Deadline: 11-Nov-21
Applications are now open for the Call for Code 2021 Education Innovation Case Competition, a competition that gives both non-technical and technical teams around the world an opportunity to devise innovative solutions that address the challenge of making quality education a right for all – not a privilege.
The competition theme is, “A future of education that ensures accessible and equitable quality education and promotes lifelong learning opportunities for all,” inspired by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4.
Your solution should address one of the diverse challenges aligned to this theme and demonstrate how technology can help communities in need around the world. While solution submissions do not need to include working code, you will need to describe the technologies required and how those technologies fit into the solution.
Design solutions that:
- Broaden educational opportunity for women, who continue to face steep structural and societal barriers
- Relieve the burden of educational inequality that falls disproportionally on under-served communities
- Democratize access to quality learning for all, in an increasingly digital world
Prize Information
- Grand Prize: $20,000 USD – Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) will invite students from the winning team to participate in their year-round program that supports the next generation in developing social impact projects to address pressing societal challenges. Winning team members will also receive an invitation to the CGI U 2022 virtual Annual Meeting hosted by President Bill Clinton and Chelsea Clinton, as well as access to mentoring, skills training, networking, leadership development, and professional growth opportunities provided by CGI U throughout the year. Each student from the winning team will be invited to apply to IBM job opportunities. IBM will consider each application, and will invite winning team members to interview for roles for which they qualify.
- Runner-up Prize: $10,000 USD – Each student from the Runner-up team will be invited to apply to IBM job opportunities. IBM will consider each application, and will invite those team members to interview for roles for which they qualify.
- 2nd Runner-up Prize: $5,000 USD – Each student from the 2nd Runner-up team will be invited to apply to IBM job opportunities. IBM will consider each application, and will invite those team members to interview for roles for which they qualify.
- Gamification prize winner: $2,000 USD prize pool – You can earn points by taking action on the event platform! Top 10 individual point earners will receive $200 USD.
Eligibility Criteria
This contest is void to residents of U.S. Embargoed Countries and is void wherever restricted by, without limitation, filing or registration requirements, or is otherwise prohibited or restricted by law. In addition, employees, employers, officers and directors of:
- IBM Group, including Red Hat
- government agencies, departments, branches, instrumentalities and public enterprises, whether regional, national or local
- any advertising and promotion agencies, and those individuals and entities involved in the preparation of materials for, administration, organization (including David Clark Cause) and/or execution of this event and/or this Contest (all collectively the “Promotion Entities”), and, and
- the immediate family members (defined as parents, children, siblings and spouse, including step and foster relations) regardless of where they reside, and/or individuals living in the same household (whether or not related) of any of the Promotion Entities are not eligible to participate in the Contest.
Judging Criteria
Submissions will be judged equally across four primary criteria, which evaluate whether the solution applies technology effectively to solve a real-world problem.
- Relevancy and impact: How relevant is the solution to the stated challenge? How effectively does the technical solution address the identified issue within the theme? How helpful or useful would the outcomes be to impacted communities? Can the solution scale over time to have a further reach across multiple user groups or geographies? Can success be measured?
- Design and feasibility: How good is the design, user experience, and ease of use of the solution? Were the identified issue, impacted users, and technology solution thoroughly researched, with the provided data or facts demonstrating the team’s understanding of the problem? Is the solution possible, or just nice in theory?
- Innovation and originality: Is the solution new and disruptive? How unique and innovative is the approach to solving an existing challenge through technology, including one or more IBM solutions? Is the solution differentiated from others already on the market?
- Compelling storytelling: How well did the submission materials articulate the problem, the target user(s) and their experience, and how the technological solution would address the problem? How relatable and engaging was the solution story?
For more information, visit https://callforcode.bemyapp.com/
