Inventure Competition are encouraged to enter the I2S if their product/service concept meets the I2S eligibility criteria. Also graduate students and certain alumni not eligible for InVenture are welcome to participate the I2S. The Georgia Tech Business Plan Competition (http://mgt.gatech.edu/fac_research/centers_initiatives/bpc/index.html) is intended for ideas that have advanced beyond the I2S/InVenture stage -- ideas that are business concepts that have developed to the point that full business plans can be prepared. Generally participants in the BPC have fully developed product concepts, market, operational, and financial strategies. Participants in InVenture or the I2S would be expected to "graduate up" to the BPC a year after competing in the InVenture/I2S competitions. The BPC is for technology ventures and unlike the I2S is not solely focused on social or environmental applications.

To participate in the I2S:

Teams must develop a brief executive summary of their idea, including its technological and "market" feasibility. The competition itself proceeds in two phases. The Preliminary Round will be a Poster Competition. The Final Round will be oral presentations. More details follow later on this page. The I2S is also supported by a series of two optional workshops. The purpose of the workshops are to help students get focused on developing ideas for "triple bottom line" organizations, as well as learning how to approximate the likely social impact or market potential to determine idea feasibility. Teams are not required to attend the workshops but the intent of the workshops is to be helpful and to advance student skills in early stage social and for profit entrepreneurial planning activities.

How the Competition Works

Competition Rounds

Team will participate in a Preliminary and Final Round of competition.

All accepted entries into the 2010 I2S will be invited to participate in a Poster Competition and elevator pitch competition on Thursday March 4, 2010. Teams will prepare a poster (can be stand poster board size, or trifold) and product prototypes (optional). Participants will be provided with an easel or wall space. The poster must illustrate and promotes the team's idea. Only one poster can be developed per team. Judges, who themselves are social entrepreneurs, and environmental sustainability researchers and advocates, will circulate throughout the reception and over the course of the evening will review each concept and discuss key points with team members. Teams members will not know in advance or during the reception the identity of any of the judges. At the conclusion of the poster competition up to 6 "finalists" teams will be selected to move forward to March 10, 2010 Finals.

Teams selected from the "Poster Competition" then participate on March 10 Finals in a presentation competition in front of judges and an audience of over 350 students, faculty and members of the community. At the Finals Event – Called Students That IMPACT, each team will have up to 3 minutes to present their idea to a panel of judges and the LeCraw audience. Judges and teams will also be given 2 minutes for a brief Q&A. Finalist teams are encouraged to bring posters, PowerPoint, prototypes or other demonstrations that can be used to illustrate their product or service concepts. To judges and the audience.

Both the Preliminary (Poster Competition) and Finals (Students that IMPACT) competitions panels of judges will access and evaluate each entry based on the likelihood that:

• The idea would contribute to a better world with the potential of creating economic value with the potential to reduce reducing environmental and social impacts
• Survive then thrive in financially driven organizations
• Earn the acceptance of producers of products, services, or technology applications and ultimately be adopted and implemented in these areas

One overall requirement of the I2S is that each participating team submit an executive summary of the idea. The executive summary is expected to be 3 to 5 pages in length and cover the following areas:

Social or Environmental Issue Problem
The team must clearly indicate the problem addressed by their solution, the effectiveness or inadequacies of current solutions (if any) and the significant of the issue (is this really a compelling social problem or environmental issue and why).

The Proposed Solution
Here the team describes the suggested product/service solution. Solutions may also include creative "business models" or innovative uses of existing as well as new technologies. For technology related solutions, the status of the technology development and intellectual property protections should be addressed.

Feasibility
In the final section of the executive summary, the team needs to lay out a path to "market" including key milestones, risks, and risk mitigation techniques. Also economic viability approximations in terms of revenue potential and likely significant investments should be included.

Eligibility:

Any current Georgia Tech student or alumni who was a student and graduated in either Spring 2009, Summer 2009 or Fall 2009 is eligible to compete. No full or part -time faculty member, instructor or staff will be eligible to compete. Faculty members, instructors, and staff however may serve as an advisor to a student or student team that is competing.
Participants in the 2010 InVenture Competition are also welcome to compete if their product idea is consistent with the social/environmental sustainability competition criteria. Interdisciplinary teams are encouraged but not required. A “team” may be comprised of only one individual.

2010 I2S Prizes

Winner - Social Entrepreneurship $1250; Runner-Up - Social Entrepreneurship $500

Winner - Sustainable Systems $1250; Runner-Up- Sustainable Systems $500. 

Peoples Choice Winner: $500
Selected by the Audience in the LeCraw Auditorium At the Finals Event.

The Lambda Sigma Honor Society Underclassman Team Award: $500
Awarded to the Outstanding Underclassman (Comprised entirely of Freshmen/Sophomores) Team

The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation Prize: $5000 (multiple prizes)
Awarded to the Team that develops an outstanding concept that address problems faced by low-income Georgians.

2010 I2S Calendar of Events

2010 I2S Sponsors

ILE -- Institute of Leadership and Entrepreneurship
Lambda Sigma Honor Society
MaRC Sustainable Design & Manufacturing
Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems
The Arthur Blank Family Foundation
The Georgia Tech College of Management

2009 I2S Winners

2009 I2S Finalist -- Summary Product and Service Descriptions

IBall is an energy-scavenging device (a soccer ball for example) that stores the energy generated from play and uses it to recharge personal electronics. This device is targeted towards reducing the power consumption of individuals while encouraging social interaction and activity. As the ball is rolled, kicked, or thrown, the repeated movement of the six magnets through the coils induces electrical energy that is stored in a super capacitor. This energy can then be discharged to personal devices via a USB plug on the ball.

The Revolver presents a new way of looking at decomposition, turning unstable natural cycles into a predictable schedule of organic fertilizer production. Revolver’s mission is to provide fast decomposition of organic materials to farmers in an effort to eliminate waste and supply fertilizer.

HydroCycle has developed a means to harness and utilize hydro energy in an effort to cut energy costs and help communities take a step closer towards becoming a "greener" community. HydroCycle uses dam style hydro-generators and municipal water lines from the city in order to produce energy, which will then be used in powering the lights for residential, commercial, and industrial buildings.

PowerWise is a very simple, programmable device which mounts next to the electric panel in the home and is programmed by the home (or business) owner to cycle off the breakers in the panel at pre-determined intervals.

ABC Lock is an automated bicycle-sharing program. The automated bike system uses a sophisticated lock that opens and locks through an RFID chip. Once the bicycle is unlocked the information is transmitted to a database to track where the bicycles are and when they are in use.

Time for Life. The majority of those infected with HIV/AIDS in third world countries cannot or do not have the means to tell time and therefore do not have the ability to take HIV/AIDS medication correctly or effectively. The Time-for-Life watch is a simple digital watch that displays symbols, coordinated with labeled packages of pills, so that HIV/AIDS patients can take complex medication. Using a universal language of symbols, patients regardless of age, education, or nationality, can take complex medication on time. For example, throughout the day the TFL watch will display a symbol at the appropriate time and the patient will take the medicine contained in the package with the appropriate symbol on the label.

Southeast Solar, Inc is a new venture introducing the Southeastern Region of the United States to residential renewable solar energy and the benefits of installing a cost saving, electricity producing, and aesthetically pleasing solar system to their current or new home. The product they offer is a solar conversion system that will take a traditional home that buys its power from the local power company and transform it to a potentially self-supporting power house.

Dr. JSays is based on a novel automated nutritional counseling service. The program is a free web-based service that tells users – for example students -what to eat from the campus dining hall menu in order to keep within their specific regimen. There commendations made by Dr. J Says are personalized to each student’s health and taste profiles and are the best possible combinations of healthy and sustainable foods available in a particular dining hall.

Community Revitalization through Homeownership plans to address the issue of community revitalization. Their mission is to empower families through homeownership and create a sustainable Atlanta community. Net Impact Revitalization will purchase blighted properties, refurbish them and sell them to local residents. In their renovation process, they plan not only to bring the property to code, but also to install certain green appliances and fixtures that will drive down the cost of ownership for the resident. This project’s focus is not only the turnaround of the property to be able to sell, but also to prepare the new resident for ownership including maintenance and renovation.

Catalage is a CO2 reduction technology. The process is a new algae-based carbon sequestration technique. Using a photo bioreactor system to grow algae at hydrocarbon-fired power plants, the flue gases will be rerouted through the photo bioreactor, where the algae will recycle the power plant’s emissions (largely comprised of carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides) and convert them to biomass. The alga biomass produced can then be sold, providing are liable source of secondary revenue to the power plants utilizing CATALGAE’s carbon sequestration technology. The goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel burning power plants, while producing a valuable commodity that power plants can market and sell.