Teams from across Northwestern University will compete for $100,000 at the upcoming KIN Global Summit
5/18/2012 - Business plans that would bring healthy food to underserved communities, transform plastic waste, improve Africans’ access to healthcare and advance clean energy technology will take center stage at the May 30-June 1
KIN Global Summit.
The spirited, invitation-only conference assembles thought leaders from more than 20 countries and all sectors of society to examine how innovation can improve global prosperity. This year’s delegates include Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, Norman Augustine, former CEO of both Lockheed Martin and the American Red Cross, and GE Chief Marketing Officer Beth Comstock. (
See the full list of delegates)
While the conference explores pressing issues and ideas, its ultimate goal is to develop practitioners and innovators committed to creating a better world. To that end, KIN delegates will be allotted $500 each to bestow on the team of their choice. The team that garners the most funding will be declared the winner — but all of the teams are likely to gain support to implement their plans to make the world a more prosperous place.
The finalists in the KIN Prize competition include:
Fresh Takes Kitchen
Winner of the 2012 Kellogg Social Entrepreneurship Award, Fresh Takes Kitchen intends to create a cultural revolution for the 23.5 million people across the United States who currently live in food deserts — communities with an abundance of unhealthy, processed options and a dearth of fresh, quality food.
Fresh Takes Kitchen was co-founded by Kellogg students Chelsea Katz ’12 and Saloni Doshi ’12 upon discovering their shared passion for improving health in low-income communities.
Mimas Nanomaterials
Mimas Nanomaterials plans to unlock the power of plastic waste to power the green economy. With the help of technology from Argonne National Laboratory, the team will turn waste that typically ends up in landfills or incinerators into a variety of valuable products using an environmentally-friendly processing method.
The Mimas team came together through Northwestern’s popular NUvention course series. The cross-disciplinary team of students includes eight members representing undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programs from across the university: Kellogg students Adam Atkinson-Lewis ’13, Thomas Broeker ’13, Sammy Lee ’12 and Sebastine Ujereh ’13, as well as Alejandro Herrera, Chris Bentley, David Snydacker and Wouter Vanderheere.
Mobile Health Diagnostics
The Mobile Health Diagnostics team has developed a plan to alleviate the healthcare worker shortage crisis in Uganda. By leveraging the power of mobile technology, the team intends to increase healthcare worker productivity and improve the accuracy of pediatric diagnoses of common illnesses.
The team includes graduate students in business, engineering, design and marketing communications — Kellogg students Eric Chang ’13, Amar Shah ’13 and Sandra Sokoloski ’12, along with Anthony Jakubiak, Renee Qian and Yi-Fan (Evana) Wu.
NuMat Technologies
NuMat Technologies has been sweeping competitions across the country with its plan to meet the world’s energy and sustainability challenges. With its proprietary computational technology, NuMat intends to unlock the power of metal organic frameworks, a new class of nano-materials with promising applications in clean energy.
The interdisciplinary team includes JD-MBA students Ben Hernandez ’13 and Tabrez Ebrahim ’13, Northwestern graduate student Chris Wilmer and research professor Omar Farha. The team won big at the Rice Business Plan Competition, where it took home the grand prize and $874,000 worth of awards.
