HC Launch, the student incubator through the Ciocca Center, hosted the fall Innovation Challenge on Saturday, November 9, 2019. Building off of last spring’s Innovation Challenge, this event brought students together to brainstorm problems centered around issues on campus at Holy Cross stemming from the Engage Summit and to ideate potential solutions to these problems.
The day started out in Stein Hall with welcoming remarks and a layout of the rules of the competition from Managing Directors Paul Wiley ‘20 and Tom Cremins ‘21. After the opening presentation, the three student teams were cut loose to utilize the entire campus and its community members in order to identify a problem and a feasible solution. Each group interviewed multiple members of the campus community, including both students and staff, in order to gain valuable data and statistics surrounding their problem. The whole group met back together for a lunch break, and then the teams were set free once again to create and finalize their pitches.
Once all of the teams were ready to present, the whole group joined up for the final pitches. The teams pitched to a panel of four judges, consisting of Wiley, Cremins, Tolu Akin ‘20 and Luke Knox ‘22. After, the judges got together and averaged their scores in order to determine the winner. Wiley and Cremins announced the winners….
- James Gould ‘20 and Chris Shakespeare ‘20 took home first place with Panacea, a product to create a more convenient and discreet option for Holy Cross students to get tested for sexually transmitted diseases and infections. Gould and Shakespeare received the first place prize of $1,000 to go toward the production and implementation of their product on campus.
- In second place was Robin Lu ‘22, Benny Chen ‘22 and Tae Wook Park ‘22 with HC Delivery, an on-campus delivery service run by students for use by students, staff and faculty on campus. HC Delivery received the second place prize of $500.
- In third place was John Bowen ‘22, Patrick Curley ‘21 and Colin McCloskey ‘22 with their pitch of a solution to the current allocation of on-campus parking spaces.
After the winners had been announced and the prizes awarded, the fall 2019 Innovation Challenge came to a close. This semester’s Innovation Challenge continued off of last year’s inaugural event with the mission of bringing students together to create positive change on campus. Another successful event. We hope to see all of you at our next Innovation Challenge! Stay tuned!— — —
Thank you to HC Launch and Tom Cremins ’21 for sharing this event recap.