In November 2020, students from across the University of California system submitted a record number of innovative ideas to the UC Big Ideas Contest. All told, more than 900 graduate and undergraduate students, representing every UC campus, submitted 354 applications addressing a wide range of important social challenges including: emerging and neglected diseases, racial and social inequities, homelessness, environmental threats (earthquakes, climate change, pollution), educational access, food insecurity and more.
Over the course of this year’s Big ideas program, student teams participated in 2 rounds of reviews, numerous skill development workshops, networking and pitch events, a seven-week mentorship program and countless hours refining their social innovations.
Today we are excited to announce the 15 biggest “Big Ideas” in this year’s competition, recognized for their creativity, innovation and potential for social impact. These award winning teams have received prizes and the top six have been invited to the Big Ideas Grand Prize Pitch event on September 23 where they will vie for top honors and an additional $10,000 prize (open to the public, details forthcoming!)
The 2020-2021 Big Ideas program was made possible through the support of our amazing network of judges, mentors and the generosity of our sponsors including: The Andrew and Virginia Rudd Family Foundation, University of California Office of the President, Blum Center for Developing Economies, Berkeley Changemakers, CITRIS and the Banatao Institute, HCL Technologies, UC Berkeley Chief Technology Office, National Security Innovation Network (NSIN), UC Berkeley Division of Computing, Data Science, and Society, AMENA Center for Entrepreneurship and Development.
Big Ideas Award Winners & Grand Prize Finalists
Big Ideas Award Winners
Belonging: Protecting the Treasures and Dignity of the Homeless
UC Hastings, UC Berkeley, Academy of Art University
Zehra Jafri, Ram Bahdra, Bailey Maher, Kameelah Sims-Taylor, Anjali Vadhri,
Steven Balogh, Jagdeep Sekhon, Kyle Lanzer, Anahi Servin, Iveta Posledni
Belonging Box is solving the problem of city-mandated sweeps negatively affecting unhoused people. They offer a solution that helps both the city and unhoused individuals by offering a space for both sleep and storage. By using a scanning system and app, the city, unhoused individuals, and Belonging has a flow of communication that protects belongings from being lost. Their goal to keep streets clean while protecting and helping unhoused individuals.
Blackbook University
UC Berkeley
Ibrahim Balde, Chase Ali-Watkins, Nahom Solomon, Nicholas Brathwaite,
Farhiya Ali, Imran Sekelala, Farhiya Ali, Imran Sekalala
Blackbook addresses the institutional inequities in higher education and employment, especially for Black students. By creating a space for community, peer-to-peer connection, mentorship, and organization, Blackbook promotes an equitable and inclusive experience for Black students in their college journey. Blackbook is streamlining the career process for many Black students by catering to academic enrichment and professional development.
Recipient of the “CDSS Discovery Award”, sponsored by the Division of Computing, Data Science, and Society.
Catena Biosciences
UC Berkeley
Geo Guillen, Marco Lobba, Matt Francis
Catena has developed a novel platform to create cures for diseases previously thought incurable. Catena’s groundbreaking technology enables the attachment of proteins using only native amino acids, allowing for the rapid production of exciting new protein and cell-based therapies. We plan to utilize this technology to bring massive breakthroughs in autoimmune disorders, oncology, and vaccine development.
Recipient of the “Health Technologies Special Recognition Award,” sponsored by the UC Berkeley Health Technology Collaborative Laboratory.
Designing Shelters for Dignity
UC San Francisco
Laila Fozouni
Designing Shelters for Dignity has recognized a huge problem for emergency housing: homeless shelters are harmful to health, perpetuate trauma, and are stigmatizing. They have taken up the task of renovating and revamping existing homeless shelters to foster a clean, safe, and inclusive environment. Given the proven impact of design on wellbeing and behavior, Designing Shelters for Dignity’s innovation will improve long-term outcomes for individuals battling homelessness.
FireQuake
UC Berkeley, Buffalo University, Great Neck North High School
Joelle Siong Sin, Vera Cho, Claire Cho
Climate change has heightened natural disaster occurrence and intensity, displacing communities and exposing millions to detrimental health effects. Currently, 45 US states are at high risk of earthquakes, which don’t allow for advance warnings. Additionally, 2.2 million American homes at extreme risk of wildfire are in California. FireQuake takes the most comprehensive approach by addressing each stage in the disaster life-cycle: mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. By addressing both mental and practical aspects of disaster preparedness, FireQuake gives students a comprehensive approach to disaster response.
Green Steel Printing
UC San Diego
Olivia Dippo, Andrew Zhao
Steel forms the backbone of our modern world, with over 1.5 billion tons of steel produced globally every year. However, the production of iron and steel contributes over 7% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and it will be paramount to reduce those emissions to combat climate change. Green Steel Printing is a proprietary metal 3D printing technology that uses laser heating to directly manufacture steel objects without emitting any carbon dioxide. By fully converting iron-oxide ore to iron with green hydrogen, and then 3D printing steel parts in a continuous laser-powered process, Green Steel Printing has the potential to revolutionize the manufacturing of iron and steel parts into a clean, zero-emissions process.
Recipient of the “National Security Special Recognition Award”, sponsored by the National Security Innovation Network (NSIN).
KovaDx
UC Berkeley, Yale University
Yaw Ansong, Tim Adamson, Song Kim
Sickle Cell Disease is said to affect 30 million people worldwide, including 100,000 people in the United States. For most of the world, it is too expensive to diagnose, leading to unnecessary childhood deaths. Even in high-income countries, SCD is hard to monitor and even harder to treat. KovaDx provides an AI-based diagnostic and monitoring device for sickle cell and other hemolytic anemias combining 3D phase imaging with deep learning. The point-of-care device can be influential in low-resource areas by affordable and quick tests. Monitoring also aids in the process of treating and minimizing health care costs.
Recipient of the “CDSS Discovery Award”, sponsored by the Division of Computing, Data Science, and Society.
LacNation
UC Riverside
Jordan Smith, Trevor Smith
Donor human milk (DHM) is key to helping infants in neonatal intensive care units grow, fight infection, and thrive. Existing methods of DHM preparation struggle to create products of high nutritional value while remaining affordable for widespread use. LacNation brings a new pasteurization technique to the table that more selectively eliminates pathogens while sparing important nutrients for growth and infection prevention. Moreover, this system has the potential to reduce costs of safe DHM production and allow hospitals to expand coverage to more infants thereby.
Not the Police
UC Berkeley
Marcel Tan, Claire Liu
Data from Californian police departments reveal that up to 2 in 3 police dispatches stem from non-violent and non-criminal incidents. 9-1-1 calls for non-violent incidents in the U.S. have led to the brutal police killings of African Americans and at-risk citizens, most notably George Floyd, Rayshard Brooks, and Tanisha Anderson. Not the Police’s mission is to make calling an alternative first responder as easy as calling 9-1-1. They have built an AI chatbot that connects residents to suitable non-police services for their non-emergency — all within three taps of a button. They aim to reduce exposure to police for at-risk individuals, which can decrease occurrences of police violence and save lives.
NurLabs
UCLA
Sumita Jonak, Brian D’Souza, Deepa Nagar, Alan Schiaffino,
Aram Babikian, Abhinav Chandra
According to the National Cancer Institute, the cost of cancer care will reach $246B in 2030. NurLabs is transforming the diagnosis and treatment paradigm for cancer through a patented liquid biopsy platform, so we may treat cancer earlier, when survival rates are the greatest and treatment is the least expensive. Our innovation is the nexus of materials science and bioinformatics, bringing a fresh perspective to a $246B problem.
Plastic2Food
UCLA
George Shenusay, Jeremy Goldberg, Peibo Guo, Jordan Yanowitz, Johnathon Henderson,
Ethan Choi, Ikuko Nakano, Fischer Scherrod, Ella Winett
The lifespan of plastics can last up to 500 years, which poses a huge problem for the planet: is there a way for plastic to decompose faster? Plastic2Food Agriculture found a way to take the two most used plastics in the world and convert them into food. To optimize the degradation process, Plastic2Food focuses on the ability of mealworms and fungi to effectively decompose plastic into usable fertilizer. They plan to implement this large-scale level, starting at their campus.
ReFuel Technologies
UC Santa Cruz
Preet Kaur, Justin Redmond, Luis De La Palma, Vivian Banh
ReFuel Technologies is centered on producing sustainable chemicals, fuels, and textiles with recovered inputs from PET plastic waste. By generating valuable renewable chemicals and polymers for these markets, ReFuel Technologies will provide sustainable chemical alternatives for companies who have implemented environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies for their operations to address market demand while reducing a critical waste problem facing our society.
Secure-Swap (Beat Medical)
UC Davis
Kalie Marland, David Zalazar
Patients undergoing mechanical ventilation usually use an endotracheal (ET) holder that secures the face and contains a bite block to protect the patient’s mouth. This holder, however, causes discomfort, facial pressure sores, and risks spreading bacterial pneumonias. The Secure-Swap team is developing a device that customizes fit for patients to increase comfortability, maintains patency of the breathing tube, and prevents infection from the bite guard. Their ultimate aim is to help improve care for patients and prevent any complications that can come from traditional ET holders.
Sal-Patch: A Periodontal Microneedle Patch to Treat Periodontitis
UCLA
Xuexiang Zhang, Crystal Xiao, Mahdi Hasani
Periodontitis, impacting 50 percent of adults in the United States, is a chronic destructive inflammatory disease that affects the tooth-supporting tissues. The current treatments in the market mainly deal with bacteria elimination, and the regeneration of periodontal tissues remains a challenge. Sal-Patch offers a periodontal microarray patch that enhances the local effectiveness and sustainably delivers therapeutics for inhibiting the bacteria growth while modulating immune cell functions. Together, it both repairs the receding gum line and reverses bone degeneration. Periodontitis is especially prevalent in impoverished communities, and Sal-Patch wants to mitigate the issue with its low-cost, accessible dental patch.
Unicado
UC Santa Barbara
Max Diamond, Waldo Felix, Qusai Bhaijeewala, Wes Newbury
Plagues of purple sea urchins have eradicated 90% percent of Northern California’s kelp habitat, which is a key combatant of climate change. Ranching urchins for their prized roe is an effective removal solution. Unicado will convert this marine pest into a gourmet delicacy as a packaged food product, ranching sea urchins with an upcycled food waste feedstock. This venture can restore balance to California’s kelp forests through sustainable aquaculture production of a delicious and guilt-free uni product that’s carbon neutral. Consuming purple urchin creates a win-win scenario-good for both people and the environment.