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Grainger Computing Innovation Prize

The world needs your creativity to solve health disparities, climate change, and outdated infrastructure.

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Take on Some of the World’s Most Challenging Problems

Illinois Tech students are called to create inventive technology solutions to the challenges that society faces today through the Grainger Computing Innovation Prize, established by the College of Computing in 2021. The aim of the competition is to build interdisciplinary teams of students to exhibit their computing skills in big data, artificial intelligence, and data science projects with the potential to positively impact society. Teams are encouraged to tackle projects in “Computing with Data and AI for Social Good” to address real-world problems in education, health, energy, public safety, transportation, economic development, sustainable smart infrastructure, climate change, and more. Entries must include an element of computing and demonstrate the potential impact of the work.

Illinois Tech is purpose-driven. We harness the collective power of difference to drive innovation for all. The Grainger Computing Innovation Prize reflects this purpose as we call all students to bring different ways of thinking to tackle some of the world's most critical challenges.

The 2024 competition targets innovation for societal good and is not a business plan competition. Successful entries must include some aspect of computing and demonstrate the work’s potential societal impact. We encourage this year’s teams to interface with new generative AI technologies to take their projects to the next level.

Grainger Computing Innovation Prize medals

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Use computing for good and tackle some of the world’s biggest challenges.

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The Competition

Eligibility 

Interdisciplinary solutions and creative thinking are key, but all entries must involve an element of computing.

Eligible students must be registered an undergraduate or master’s degree at Illinois Tech for the current semester. International students are eligible and welcomed to participate in this competition. 

The Grainger Computing Innovation Prize is a team-based competition, with each  two to five students from any area of study comprising a team. The recommended team size is four or five students. Each team is required to include at least one undergraduate or accelerated master's program student. Doctoral students are not eligible for the prize but are encouraged to participate as mentors.

Students may register as a team or as an individual. We try to help individual registrants form a team.

Competition Stages

The Grainger Computing Innovation Prize will go through three stages during the current fall semester:

  1. Round 1 September 16: teams will submit Concept Notes describing their ideas. If a team’s submission is selected, they will move on to the next round.
  2. Round 2 October 14: teams will be invited to develop a detailed prototype of their idea. If a team’s presentation is selected, they will move on to the finals.
  3. Finals November 7: teams will present their ideas in front of a top-tier panel of judges.

2023 Grainger Computing Innovation Prize Winners

Grainger Computing Innovation 1st Prize winners InfaSafe

1st Place: InfaSafe

InfaSafe's project, InfaSafe, presents a non-invasive baby monitoring system to combat Sudden Unexpected Infant Death (SUID). Integrating AI technologies like pose analysis and audio monitoring, it provides real-time insights into an infant's well-being. The system emphasizes local data processing and secure storage, prioritizing infant safety and privacy.

Grainger Computing Innovation 2nd Prize winners EI Breathe

2nd Place: EIBreathe

EIBreathe, focuses on diagnosing Exercise Induced Bronchoconstriction (EIB) in elite athletes. The team is developing a personalized machine learning-based screening method for early EIB detection, incorporating various athlete-specific parameters. This solution hopes to promote health management and foster broader awareness of EIB.

Grainger Computing Innovation 3rd Prize winners H2.0 Resilience

3rd Place: H2.0 Resilience

H2.0 Resilience's venture, Flood Mitigation, proposes a dynamic flood prediction model for urban areas. Utilizing satellite imagery and machine learning, the model identifies potential flood zones in cities. Advanced algorithms and diverse datasets enable accurate flood forecasts, assisting in urban planning and risk mitigation.