The 2024-2025 CHALLENGE LINE UP
As we celebrate our 19th year, we’re excited to unveil a new opportunity: Currents of Change - The Water Challenge. This year, alongside our traditional four categories, you have the chance to dive into a critical issue—ensuring sustainable water access for all. Join us and make a difference!
NEW IN 2024-2025: Tackle the Global Water Crisis with an Innovation
This year, we introduce a new opportunity: Currents of Change – The Water Challenge. Tackle one of the world’s most pressing issues—securing safe, sustainable water for all. Use your creativity to develop solutions that ensure water equity and efficiency, shaping the future of communities around the globe.
Aerospace & Aviation
Fueled by curiosity and a drive for discovery, you can join the ranks of brave pioneers who have dedicated themselves to exploring our atmosphere and beyond. Today, with a surge in entrepreneurial spirit, aerospace and aviation organizations are pushing the boundaries of research, design, and technology to benefit humanity. By participating in this category, you'll follow in the footsteps of these trailblazers and launch groundbreaking innovations in science, engineering, and business. Together, let’s advance exploration and push the limits of what’s possible!
Examples include: avionics systems, engines, air-traffic control, airplanes, aerodynamics, human factors/cockpit design, and propulsion systems; Aerospace systems, processes, ISS upgrades, long distance space travel, space junk tracking and elimination, astronaut suit design and space habitats.
Cyber-Technology & Security
Technology connects us, creating pathways to independence and keeping us safe. Current challenges in the cyber-technology and security arena impact how computer-based equipment, information, networks, and services are protected from unauthorized access, change, or destruction. This category challenges you to develop products that safeguard these processes and protect humanity from unplanned events and natural disasters. Unleash your ingenuity and create powerful innovations in information technology and security for computing devices and networks. Be part of the tech revolution!
Examples include: artificial intelligence applications, network defense systems, counter intelligence technologies for government, data-driven energy management technologies, smart security technologies, and database models to track, predict, and categorize natural disasters.
Energy & Environment
If we want humanity to continue thriving on Earth, we must tackle challenges like energy storage, renewable resources, recycling, biodiversity, climate change, and sustainable land use. In the Energy and Environment category, you’ll study how we use natural resources and the impact of human activity on the planet to create thoughtful, environmentally-conscious designs. Be the new energy that transforms the planet we call home!
Examples include: energy storage, energy efficiency, renewable resources, sustainable land use, recycling solutions, environmental health, water resources, biodiversity, climate change, waste management, and clean technology innovations.
Health & Nutrition
Proper health and nutrition sustain life and transform bodies and minds. We depend on innovative technology to develop products and services that make this transformation possible. In the Health & Nutrition category, you’ll dive into medicine, the human body, and behavior and promote wellness to enhance our quality of life. Be the catalyst that ignites this mental and physical transformation!
Examples include: prosthetics, nutrition science, exercise science, medical technology, hunger solutions, mental health, assistive technology, healthcare services, healthcare safety, biomedical engineering, and food security.
NEW! The Water Challenge
Water covers nearly three-quarters of the Earth, but only about 3% is drinkable. With a quarter of the global population at risk of water shortages, sustainable management is crucial. Imagine a world where water is managed for health and development, ensuring equity, efficiency, and purity, and now make it happen with this new challenge!
What Are Water Equity, Efficiency, and Purity?
Water Equity: Access to safe, affordable water for all.
Water Efficiency: Smart use of resources to reduce waste.
Water Purity: Keeping water clean from contamination.
How Can You Help? Bring your ideas to solve these challenges. Think about:
Decentralized Water Treatment
Industrial Water Recycling
Smart Irrigation
Water Purification Technologies
The Water Challenge is brought to you by The Conrad Foundation via a generous gift from Intel.