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Making Room for Innovation!

When it comes to innovation, collaboration is where the magic resides.  Facilitating collaboration is the gold key that Innovate-A-thon has captured. 



Nonprofit Innovate-A-thon (IAT) exists to bring together university students, industry, entrepreneurs, and civic leaders to solve problems of society, environment and economy.  In the spirit of true collaboration, IAT wanted to ensure that students from any field of study and from any university can participate in targeted innovation projects.


That can be a tall order—but two key tech platforms have helped to unleash that purpose and remove daunting challenges of access and robust collaboration—making “room” for collaboration:


Handshake:  The industry standard for connecting university students to career opportunities.  


  • IAT is able to post challenges on Handshake in universities across the country.  Students apply and can participate from anywhere!  “It is amazing to have students from different backgrounds, perspectives, geographies, and cultures come around the table to look at a problem and design an effective solution.  This is how it works in the real world!  It is a powerful experience for students and contributes to advancing an innovation workforce. The fact that each student receives a modest scholarship is a bonus!”  Paul Efron, founding philanthropist. 


Remo:  Creates an engaging environment for collaboration that goes far beyond video call technologies (see image above)


  • As IAT brings together students from any geography, members of industry, subject matter experts, and innovation mentors, Remo is a platform that emulates in person work groups and tables—allowing full group engagement, isolate team specific engagement, ability to record and share ideas, and for mentors and others to move from group to group—and lock groups when appropriate to protect innovation.  


How does Innovate-A-thon work?

Students participate in teams in two-week, innovation “sprints” on a given topic, and receive a modest scholarship. Each team is guided by IAT experts and subject matter experts throughout the process. Progress made during one sprint can inform and enhance future sprints, all aimed at advancing the technology readiness level (TRL) of the innovation topic. 

Innovate-A-thons address four key areas of innovation: IdentifyIdeateImproveImplement—resulting in something new, better, and ready to change lives. Students engage in the process, make important contributions to real change and engage directly with industry, providing access to significant career opportunities. Theme solutions can span technology, application, process, or service. 

Prior IATs include One Leg at a Time, through which students created real world solutions for above-the-knee prosthetics for developing countries—where material and financial resources are limited, but demand is high. This topic has resulted in the development of not just the innovation itself, but now the (in the current sprint) design of “kits” to facilitate widespread use among the millions of users in need of life changing solutions, by industry partners on an open innovation basis. 

Ed2S is a nonprofit organization, supported entirely through philanthropy, grants, and sponsorships. All contributions go directly to student scholarships, materials, and direct operation costs. Universities incur no expense for their students’ participation in Innovate-A-thons. 

DON’T FORGET TO VOTE FOR INNOVATION: Learn more and vote here

Contact Us: 

  • Students interested in participating in an Innovate-A-thon: steven@Ed2S.org

  • Sponsors/Donors looking to financially support an Innovate-A-thon: sherry@Ed2S.org.

  • University programs/faculty wanting to learn more about Innovate-A-thons for students: sherry@Ed2S.org

  • Companies/Organizations interested in supporting a specific IAT theme: steven@Ed2S.org

  • For more information about Innovate-A-thons, click here or visit www.IAT1.org

  • Media inquiries: Sherry Hoskinson at sherry@Ed2S.org

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