Design Challenge

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Gel 2013 invites students and recent grads to participate in our Design Challenge.

Here is the question:

What is one way you would improve education, based on your own student experience?


Eligibility: The challenge is open to current undergraduate or graduate students, and recent graduates (less than five years out of school). We encourage teams to participate, but entries from individuals are also welcomed. High school students are welcome but all entrants must be at least 18 years old.

All entrants who are full-time students are invited to register for Gel 2013 with the student discount, though it is not necessary to attend Gel in order to participate in the Design Challenge.

Awards: The winning entry will be presented at Gel, and one member of the winning team will be awarded a non-transferrable ticket to Gel 2013. If the team member is able to attend Gel, he or she will be given a few minutes on-stage to present to the entire conference. Otherwise, Gel host Mark Hurst will show the winning entry from the stage. (If it turns out that the winner of the challenge has already bought a Gel ticket, we will refund the ticket price.)

Deliverable: Create a video, PDF, or slideshow (Keynote, PowerPoint) to describe your idea. Think about your own experience as a student and propose a change or innovation that would improve the educational experience for students who will come after you. This could be a specific product, service, app, class, building, or other innovation; it could be online or offline; mainly, be specific in your idea. Both text and visuals will be helpful in the entry.

How to Enter: Email a link to your entry (i.e., for videos, a link to the Youtube or Vimeo page; for documents, a download link) to geldesignchallenge@gmail.com by the deadline of Thursday, March 21, 2013 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time.

Judging criteria: All entries will be judged by the Gel team. Winners and runners-up will be chosen on the basis of creativity, clarity of communication, impact of the visuals and text in the entry, and effectiveness of the idea on improving the educational experience for students.

Originality: Entrants warrant that their submissions are original work, created for the Gel Design Challenge. Entries belong to the entrants; we will post links to the winner and runners-up on the Gel website.

Dates and deadlines below.

  • Thursday, March 21, 11:59pm:
    Entry deadline

    Email us a link to your entry by this date and time.

  • Thursday, April 4:
    Winner and runners-up announced

    The Gel team will announce the winning entry and up to 10 runners-up, all of which will be posted on the Gel conference website.

  • Thursday, April 18:
    Winning entry presented at Gel 2013

    The winning entry will be presented at Gel. If one team member is able to attend Gel on their winning comp pass, he or she will be given a few minutes on-stage to present to the entire conference. Otherwise, Gel host Mark Hurst will show the winning entry from the stage.

Full-time students: sign up for Gel 2013 on a student discount.