Challenges

This 2022 Challenge Areas

Internet & Cybersecurity

Challenge Partner: CloudSEK and Omidyar Network India

CloudSEK runs an AI-powered digital risk protection platform that offers risk management tools, focused on customized, intelligent security monitors and systems which provide timely, specific, and actionable intelligence, enabling clients to monitor and manage their security posture in real-time as well as prevent costly breaches and losses.

Omidyar Network India invests in bold entrepreneurs who help create a meaningful life for every Indian, especially the hundreds of millions of Indians in low-income and lower-middle-income populations, ranging from the poorest among us to the existing middle class. To drive empowerment and social impact at scale, they work with entrepreneurs in the private, non-profit, and public sectors, who are tackling India’s hardest and most chronic problem

Challenge winners: Team Cambridge Hackers [Xiaoran Liu, Gianna Everette, Ravi Kandula, Anand Trivedi, Maggie Lin]

Environmental Justice

Challenge Partner: Natural Resources Defense Council

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is one of the largest environmental non-profits in the United States. Its 700 scientists, lawyers, and policy advocates across the globe work to safeguard the earth—its people, its plants and animals, and the natural systems on which all life depends. With dedicated staff working in more than a dozen program areas – from clean energy to soils management to marine protection – they partner with businesses, elected leaders, and community groups on the biggest issues we face today. One of the key priority areas for NRDC is advocating for an equitable, clean energy transition as part of the nation’s commitment to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 and reach a net-zero energy system by 2050.

Challenge winners: Team Slime Mold [Erika Spangler, Sara Sheffels, Ruize Qin, Wantong Wu, Shruti Nandy]

Logistics

Challenge Partner: Pandemic Response Accountability Committee

The Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC) was created by the CARES Act and is responsible for overseeing $5 trillion in emergency aid appropriated by Congress to help fight the human and economic impacts of the pandemic. The PRAC is made up a committee of 21 federal Inspectors General and together their mission is to inform the public and policymakers where the money went, how it was used, and to detect fraud, waste, and abuse.

The PRAC created and manages a website, PandemicOversight.gov, that enables the public to understand how their tax dollars were used to respond to the pandemic. The website has numerous interactive dashboards that contain detailed data on nearly 22 million pandemic assistance awards in 450 programs, like the Paycheck Protection Program and the Emergency Rental Assistance Program.

Challenge Winners: Team ReThinkers: Tasaduq Soomro, Regina Isabel Medina Rosales, Carlos Huapaya Avalos, Sanhitha Cherukupally, Julio Mendoza Huaman.

Housing & City Planning

Challenge Partner: Massachusetts Housing & Shelter Alliance

Founded in 1988, MHSA is a nonprofit, public policy advocacy organization that has evolved to include nearly 100 community-based member agencies throughout Massachusetts. With their statewide perspective rooted in the experiences of local communities, MHSA brings member agencies and partners together around a unified vision to build a commonwealth where everyone has access to stable housing and the services they need to thrive.

MHSA advocates for policies that meet the needs of the most vulnerable. They collaborate with member agencies and partners to pilot and scale innovative programs that have already helped thousands of people move into permanent housing. They examine how public systems — behavioral health, corrections and more — feed into homelessness, and they work with local and state partners to make change.

Challenge Winners: Team Greenerity [Hanbit Lee, Ahmad Aldabbagh, Robin Bartmann, Adam Spitzig, Barton Rhodes]