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Harvard Innovation Labs announced 25 finalists of the President’s Innovation Challenge, a pitch competition that awards up to $75,000 to “outstanding” student or alumni ventures.
PIC finalist Jeph B. Acheampong, a student at the Graduate School of Education, started Blossom Academy to provide children in Ghana and Nigeria with data analysis and leadership skills. He applied to the challenge hoping to “scale our impact.”
“It was very much unexpected,” Acheampong said. “During the semifinalist overview via Zoom, they shared that you should pretend like you’re not going to win because it’s very competitive.”
“I was essentially hoping that it would work out, but I wouldn’t also be disappointed in case it didn’t go as planned,” he added.
Andrew D. Steen, a dual-degree student at Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School, and Kevin Hu, a student at the Graduate School of Design, created the online platform Laptis to match people struggling with substance abuse to appropriate treatment centers.
“We don’t want to make this about us,” Steen said. “We want to make this about the people that we’re aiming to serve.”
“The reason we’re doing Laptis is to change the world, not necessarily just to win competitions, although we realize that can help,” he added.
Harvard Dental School student and PIC finalist Eren A. Keles invented Keles Keyless Expander, a device with a built-in activation arm that expands the roof of the mouth to counteract crowded teeth. Keles said that the invention can help parents of special needs children because they no longer need a physical key to use an expander.
The participants of this challenge receive mentorship from the Innovation Lab throughout the process until the awards ceremony.
Ethan R. Pierce ’14 — founder of Adaptive Reader, a startup that creates innovative learning tools and customizable texts for all types of students — called the feedback process during the challenge “fantastic.”
“It was really helpful in terms of, how do we refine our story so that it not only works for the industry insiders that we talk to every day, but also to a broader range of investors, a broader range of potential partners, and even a sort of general audience?” he said.
In April, the finalists will pitch online to a panel of judges. The winners of the challenge will be announced during a ceremony in Klarman Hall at HBS on May 7th, where the finalists will present to a live global audience.
“This is truly a blessing,” Acheampong said. “It’s a big break for us at Blossom to use this accomplishment as a basis to really pull our credibility and allow us to be able to expand.”
