Seven teams competed in the Scripps Innovation Challenge on Monday, but the winner was “Team Du Monde,” who designed an app and wearable device to combat sexual assault
A team of four graduate students took home the first place prize of $10,000 Monday at the 2015 Scripps Innovation Challenge Pitch Day for a proposal that aims to prevent sexual assault on college campuses.
The proposed project, called “Safety on the Streets,” would include an app and a wristband device that would allow students to send and receive alerts about sexual assault and provide a reporting system for victims and witnesses.
Graduate students Sana Mahmud, Papa Ndiaye and Toluwani Adekunle, all studying international development studies at Ohio University, teamed up with mechanical engineering student Sanusi Shehu to form Team Du Monde.
Judges commended members of Team Du Monde for designing a wearable device and including educational components. The device also would include safe route suggestions for students walking on campus.
“It feels even better winning because this is a social issue that we’re all involved in because we all share this campus,” Ndiaye said. “To know that we’re able to bring something to the solution for an issue like sexual assault just makes it feel that much better.”
Scott Titsworth, dean of the Scripps College of Communication, presented the awards to students. Team Du Monde also won the competition’s diversity enhancement prize for an additional $5,000.
“Unlock the Talk,” designed by a team named The Globettes, aimed to “break the silence on sexual assault” and won the second place prize of $5,000.
“The ability to be entrepreneurial... is really at the heart of what higher education can be about and should be about,” Titsworth said.
The teams were charged with choosing one of the university’s challenges, including addressing sexual assault and encouraging student voting, and crafting a project that offered a solution to that challenge.
Five other teams won honorable mention prizes of $1,000 for their entries.
The Scripps Innovation Challenge, now in its third year, is a competition for OU students to develop innovation projects to meet various communication challenges. Seven teams competed in Monday’s event.
Student teams gave pitches to three judges: Hebah Abdalla, an executive producer at Al Jazeera, Mizell Stewart, vice president of content for E.W. Scripps Company’s Newspaper Division, and LaToya Peterson, deputy editor of at Fusion’s Voices section. William Crowder, an investor and director of DreamIt Ventures, also served as a judge by watching the event through a live stream.
The presentations were required to be fewer than five minutes and were followed by about 10 minutes of questions from the judges.
“If you’ve ever seen Shark Tank on TV, you will get what this is about,” said Andy Alexander, a Scripps Howard visiting professional who acted as host for the event.
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