Announcing the Winners of the Living Progress Challenge

It was a day full of inspiration, creativity and emotion.

On August 3, I was honored to watch as the 10 finalists of the Living Progress Challenge gathered on stage at the New Lab venue in New York, and pitched their prototypes for digital solutions to accelerate social good.

Each and every finalist made compelling, passionate pitches to a team of judges and before an audience of innovators, social entrepreneurs and business leaders. Their solutions covered the gamut from healthcare to financial inclusion; from the illegal trade of fisheries products to mentoring youth. The event was livestreamed. Missed it? I strongly encourage you to watch the replay and prepare to be inspired. 

As our wonderful keynote speaker Sabeen Ali, Founder & CEO, AngelHack, said: “Today we’ve learned what can happen when revolutionaries partner with innovation giants—we can make the impossible, possible.”

And now I’m delighted to announce our winners.

Detect IT: Fish – Using trade data to fight illegal fishing
Submitted by: World Wildlife Fund and TRAFFIC

Global estimates suggest that more than 30% of all fish caught globally is illegal. This solution is a web-based tool leveraging HPE Vertica technology that can identify potential trade flows of illegal products by highlighting discrepancies in reported trade data of fisheries products between countries. The tool enables automated data collection, comparison, and analytical assessments to detect and tackle illegal trade of fisheries products, the most heavily traded food commodity, at a global scale.

Helping people increase their WORTH
Submitted by: Pact

Today more than 12 million of the world’s 2.5 billion adults excluded from financial services are participating in informal financial groups, accessing self-generated savings and credit services.

The m-ledger mobile application will create a simple yet reliable recordkeeping system for community-based savings groups, directly increasing their return on investment. 

MentorME: Connecting People to Better Lives
Submitted by: HPE Business Process Improvement Team Guadalajara

Millions of students around the world struggle to complete high school. The help of an engaged adult mentor can often be the key to ensuring a young person isn’t left behind. Mentor ME is a mobile app that aims to increase and accelerate access to mentors for high school and college students.

Using a user-friendly gaming approach, matches between mentors and mentees will be made based on a wide range of factors including language, skills, interests, geography and more. The platform will enable progress to be tracked and will provide students with both metrics and a scorecard so they can track their progress.

Social Volunteer Discovery With All For Good
Submitted by: Points of Light

All For Good is an Internet hub for finding ways to volunteer and do good. Points of Light’s vision for the future of All For Good is to transform how people discover volunteer opportunities online “from search to social.” By applying machine learning and persuasive UX design to the platform, the goal is to revolutionize how people are invited into service. It is ultimately through the power of people that social change happens, and All For Good connects people to causes that they can help using their time, talent, money, and social influence.

I’d like to thank everyone who participated in the Living Progress Challenge—from the hundreds of creative people who submitted their ideas; to the incredible teams who developed those ideas into detailed proposals; to the hundreds of volunteers who provided their technical and design expertise and guidance through the Topcoder and HPE Spark crowdsourcing platforms.

Your efforts are a true testament to the power of what can happen when you combine creativity and collaboration. Thank you, all!