The in-person 2020 Stanford Center on Longevity Design Challenge have been cancelled due to COVID-19. As a result, we will be holding a “virtual” version of the Finals, with winning teams being selected on April 7, 2020, which was the original date for the in-person Finals.

While we cannot replace the experience of an in-person event, we have tried to make the approach as workable as possible for both the judges and the Finalists. The Finals will proceed as follows:

• Finalist teams have been asked to create seven-minute videos to serve as their presentation. These videos will be due by April 1^st.
• The videos will be posted to the Challenge website by April 2^nd.
• A blog page will be opened between April 2^nd and April 6^th for questions from judges. Finalists have been asked to monitor this page daily and answer questions as they arise.
• Judges will have until April 6^th to pre-score the Finalists and submit these scores to the Center on Longevity team.
• We will hold a judges’ call from 1:00-2:30 on April 7^th to discuss the Finalists and select first, second, and third place winners. Summaries of the pre-scoring will be distributed to judges ahead of the call.
• Finalists will be notified of the results by close of business on April 7^th.

Judges are asked to rate each design on a scale from 1-10 in five areas:

• Alignment with the topic “Reducing the Inequity Gap: Designing for Affordability.” This rating will be used to weight the final score resulting from the other three criteria.

The four “main” judging criteria are as follows:

• 40% – Potential for Impact – Would successful implementation of this design change the world for the better? If so, how much?
• 40% – Affordability for target market – teams must identify their target population for the design, as affordability means different things in different places.
• 20% – Feasibility – Will the design work? Can it be produced at scale?

How was the decision to cancel the Finals made?

Stanford has been regularly issuing travel advisories on the virus at https://healthalerts.stanford.edu/covid-19-information-and-resources/ .  When it became evident that the virus was spreading beyond China (already the location of two of our Finalist teams), we decided that the most responsible approach was not to expose the Finalists to the risk of global travel at this time.

Will prizes be awarded?

Yes. Our prizes are unchanged. At the conclusion of the judging, we will award the following prizes:

1^st Place: $10,000 USD
2^nd Place: $5,000 USD
3^rd Place: $2,000 USD

Why are you having teams submit video presentations instead of doing a live webinar?

There are multiple reasons for this. First, popular webinar platforms are not equally available in all of the participating countries. Second, time zone constraints are such that is impossible to schedule all of the Finalists simultaneously without some team presenting in the middle of the night, which not a fair situation.

Why are you scheduling a judges’ call?

While it impossible to replicate the atmosphere of the judging room, getting a dialogue going between judges has proven to be an important part of the final selection process.