2020 Wege Prize Awards: International Live Stream of Transformative Ideas

International Student Teams Redesign How We Produce and Consume — Ideas Make World Debut on May 29 

Finalists Announced in Wege Prize 2020 Design Competition  from Seven Countries, 13 Academic Institutions, and 20 Unique Academic Disciplines 

If the COVID-19 pandemic has shown us anything, it’s that humans are at our best when we work across the boundaries that divide us. And more importantly, we need to normalize this kind of collaboration if we’re to rise to meet the immense challenges before us. 

This May, college/university students from around the world will illustrate the power of collaborative, transdisciplinary problem solving to a global online audience in the culmination of Wege Prize 2020. 

At the 2020 Wege Prize Awards, the five finalist teams in this international design competition—representing seven countries, 13 academic institutions, and 20 unique academic disciplines—will present their efforts to solve complex problems and rethink the way we derive value from our economic systems. 

Teams are challenged to develop products, services, business models, and other solutions that address systematic issues while also helping power a transition from our current linear economic model—in which we take, make and dispose—to a circular economy, an economic model that’s restorative and regenerative by design. Guided by direct feedback from the competition’s panel of expert judges, participating teams refine their solutions over the course of three distinct phases, with the scope and complexity of the challenge growing at each phase.

Ultimately, five teams earn the opportunity to compete for $30,000 USD in total cash prizes, awarded annually to those whose ideas spark the brightest hope for real-world implementation and success.

EVENT DETAILS: 

2020 Wege Prize Awards 

Date: Friday, May 29, 2020 

Time: 10:00am EDT, with finalist presentations from 10:10am – 12:30pm

Livestream at: www.wegeprize.org

Developed by Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University (KCAD) with the support of The Wege Foundation, Wege Prize is open to undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate students worldwide. For details, visit wegeprize dot org. 

 “Creativity and collaboration are absolutely essential to both addressing the many complex challenges we face today and rising to meet those that await us in the future,” says KCAD Interim President Tara McCrackin. “That’s why what happens in Wege Prize each year is so important. We need to empower young people from every corner of our planet through these kinds of immersive, real-world experiences so that they can become the leaders and change agents we so desperately need.”