Foxconn Technology Group will make $200,000 in prizes available over three rounds of competition during the coming school year as part of its Smart Cities, Smart Future initiative.
Alan Yeung, Foxconn director of U.S. strategic initiatives, announced details for the contest Tuesday as part of a smart cities summit at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. The company also launched a website for the contest as well.
Earlier this year, Foxconn announced it would commit $1 million to fund competitions over three years.
Students, faculty and staff at Wisconsin higher education institutions, including public and private universities and technical colleges, are invited to participate.
“The competition is aimed at finding innovative ways that technology can help enhance quality of life and working environments, whether it’s through developing attractive streetscapes, building transportation networks, designing innovative living spaces, improving the way we learn or enhancing health care,” Yeung said.
Entries can come in a variety of formats including essays, business plans, poster boards, photos and video. Individual and team entries are allowed.
“We don’t want to just do essays because we will probably just get five entries,” Yeung said, joking college students would likely wait until the night before the deadline to start writing.
Themes for the competition include optimizing our resources and strengths; improving quality of life performance and collaboration; enhancing a sustainable economy and environment; and advancing smart manufacturing, services and infrastructure. Foxconn will be announcing more details on competition categories in September.
The competition will have three rounds. At least 300 participants will receive the $150 managers award in the first round. The second round will award $1,000 director’s awards to 50 contestants and 16 participants will receive $5,000 in the final president’s award.
“Five thousand dollars is not going to get you to be the next Google or Facebook, but you can always get started somewhere,” Yeung said.
He said Foxconn would like to see contestants come up with bold ideas that incorporate data and consider things from multiple vantage points.
“You do small things, you get small results,” he said.
