The Stanford Center on Longevity Design Challenge is a global competition that encourages students to design products and services to improve well-being across the lifespan. In its tenth year, the Challenge is focused on the optimization of health span – the period of life spent in good health, free from chronic diseases and disabilities.
LONGEVITY DESIGN CHALLENGE GOALS:
- Create well-designed, practical solutions that improve well-being across the lifespan
- Encourage a new generation of students to become knowledgeable about issues associated with long lives
- Provide promising designers with a path to drive change in the world
ABOUT THE 2022-23 DESIGN CHALLENGE THEME:
“Optimizing Health Span: Living Well at Every Age”
The near-doubling of human life spans throughout much of the world during the 20th century is one of the greatest achievements in human history. A key challenge now is to ensure that the quality of those added years keeps pace with dramatic increases in the length of life. We must develop new ways to align life spans with health spans, defined as the period people remain healthy, mobile, and mentally sharp, unimpeded by chronic pain, illness, or disability. The focus of the 10th annual Stanford Center on Longevity Design Challenge is to create solutions that optimize health spans and promote longevity.
SCL’s New Map of Life project identifies opportunities to improve health spans with interventions at all stages of life, from childhood to old age. For example, research in The New Map of Life shows that physical activity, quality sleep, and positive social connections, as well as access to nutritious food, green space, clean water, and unpolluted air all contribute to a person’s health span, including their mental health.
The 2023 Stanford Center on Longevity Design Challenge invites student designers to create solutions that contribute towards the optimization of health span at any age. We especially welcome designs that increase the health spans of people in disadvantaged circumstances, which may include poverty, food, housing, or climate insecurity.
Examples of designs include (but are not limited to) solutions that:
- Increase physical activity
- Improve diet
- Improve sleep
- Reduce chronic disease
- Improve mental health
- Enhance social connection
HOW TO PARTICIPATE
Register to participate and submit your entry here: https://designchallengestanford.skild.com/
Register to Participate
Register to participate here between September 12 – December 8, 2022. You may participate as an individual or as part of a team. Teams may have a maximum of 5 members. See the “Teams and eligibility” section of the FAQ below for more information about team rules. If you are registering as a team, the person who registers first will be designated the team leader. They can then add everyone else as team members.
Prepare your submission
You can view all the materials you will need to prepare in this preview of the entry form. Please see the “Submissions” sections of the FAQ below for more information about the entry form. If you still have questions, please email designchallenge@stanford.edu.
Submit your design
Once you have prepared your materials, log in and complete the entry form. The form will be open from September 12 until 11:59 PM Pacific time on December 8, 2022.
After the December 8 deadline, the judges will evaluate all submitted designs according to the judging criteria (see the Details section below for more information).
Finalists
Finalists will be announced on January 25, 2023. Finalists will be awarded $1,000 US and paired with an experienced mentor.
Finalists will compete in the final competition for $10,000 in April 2023. The finals are expected to be held in-person at Stanford University. Finalists are reimbursed (limited) travel costs. Each team will have 7 minutes to pitch their idea to the panel of judges. The judges will use the same criteria as for the initial submissions and will decide the top three winners on the same day as the pitches.
DETAILS
CHALLENGE TIMELINE
The challenge is organized into two phases that are synchronized with the academic year.
Phase I: September – December 2022
Phase I is the open call portion of the challenge. During this time, teams will learn about the topic and create their solution concept. The Challenge organizing team will be available during this time for questions. Solutions may be submitted at any time during this period, but no judging feedback will be available until January.
Judging Period: December 2022 – January 2023
During this period, our judging panel will select a small number of finalists. Finalists will be announced in late January.
Phase II: January 2022 – April 2023
During Phase II, finalists will be asked to further develop their idea and to prepare a presentation. Mentors from corporate partners and industry experts will be available during this period.
KEY DATES
- Kick-off: September 12, 2022
- Phase I submissions due: Thursday, December 8, 2022
- Finalists (5-8 teams) announced: Wednesday, January 25, 2023
- Finals: April 2023 (exact date TBA)
AWARDS
Top winners receive cash prizes of $10,000 (1st place), $5,000 (2nd place), $2,000 (3rd place).
Finalists receive a $1,000 cash prize and mentorship from industry experts and researchers.
ELIGIBILITY
The challenge is open to teams of 1-5 students enrolled during the 2022-2023 academic year, attending any accredited university or college globally. Each team must have at least one full-time student and if the team is selected as a Finalist, only students may present.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Any intellectual property developed by a team during participation in the Design Challenge will remain the property of the individual design team, or the team members’ universities or employers, as applicable. The Stanford Center on Longevity and Challenge sponsors reserve the right to publicize designs following submission. Teams interested in intellectual property protection should take any steps necessary to protect patentable inventions, copyrighted work or other intellectual property prior to submission. Team involvement with any of the Challenge sponsors is strictly voluntary. Agreements between teams and sponsors are beyond the reach of Stanford Center on Longevity or Stanford University, and should be arranged separately between the teams and sponsors.
JUDGING CRITERIA
The Challenge will be judged by experts in design and technology including carefully selected academics with expertise on the topic; executives from technology and consumer goods firms; venture capitalists; and senior representatives from related mission-driven organizations.
Judging Criteria
- 40% Impact – will the design improve long life outcomes?
- 30% Originality – has this idea been seen before? Is there something similar to it on the market?
- 20% Feasibility – will the design work? Can it be produced at scale?
- 10% Affordability – teams must identify their target population for the design. Would the cost of the design at scale make it a viable product for that population?
A separate score reflecting alignment of the design to the topic will be added as a weight to the overall score. For example, if a design were to score 90% on the judging criteria above but only 50% on alignment, the overall score would be 45% (.90 X .50).
FAQ https://longevity.stanford.edu/design-challenge/#faq
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Past Year Winners https://longevity.stanford.edu/design-challenge/2021-winners/
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