The Hult Prize Competition has announced its top five finalists after narrowing down over 20,000 entries aimed to find solutions to issues surrounding early childhood education in urban slums. Though only one team will be awarded $1M in start-up funding, all finalists will receive a one-year membership into the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) and spend the summer as a member of the Hult Prize Accelerator.
To serve as a ‘wildcard round’, a sixth finalist will be chosen in May from the Hult Prize Online Round organized in collaboration with Indiegogo – the world’s largest crowd funding company. This online competition will give participants who were not regional winners a second chance to become a finalist.
The five finalists chosen from 50-60 presentations given at each of five regional competitions in San Francisco, Boston, London, Dubai and Shanghai are:
San Francisco: Team Athollo from the University of Tampa plan to provide an education-based loyalty program to mobile carriers by awarding caregivers free minutes and texts for being home visitors and using the Athollo curriculum.
Boston: Team Educuento from ESADE is working to ‘bridge the word gap’ amongst children in poverty by providing a radio show as an interactive media solution. By delivering parenting advice via SMS and broadcasting engaging stories, Team Educuento hopes to enhance the development of children through interaction.
London: Team Libromat from Oxford University is merging the library and the laundromat into community hubs encouraging children to share books. In addition to addressing early education, the team has also designed a more affordable laundromat equipped with washers and dryers that are more time and energy efficient.
Dubai: Team Athollo from University of Toronto will also address the word gap amongst young children with ‘Talking Stickers’, which are programmed to receive the voice of a parent. The stickers can be customized to sing or read and be placed anywhere, turning almost any household object into an educational toy.
Shanghai: Team Telestory from Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance (SAIF) aims to develop language and reading skills by providing digitally recorded lessons on mobile phones accessible in urban slums.
Upon completion of the Hult prize Accelerator program, all five finalists and the sixth online round finalist will attend the CGI annual meeting in September 2015 to pitch their start-ups to an audience comprised of global leaders. The host of the Hult Prize Global Finals portion, President Bill Clinton, Mohammad Yunus and other notable leaders will choose the team that will win the Hult Prize and $1M in start-up capital.
