About the Competition
The Entrepreneurial Impact Competition provides students with a hands-on opportunity to apply their civil and environmental engineering knowledge outside the classroom by creating innovative concepts to improve the human condition—and potentially win a $5,000 prize.
Established in 2021, the competition is open to individuals or teams of students at both the undergraduate and graduate level who compete for a chance to win by conceptualizing entrepreneurial ventures that may help fellow students at Georgia Tech, create positive change for the local Atlanta community or impact society more broadly.
After assessing all submissions, a panel of judges will select the finalists to participate in a live competition. During the final competition, each team or individual will present their idea to the panel of judges, who will deliberate and select the top two proposals to win the Higginbotham Entrepreneurship Award and the Zeitlin Innovation Award.
About the Prizes
The Zeitlin Innovation Award rewards individuals and teams for their creativity and innovation, emphasizing the potential of their projects and ideas to improve the human condition. The winner of this award will be recognized for the merits of their concept at any stage of development.
The Higginbotham Entrepreneurship Award rewards individuals and teams for innovative ideas and recognizes the relative maturity of their efforts. Winners will have identified and tailored their concept to specific end-users with an emphasis on bringing their concept to market.
Judging Criteria
Each finalist will give a five-minute verbal pitch of their project to the expert judges and a live audience, followed by up to 10 minutes of Q&A. Each individual or group will be allowed up to two slides to effectively illustrate their proposal. The presentations will be evaluated on the criteria outlined below:
Zeitlin innovation Award: demonstrates innovation at any stage of development
Innovation
a. New concept or enhancement to existing system?
b. Underlying science or engineering solid?
c. Likely societal impact – resilience and/or saving lives?
d. Originality and simplicity of idea?
e. Contribution to UN Sustainable Development goals?
Value Proposition/Impact
a. Potential demand?
b. Advantages over existing approaches identified?
c. What human condition improved?
d. Equity considerations? Affordability for all populations?
Communication
a. Clear articulation of problem?
b. Clear description of solution?
c. Effective delivery?
d. Effective use of slides?
Higginbotham Entrepreneurial Award: demonstrates maturity of
entrepreneurial efforts
Value Proposition/Impact
a. Potential demand?
b. Advantages over existing approaches identified?
c. Quality of financial analysis of innovation?
d. Likely societal impact – resilience and/or saving lives?
e. Participation in I-Corps or similar programs?
Communication
a. Clear description of artifact?
b. Clearly articulated business model?
c. Effective delivery?
d. Effective use of slides?
Probability of Being Successful Endeavor
a. Invention disclosure filed?
b. Provisional or utility patent filed?
c. Licensing potential?
d. Startup company established?
e. Efforts and/or success to secure initial investment?