Koch Innovation Challenge

The annual Koch Innovation Challenge emphasizes teamwork and entrepreneurial mindset. Student teams design and build a technically feasible and potentially profitable working prototype and deliver an elevator pitch to a panel of judges.

Winning entries will have:

  • Demonstrated utility and technical feasibility
  • Met technical, economic, legal, and regulatory requirements
  • Featured a novel and practical design
  • Demonstrated potential for commercialization including a market assessment, and proposed regulatory and intellectual property strategies

The College of Engineering organizes the Koch Innovation Challenge from its new Shocker Design Experience, a program for first year students of all majors that encompasses the entire first year: students explore their interests in a fall semester introductory course and then take on a meaningful multidisciplinary applied project in the spring semester.

  • In the fall introductory course, first-year students experience the innovation process by learning the design thinking process, a human-centered design method for innovation that combines creative and analytical approaches and requires collaboration across disciplines and diverse backgrounds. It focuses on empathy as a way to understand the user and design to meet their needs. Students work in teams to interview people in the community to identify a problem that can be solved using technology. Completion of this course serves as a prerequisite to enter the competition.
  • In the spring applied project course, students learn to use equipment in the college's Project Innovation Hub to design and build a working prototype. Students also receive instruction on market assessment, intellectual property, and the business canvas to help them prepare for the competition.

Competition Organization

  • Live Elevator Pitch Competition: All teams in the spring semester applied project course enter their team's product and upload a two-minute video elevator pitch and business model canvas. Entries will be evaluated by a panel of faculty and industry judges. Awards will be given for best prototype, best video production, and best business model canvas. The overall winner will advance to a national competition.
  • National Competition: The members of the winning team will be awarded a travel grant to attend the national Collegiate Entrepreneurs' Organization (CEO) Conference during their third semester. At the National CEO Conference, they will compete in the Global Elevator Pitch Competition.