Isolation Innovation Challenge

Spotlighting Innovation in the era of COVID-19 (April 2020)

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$500 Grand Pize Winner: Aeris

Antimicrobial copper phone cases for the post-COVID world. From the Founders: "Aeris designs products that protect people and their devices. We are a team of Vanderbilt students who were confronted firsthand with coronavirus and its impact. Privileged with an abundance of time, we sought to leverage that to make a difference. After discovering the antimicrobial power of copper and its proven success in medical environments, we knew we were onto something. The answer came through the realization that phones are universal high-touch, high-contamination surfaces that are inextricably tied to the spread of the virus. In order to make sure our heroes are protected, we are donating one case for every case sold to frontline healthcare workers who will benefit most from the proximity of copper surfaces." Learn more at aeris.one.

Thanks to all our submissions!

Mental Health App Rater (apps.digitalpsych.org): Currently, there is an increasing need to provide mental health resources to those that are isolated at home as a result of Covid-19. As many people seek shelter and refuge in their homes, and more physicians are practicing telehealth, it is more imminent than ever to understand the space of mental health technology and evaluate the efficacy of these various apps. Thus far, I have evaluated the top 50 bipolar-focused apps on the Apple and Google Play stores, and compiled them into a beta version of a database. This project has been conducted in collaboration with the Division of Digital Psychiatry at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
Novel Hand (novelhand.com): A project exploring the best solutions to global humanitarian issues. At our website, novelhand.com, we host a blog to share what we’re learning. We also have a podcast available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Novel Hand’s goal is to educate and engage our generation about social impact. We believe that our generation is excited and passionate about social issues, but we acknowledge that it can be difficult to find ways to actually make an impact. This is especially true during the current global pandemic. Novel Hand is bridging the gap between passion and need to create impact both locally and globally. Our team consists of seven women, all college students passionate about social issues. We’re currently exploring topics like justice, the environment, inequality, and social enterprise. We hope to expand into covering corporate social responsibility and ethical fashion.
Memory Mountains: A comprehensive study organization system. Higher level concepts will have flashcards nested beneath them as sub-concepts, components, types, examples, processes, etc. Each of these can have their own nested flashcards, which can also have their own nested flashcards… Students can create many decks of flashcards that each corresponds with a subject area. Additional cards can be added to each deck to expand them as needed. Then, students can study either by navigating the flashcard hierarchy card-by-card in an exploratory mode or by studying many overlapping clusters of cards as sets. Through these study techniques provided by the hierarchical base structure, the student can build knowledge that exceeds simple memorization and is better equipped to engage questions that require critical thinking. All benefits of spaced repetition and active recall that existing products boast are maintained and improved upon to enable students’ synthesis of complex information.
The Comfort Closet (thecomfortcloset.com): We are creating an E-fashion shopping app designed for the modern era and creating a platform where any brand can sell clothing all in one place. Just like how Amazon replaced retailers like Walmart, we want to replace clothing malls. We launched our own internal brand to learn how to actually sell clothing online, and to fund our living expenses while we are developing the tech and infrastructure for the app/high level goal. Our first brand to test out our business model is live right now.
Shades: An application for applying makeup/shading in image post-processing. Currently, a user can upload a photo, choose a color, and choose where on their face they want it to be applied and the MVP applies it.
Originus (originus.substack.com): Newsletter that summarises influential books and essays that changed the world. But we retell them through stories.
Equity Transit: An educational/advocacy rideshare startup that primarily focuses on providing quick and affordable transportation solutions for the people that need it most. Our current goal is focusing on addressing Nashville’s transportation inequity starting with Vanderbilt. The venture first began when I was homeless in the summer of 2019 taking public transit to reach my workplace that was 6.6 miles away. Baffled that the 15-minute car ride took 1-2 hours by bus and $60 for Lyft, I realized that there had to be a better way. Equity Transit uses a three-pronged approach: smart mapping, larger format rideshare and the helping hand pledge to make public transit more affordable and efficient.
Boba-Making Robot (dotdotboba.com): Combining our love for boba tea, robotics, and business, we bring you the automatic boba robot! This robot uses your phone to dispense perfect cups of boba tea! Using pumps, half-bridge circuits, and Bluetooth Low-Energy, you can tell your phone what proportions of milk and sugar you want in your tea, as well as total volume, and the pumps instantly dispense the precise amount of tea into your cup. This product has the potential to be a massive hit with younger customers, especially on campus. Our plan is to further develop this robot to market our tea to students on university campuses across Nashville while marketing our online catering service using our website.
Loungewear Idea: Loungewear doesn’t have to look lazy. Loungewear doesn’t have to be seasonal. Loungewear should not have to restrict movement. Stretchy, sleek, soft. Breezy, comfortable, easy. Lounge dresses made for action. Keep cool, feel comfortable. My mother isn’t one to lay in bed all day. She moves around. A lot. And with California’s summer heat, it gets pretty warm really quickly if you’re like my mom and move around the house. She says, while sweating in her cotton sweatpants, “women my age don’t wear shorts” Sweats are too hot for the summer and the rare lounge dresses she owns limit her movement. After conducting market research with my friend’s middle-aged moms, many reported feeling ‘lazy’, ‘ugly’, or ‘yucky’ in their current work-from-home sweatpants + t-shirt outfit. Kiki designs are timeless, practical, and for everyday wear. I want to help women maintain their confidence and mobility while they work, cook, workout, dance, etc. at home. Each dress is designed based on the interviews with a specific user, an extreme user.
Joop: A social enterprise aimed to redefine the outdated uniform buying culture in both conventional B2B and B2C channels. After speaking with potential customers, we came to a few realizations. First, business craves simplicity and personalization when dressing their employees in affordable, durable, and comfortable uniforms. Second, individuals crave variability and sustainability when deciding what to wear. As a result, we value ourselves as a one-stop-shop providing comfortable articles of clothing that fight costs and minimize the global carbon footprint. By producing both cost-friendly, comfortable, sustainable, and space-saving reversible clothing tailored to both unfirm wearing organizations and individuals, we differentiate ourselves from the competitive landscape. By leveraging the benefits of our hemp material (low environmental impact, antimicrobial properties, durable nature, etc.) we will develop lasting partnerships with both individuals and organizations to expand bulk order purchases by means of our customized website. With a $500 million capturable segment and the potential to limit 910 pounds of C02, 5, 340 lbs of water savings, and 1.2 lbs of waste savings per sweatshirt sold we strongly believe our business can not only become financially viable but truly create impact for our world on a global sustainability scale.
Autonomous Flying Car: We are designing an autonomous flying car. Our team has a lot of experience designing quadcopters and drivable robots and we decided that we could make an incredibly versatile combination that traverses all terrains. The flying car is not human-sized (unfortunately), but it is about one square foot in size. It can currently be remote controlled and we are developing fully autonomous control using deep learning. Imagine the car detecting an obstacle in its path, flying over it, and continuing driving. We have completed three design iterations. The first prototype focused on designing the car suspension and steering system without any concern for overall size or the quadcopter. We attached this prototype to a separate quadcopter and performed a test flight. The second prototype focused on minimizing the electronics space and overall size, as well as refining the suspension and steering systems. The third prototype includes the quadcopter arms. The final aspect of this project is a novel flight controller we are developing using deep reinforcement learning. With reinforcement learning, we can train a simulated drone to fly in a simulated flight environment. We can then use this trained model to autonomously control our real flying car.