The Stanford Center on Longevity Design Challenge and Aging 2.0 Collaborate to Reach Students Around the Globe

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The Stanford Center on Longevity (SCL) has reached an agreement to expand the global reach of the Center’s Design Challenge through Aging 2.0’s chapter network. The Challenge invites students at any accredited university in the world to learn about longevity issues and submit designs in competition for a $10,000 first prize and paid travel to Stanford for the Challenge Finals in April. In this, the fourth year of the Challenge, students will focus on “Innovating Aging in Place”.

Aging 2.0 is a global innovation platform on a mission to accelerate innovation to improve the lives of older adults around the world. Over the past 4 years, the organization has hosted more than 300 events around the world, cultivating a robust ecosystem of entrepreneurs, technologists, designers, investors, senior care providers and seniors themselves. In addition to its core team in San Francisco, Aging 2.0 has over 30 volunteer-run chapters across the U.S., Australia and Brazil, as well as through Europe and Asia.

During the months of August, September, and October, Aging 2.0 chapters will be encouraged to host a local event focused on getting students in their local geography engaged in the challenge. The Center on Longevity will provide the presentation materials and a small stipend to support meeting costs.

In its first three years, the Challenge has received entries from 23 countries, but the opportunity is still large. “Once students hear about the challenge, they usually want to get involved. Making them aware of the opportunity, however, can be a difficult problem”, said Ken Smith, who directs the challenge for SCL. “Working through Aging 2.0’s distributed chapter network should help bridge that gap.”

“We’re thrilled to be expanding our collaboration with the Stanford Center on Longevity, and their world-class Design Challenge”, noted Stephen Johnston, co-founder of Aging2.0.  “The Challenge gains local advocates in over 40 cities around the world, and our Chapters get an exciting and tangible way to engage with their local academic communities.”

The challenge submission platform is scheduled to open in early September and participants will have until December 7th to submit their designs.