Aileen Suzara presents Bahay Kubo: Kitchen Gardens of Living Tradition at the Big Ideas 2015 Grand Prize Pitch Day
Aileen Suzara presents Bahay Kubo: Kitchen Gardens of Living Tradition at the Big Ideas 2015 Grand Prize Pitch Day

On May 5, the Blum Center celebrated the 2014-2015 Big Ideas@Berkeley student innovation contest with an awards celebration recognizing 46 winning projects for social change.

Big Ideas@Berkeley is an annual contest aimed at providing funding, support, and encouragement to interdisciplinary teams of students who have “big ideas.” Since its founding in 2006, Big Ideas@ Berkeley has inspired innovative and high-impact student-led projects aimed at solving problems that matter to this generation. By encouraging novel proposals and then supporting concrete next steps, Big Ideas is helping contest winners make an impact all over the world.

This year, the contest received a record number of applications from 201 teams representing over 700 students across nine UC campuses and 17 other universities. The teams presented hundreds of innovative ideas to address today’s most pressing issues — from the need for financial literacy among U.S. students facing college debt to the best way to produce sustainable energy in rural Kenya.

For more information about the contest winners see the Big Ideas website.