Youth Venture

Teenage inventors solving real problems concerning food, water, sanitation, energy, shelter for the 90% of the world that survives on $1 a day.

What makes Inventors Without Borders® (IWB) compelling:
1. In developed countries, teenagers have plenty of money, time, and intelligence, but limited opportunities to make substantive impact on the world.
2. 90% of the world lives on $1 a day.
3. Elaborate engineering competitions, such as BEST and FIRST Robotics challenge teens to
consume enormous resources to construct robots to solve contrived missions (e.g. folding laundry) which have no direct impact on society.
4. Teenagers will face problems more complex and daunting than has ever existed in history and thus need advanced skills sooner than ever.
IWB links these four realities by hosting competitions, challenging teams to create mechanical inventions (e.g. family-sized water desalinator) to address problems in developing countries (the other 90%) concerning food, water, sanitation, energy, and shelter.
We identify real-world challenges from a variety of sources such as Rotary International and Engineers-without-Borders and structure them into exciting competitions where inventions are judged using numerous criteria (e.g. watts produced/kilogram weight, watts produced/$ cost-to-build). Teams are also challenged to address business, economic and social-political dimensions (e.g. who owns the invention in a community, how to finance). Mentors will coach IWB teams on engineering, business, and social entrepreneurship.
Competition winners will be recognized and rewarded through a variety of means. We hope to secure funding to enable the winners to install their invention in an impoverished community of their choice. The ultimate reward for them is seeing their invention lifting people out of poverty.