The National Science Foundation (NSF) in partnership with the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) presents the 2016 Community College Innovation Challenge (CCIC).
Community colleges play an important role in workforce development in their states and local communities. Industry frequently looks to community colleges to provide an educated and technologically up-to-date workforce. The Community College Innovation Challenge furthers NSF and AACC's mission by enabling students to discover and demonstrate their capacity to use science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) to make a difference in the world, and to transfer knowledge into action.
For this challenge, contestant teams are required to submit written essays and videos. Each essay must define a problem, outline a solution, describe the solution's impact and benefits, and lastly, highlight how a community partner would be involved in the project.
Finalists will be invited to attend a four-day Innovation Boot Camp in Arlington, Va.--a professional development workshop on innovation, communication and entrepreneurship. The Innovation Boot Camp will provide professional development sessions on a variety of entrepreneurial skills relevant to innovation in both the private and public sectors. Sessions will include information applicable to commercializing ideas, using technology for social applications, communicating with stakeholders and refining a pitch, and creating a "next steps" strategy, among other topics. Among many different sessions, activities and exercises, teams will have the chance to display their innovation on Capitol Hill during a Hill Reception on one of the evenings during the week.
Registrations open today and submissions will close on February 15, 2016.
To learn more about this Skild powered challenge, click the image below.
