Starting in Fall 2023 and culminating in Spring 2024, The Jacobs Institute for Innovation in Education at the University of San Diego launched the Jacobs Teen Innovation Challenge #JTIC24, our fifth annual event. This worldwide event supported educators and teenagers in developing social good solutions aligned to the UN Global Goals. The competition began with:

• 145+ educators
• 4700+ students
• 32 countries

Team: IlluminArt

IlluminArt is a project that came from a collaboration with the Helen Bernardy Center at Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego. Students there often have severe mobility or cognitive challenges and IlluminArt provides them a fun, interactive, visual and tactile experience. While visiting the Center, the teachers shared with us the need for interactive, adjustable, and easily sanitized toys for the Center’s students to use in their sensory room. We utilized an adaptive switch, programmed an LED matrix, 3D modeled and printed a plastic housing. We added convenient features for the teachers and students after a month of user testing in the hospital and are excited to see it used in the future!

Created by Allison and Carter, two 12th-graders from La Jolla Country Day School in San Diego, California, supported by educator Dan Lenzen.

The team and the educator have chosen to donate their $2,000 prize towards projects at LJCDS that benefit the Bernardy Center.

Team: Baño Seco

Our project wanted to solve the problem of the lack of access to adequate toilet facilities close to the Hospital Civil de Guadalajara, providing an affordable, durable, and environmentally friendly solution. Neither the relatives of the sick patients, our homeless neighbors nor passing migrants have access to a dignifying toilet. 

We designed a portable dry toilet, so it could be taken and used anywhere it is needed with no need for water or drainage connection. It had to be cheap, for it to be accessible to everyone; optimized through Arduino programming to dose the water substitute; ecological in a way that the human residues it collects will have no impact on the environment and sanitary so that such residues do not have any negative impact on human health either.

Created by four 12th-grade students from PrepaTec Guadalajara in Jalisco, Mexico, supported by educator Oscar David Rivera Garrido.

The team and the educator have chosen to use their $2,000 prize towards improving their prototype.

Team: Mechanical Advantage 

Mission to Mars is a cost-effective and scalable robotics platform that can be remotely accessed by students anywhere in the world at any time to learn programming skills. The project was motivated by the team’s ongoing efforts to teach STEM skills to Afghan girls in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Ukrainian refugee children in Warsaw, Poland, and underprivileged students from Mexico and South San Diego. The innovation includes teaching programming lessons live or prerecorded, with remote access to rovers built as part of the project, allowing students from anywhere in the world to perform programming tasks while watching the robots move in real-time. Mission to Mars creates an environment where the students learning are in the role of Mission Control and the rovers are in a remote location, such as Mars, with learning possibilities that stretch across the galaxy! 

The team has been teaching programming, CAD, and robot design to underserved and underrepresented students for the past 5 years. Mechanical Advantage is dedicated to teaching STEM skills to underprivileged children.

The team and the educator have chosen to donate their $500 prize to UNICEF.

Team: Hunger Halters

Hello, we are the Hunger Halters! We have created the Mighty Millets drink mix. Our aim is to help those in Gaza who are facing high levels of acute food insecurity – or IPC 3 (Crisis) and above. Our mighty millets drink mix is a powder made out of millets, and it provides essential nutrients and vital proteins. It’s cost-effective, easy to transport, and even easier to prepare, simply mix 5 tbsp of the powder we provide with water, and the power-packed drink will fuel your day!

The team and the educator have chosen to use their $500 prize to fund a project at their school.

Team: Rolling Towards Menstrual Equity

We developed an app focused on menstrual awareness and information, along with a mobile awareness unit that includes menstrual products and health services onsite to help reduce the number of women who experience Period Poverty and a lack of menstrual management.

Team: BugLOK

Living in Switzerland, we have always enjoyed great healthcare services. When traveling abroad to certain countries, we were inspired to create something which would enable people to access affordable, effective and eco-friendly goods. Our solution focuses on the problem of mosquito borne illnesses. Our project also looks to encourage responsible production and consumption, ensuring that the components used are accessible and low-impact.

BugLOK integrates long lasting, sustainable and environmentally friendly products, all packaged in repurposed coconut husks. The design includes a candle made from citronella, basil and lavender, an after bite gel made from one of our aloe vera plants, a citronella and lemongrass scented soap and mosquito repellent drops made with citronella, lemongrass essential oil mixed with water.”

The team and the educator have chosen to donate their $500 prize to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

Team: IlluminArt

IlluminArt is a project that came from a collaboration with the Helen Bernardy Center at Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego. Students there often have severe mobility or cognitive challenges and IlluminArt provides them a fun, interactive, visual and tactile experience. While visiting the Center, the teachers shared with us the need for interactive, adjustable, and easily sanitized toys for the Center’s students to use in their sensory room. We utilized an adaptive switch, programmed an LED matrix, 3D modeled and printed a plastic housing. We added convenient features for the teachers and students after a month of user testing in the hospital and are excited to see it used in the future!

Created by Allison and Carter, two 12th-graders from La Jolla Country Day School in San Diego, California, supported by educator Dan Lenzen.

The team and the educator have chosen to donate their $500 photonics innovation award to projects at the school that will benefit the Bernardy Center.

This award is sponsored by DRS Daylight Solutions.

• Cyclone Cell– Created by team Energy Benders from Mira Mesa High School in San Diego, California, supported by educator Meena Nandakumar (Global Goal 7 – Affordable and Clean Energy)
• LifyTap– Created by team LifyTap from Prepa Tec in Monterrey, Mexico, supported by educator Benjamín Sánchez Arenas (Global Goal 3 – Good Health and Well-Being)
• Sofia and Talia’s Learning Kits- Created by Education is Important: Sofia and Talia from Palmer Trinity School in Miami, Florida, supported by educator Susy Chu (Global Goal 4- Quality Education)
• Sunshine Speeder– Created by Clean Energy Crusaders from MOT Charter High School in Middletown, Delaware, supported by educator Brian Hurd (Global Goal 7 – Affordable and Clean Energy)
• The H2O Cleanser– Created by The H2O Cleanser from St. Peter Catholic High School in Ottawa, Ontario, supported by educator Justin Breton (Global Goal 6 – Clean Water and Sanitation)
• The Mountain Medics Project– Created by The Mountain Medics from Mt. Everest Academy in San Diego, California, supported by educator Eric Nielsen (Global Goal 3 – Good Health and Well-Being)
• T-Toby– Created by Lya Villa Leal, Lia Marianne Miranda Sotely, Carlos Marin Quiroga Jr., Josue Ortega Perez, Ivana Alexandria Castillo Lopez from the Oxford School of English in Mexico, supported by educator Maria Dolores Contretas (Global Goal 2 – Zero Hunger)
• Water2Go– Created by Clean Water from the Oxford School of English in Mexico, supported by educator David Olivares (Global Goal 6 – Clean Water and Sanitation)
• Weather the Storm- Created by team Weather the Storm from the Academy of the Sacred Heart in Grand Coteau, Louisiana, supported by educator Roxanne Guillory (Global Goal 11 – Sustainable Cities and Communities)
• Wind Turbine– Created by Treobytes Scholars Workshop, supported by educator George Waltz (Global Goal 7 – Affordable and Clean Energy)

Our work is supported by the generosity of Dr. Irwin and Mrs. Joan Jacobs. You can become a sponsor of our work too! Every gift we receive will support our effort to build a better world.