Keysight announces winners of the Innovation Challenge
The six finalist teams presented their innovations on the 29th October 2022 to a panel of esteemed judges in Santa Rosa, Calif.
“It was fascinating to see the wide range of innovative solutions each student team created when posed the same challenge: to design an IoT device that will help the world reach net zero,” said Jeff Harris, Vice President of Portfolio and Corporate Marketing at Keysight, who also served as a judge and co-sponsor of the Keysight Innovation Challenge. “Each team looked at the question from a different angle and formed a unique solution. I’m excited for the future when we see this level of innovation and enthusiasm from our next generation of engineers.”
“We added another layer of criteria to this year’s challenge, requiring that all teams were woman-led and had at least equal representation of women to men,” said Renee Morad, Innovation Challenge program lead. “It was inspiring to see such diversity on the stage and to shine a spotlight on today’s women in STEM who are leading their teams and leading the way for future generations of innovators.”
After an impressive set of student presentations the Innovation Challenge awards were presented to:
First Place –$30,000 in cash to the design team and $10,000 of Keysight test equipment to their university:
“Our team learned and experienced more from this project than anything else we’ve done before,” said Chloe Rubinowicz, lead of the Illinois Institute of Technology team. “This has served as a pivotal moment for us, learning to work with a team to develop an idea and actualise it. Winning this competition has been surreal, and we’re so excited to see where our team goes from here.”
Second Place – $25,000 in cash to the design team and $10,000 of Keysight test equipment to their university:
Third Place – $20,000 in cash to the design team and $10,000 of Keysight test equipment to their university:
The world-class panel of judges for the 2022 Innovation Challenge event included:
“The innovative projects, ideas, and solutions of each participant demonstrates the commitment of the younger generation to tackle environmental issues,” said Juan Pablo Celis Garcia, of UNEP, who served as a judge. “Their creativity and passion for solving issues of climate change, nature loss, and pollution is truly inspiring.”
The Keysight Innovation Challenge is a design competition challenging graduate and undergraduate engineering and computer science students to conceptualise an Internet of Things (IoT) device or network of devices that will provide carbon neutrality monitoring at the community or corporate level. The contest supported Keysight’s goal to achieve carbon neutrality within its Corporate Social Responsibility policies. It aimed to inspire innovation to help the world reach net zero by 2050 and required each team to be woman-led to encourage gender diversity in STEM.
The competition attracted 52 entries from around the world, with each entry scored by a panel of eight semi-final judges on metrics such as sensor effectiveness, AI capabilities, and cybersecurity resilience, with device prototypes evaluated by Keysight’s IoT Security Assessment software. The general public also played a role in judging by voting for their favorite design entries. These votes contributed to 10% of each entrant’s overall score.