Boxer Innovation Games Inspires Students to Develop Potential Solutions
Pacific University students are tackling real-world challenges through innovation.
Eighteen student teams took part in the Boxer Innovation Games on April 6. The Games were a combination of the Berglund Center's fourth annual Inspired Ideas Competition and the Center for a Sustainable Society's inaugural Imagining Sustainable Futures event.
Students from throughout Pacific’s undergraduate and graduate programs forth proposals to solve real-world challenges facing a number of professional fields as well as the physical environment.
A panel of judges consisting of Pacific administrators and local community leaders selected three of the team submissions as the winners of the Inspired Ideas Competition, and two more as the winners of the Sustainable Futures Competition. Students representing each of the five winning teams will serve as Berglund Fellows for the 2019-2020 academic year, and each team will receive $20,000 in funding to develop a product prototype during the year.
The winning teams and students of the 2019 Inspired Ideas Competition are:
• Team KVH, comprised of communication sciences and disorders students Luci Kennedy '20, Monica Vinson '18 and Annie Huynh '20, will work to develop a software application to diagnose autism spectrum disorder earlier, and subsequently improve the outcomes of those diagnosed with the condition.
• Team SimplifEye, consisting of College of Optometry students Griffin Christenson '21 and Mark Fischer '19, were chosen for their proposal to develop a low-cost retina imaging system for use in underdeveloped nations.
• Speech-language pathology student Karen Alberts Mossbarger '20, representing Team Speech Sounds, also received a Berglund fellowship to develop a biomechanical device to model and mimic speech anatomical movements.
The winning teams and students of the 2019 Sustainable Futures Competition are:
• Team Chicas del Sol, comprised of students Seema Khatcherian '21 (anthropology and applied sustainability), Karsen Buck '21 (applied sustainability), Johannah Johnston '21 (environmental biology) and Madison Peskind '21 (applied sustainability). Team Chicas del Sol will work to develop a sustainable do-it-yourself makeup and hygiene line using zero-waste practices for manufacturing, packaging and use.
• Team Free Food Resource App, consisting of students Teva Needleman '19 (applied sustainability), Chris Abosamra '20 (environmental biology) and Daniel Josefchak Jr. '21 (environmental biology), will try to develop a software application that uses geographic information system (GIS) overlay to help mobile device users identify free food resources in the local community.
The Berglund Center at Pacific University is an innovation center and incubator where innovative thinking, entrepreneurship and multidisciplinary teamwork comes together to launch new products, services and ideas within a vibrant learning community. Through its Inspired Ideas Competition, the Berglund Center has helped students develop products and services in a large number of areas and disciplines, ranging from medical and wellness products, apps, video games, consumer products, biometric devices, renewable energy and mobility products.
Pacific's Center for a Sustainable Society provides students a number of resources and a collaborative framework to advance the university's commitment to sustainability and further cultivate an engaged community dedicated to ethical, transdisciplinary solutions that advance the wellbeing of people and places, locally and across the world, now and in the future.