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MEET 5 OF THE INSPIRATIONAL SPEAKERS YOU'LL HEAR AT SOLVE CHALLENGE FINALS
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CLAIRE CROWTHER | Senior Officer, Content, MIT Solve
Solve Challenge Finals 2019 (September 22 in New York City) will welcome 60 social entrepreneurs selected as finalists in our 2019 Global Challenges, as well as over 400 leaders in philanthropy, business, government, and academia.
After pitching their solutions to a panel of expert judges, the most promising of these 60 innovators will be selected to form the 2019 Solver Class and receive access to over $1.6 million in prize funding. Finalist pitches will be bookended by two thought-provoking plenary sessions, “Bridging the Innovation Gap” and “Inclusive Innovation and Entrepreneurship.”
We’ll livestream the plenary sessions and solution pitches on our website, Facebook, and Twitter and share live updates on social media throughout the day, so anyone around the world can tune in and join the conversation.
Curious about what to expect? Meet some of the inspiring speakers you’ll hear from this year, all changemakers leveraging their influence for the greater good.
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Anousheh Ansari, CEO of XPRIZE
After six months of preparation in 2006 that included Black Sea survival training and Russian language lessons, Anousheh Ansari set forth on an 11-day privately-funded space expedition. Fast-forwarding over a decade to 2018, Ansari helped launch an equally-ambitious effort: The Billion Dollar Fund for Women, a campaign that’s committed to investing $1 billion in women founders by 2020. At XPRIZE, Ansari seeks to fill the funding and innovation gap with competitions that spark solutions to challenges such as: increasing adult literacy, harvesting water from thin air, and accelerating seawater surface oil clean-up. We’re eager to hear Ansari’s insights on supporting innovation toward the UN SDGs.
M. Sanjayan, PhD, CEO, Conservation International
M. Sanjayan draws from his multifaceted skill set to enrich the public dialogue on conservation. Sanjayan has a strong foundation in academic research, but he’s also dabbled in branding and communications, written for the Huffington Post, hosted a slew of documentaries, and embarked on a press tour with Jane Goodall for Disneynature’s Monkey Kingdom. Through Conservation International, he empowers people to preserve their natural ecosystems—and if today’s solutions aren’t up to that mammoth task, we’ll have to start looking towards new technologies. Sanjayan will join Ansari in the opening plenary.
View more speakers
Join Us for Solve Challenge Finals
If you’re interested in attending this premier social impact event—and joining the Solve community to partner with innovators who are solving Global Challenges—find out how you can become a Member of Solve. Learn more about Solve Challenge Finals, September 22 in New York. |
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Refugee Health Workforce | Dr. Franklin Shaffer
Thousands of trained healthcare workers sit idly in refugee camps because they lack formal credentials. These credentials are often destroyed or left behind as refugees flee their home countries. Meanwhile, the shortage of health workers is projected to reach 12.9 million by 2035. Refugee Health Workforce enables refugees to practice by recertifying their healthcare credentials internationally. RHW also deploys blockchain technology to securely store professional identities and support the ongoing employability and mobility of refugee healthcare workers. Learn more
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“What I probably didn’t understand is that the ladder doesn’t end. At the top there’s always somebody investing in you and believing in you. Understanding how power works in your industry, understanding how money flows, and understanding the values of those who are investing in you is critical.” See more
—Neela Mongomery, CEO of Crate and Barrel, reflecting on advice that she would give to her younger self in a panel at Solve at MIT.
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| Investment in girls must begin early on. We need to “change and reframe the language that girls use about their own abilities,” says Camille Caron, who leads education and sustainability initiatives for HP’s 3D Print division. Adults can lead this shift by not comparing girls to boys in terms of skill sets—and by teaching boys to become girls’ allies. (MIT Solve)
| Only five percent of the world speaks English at home, but 50 percent of the web is in English, according to the World Wide Web Foundation. What needs to be done to bridge the internet's digital language divide? (WIRED) And check out MIT Solver StoryWeaver, which gives open access to digital storybooks in 200 languages for 2.5 million young learners.
| Wendy Schmidt is calling on innovators to dive into the ocean sector, where there’s potential for conservation and profit to work hand in hand. “Go out there, do your research, and figure out what the market looks like. See if you can accelerate our understanding of something as complex as the ocean, which has pretty much been under attack for the past 50 to 60 years.” (MIT Solve)
| Solve at Pine Ridge (October 4-6 on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota) will celebrate and uplift MIT Solve's 2019 Indigenous Communities Fellows, whose projects blend traditional knowledge with technology to create sustainable and prosperous livelihoods for Indigenous communities. (MIT Solve)
| “Ultimately, our challenge as a society isn’t about AI replacing jobs—it’s about people and skills. If we introduce new technology into the world but don’t equip our workforce with the necessary skills, we’re not living up to our obligation as responsible innovators,” says IBM CEO Ginni Rometty. (Fortune)
| “I just finished a story which is a murder mystery accidentally solved by a plastic filtration system designed to create artificial wetlands,” science fiction writer Elizabeth Bear told the audience at Solve at MIT. Read more about envisioning the future through science fiction. (MIT Solve)
| When social change requires behavioral change: leaders behind two social impact efforts in India discovered that before they could impact lives, they first had to shift mindsets. (Stanford Social Innovation Review)
| MIT Solver Code Nation has been named a partner of Stephen Curry and Ayesha Curry's new foundation. Code Nation will provide its tech skills development programs to tackle the education achievement gap in the Bay Area. (Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation)
| The Tiger Challenge, powered by MIT Solve, supports startups promoting economic and social prosperity in Bangladesh. International applicants who have entered or intend to enter the Bangladeshi market can apply by October 18. The Tiger IT Foundation is offering $2M in prize funding for selected winners. (MIT Solve)
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“The DFAT Indo-Pacific Prize has transformed our pilot project into a fully developed app that we’ll be able to scale-up to thousands of vulnerable children in Southeast Asia. This partnership represents a true investment and collaboration, and we see the difference that this makes.”
—Allison Sanders, Baan Dek Foundation, a 2017 Solver
To help current and future Solver teams, donate to MIT Solve.
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