The Innovation Challenge, organized by Dr. Jing Betty Feng, is an official applied learning workshop that allows students of different majors to come together to solve a pressing issue. Thus, this challenge reinforces that learning through doing, can provide additional value. Through this event, the students had the opportunity to collaborate and create ideas that showcase each team member’s expertise.
The 2nd annual Innovation Challenge featured a current topic focused on the challenges of climate change. The students were presented with this problem: With the threat of more frequent and stronger storms and rising water levels due to climate change, how would your venture promote the use of affordable distributed energy resources (DER) on Long Island and beyond, while making residents more resilient to storms and flooding? Distributed Energy Resources or (DER) can involve solar panels, combined heat and power plants, energy storage, and small natural gas-fueled generators to name a few.
The teams were given three hours to brainstorm and develop their solutions into a five minute pitch. The panel of judges featured executives from PSEG LI, directors from FSC Applied Learning and CSTEP, as well as the previous winner of the Innovation Challenge Orville Davison and Dr. Gerrit Wolf, a professor of Innovation at Stony Brook University.
In recent years, climate change has become more and more prevalent in our daily lives. As seasonal weather patterns change and flooding and storms become more frequent, the impact of these changes and events can disrupt our local society and may be both emotionally and financially costly. The student teams were asked to develop solutions that would lower the costs to the local community from these weather related disruptions.
The winning team, “DER Insurance” presented a business model to the judges that supported an insurance and service-based venture that would provide aid during wide ranging power outages. While this idea included a partial solution to the emotional concern, providing insurance to impart a layer of emotional security, it also served as a solution to the physical damages that a storm may have on a city. The Judges were impressed by their venture and awarded DER Insurance the first-place prize of $1,000.
The Innovation Challenge continues to be a good starting point for students to cultivate their ideas and to brainstorm solutions to a myriad of social and business problems. We continue to receive great feedback about the Innovations Challenge from our student participants as it enriches the learning experience of our campus.
