Join the Ecosystem for Social Innovation, Creativity, and Entrepreneurship 

Compete for $10,000 in prizes while applying your creativity, imagination, and talent to solving society's most challenging social and environmental problems.

Overview | How the Competition Works | 2012 Competition Results | Calendar of Events | I2S Email List

Download the 2012 Competition Program (team descriptions and list of judges).

 What is the Ideas To SERVE Competition?

 The I2S is for current Georgia Tech students and recent alumni who have a very early stage product/service idea or venture concept that is focused on creating a better world. All great ventures and organizations begin with great ideas. The I2S is a competition of ideas; where creativity, imagination, and technology are applied to:

• Solving community and social issues (for example reducing the effects of poverty, alleviating hunger, promoting physical and psychological health and wellness); and/or
• Sustaining our environment (for example improved water management, improved air and water quality, reduction of the rate of depletion of natural resources, developing alternate sources of energy).

These ideas should eventually lead to sustainable organizations, ones that are able to generate sufficient income flows to provide returns for investors (in case of for-profits) as well as to sustain over time the mission of the organization (for both for-profits as well as non-profits). Simply put, organizations today need to be focused on the triple bottom line, and be concerned with economic, social and environmental return on investment. In the I2S Competition, teams develop an idea/concept, an initial business model, and a feasibility analysis. The idea must be based on either an innovative approach/technology to solving a social problem or the use of technology to sustain the environment.

The I2S is one of three competitions at Georgia Tech that are intended to specifically encourage creativity in product design, the application of technology for new products and services, and technology entrepreneurship. The InVenture Prize is an innovation competition for undergraduate students at Georgia Tech. Students who participate in the InVenture Competition are encouraged to enter the I2S if their product/service concept meets the I2S eligibility criteria. Also graduate students not eligible for InVenture are welcome to participate in the I2S. The Georgia Tech Business Plan Competition is intended for ideas that have advanced beyond the I2S/InVenture stage -- ideas that are business concepts that have developed to the point that full business plans can be prepared. Generally participants in the BPC have fully developed product concepts, market, operational, and financial strategies. Participants in InVenture or the I2S would be expected to "graduate up" to the BPC a year after competing in the InVenture/I2S competitions. The BPC is for technology ventures and unlike the I2S is not solely focused on social or environmental applications.

To participate in the I2S:

Teams must develop a brief executive summary of their idea including its technological and market feasibility, and  prepare one minute video pitch  (both due March 27, 2012). The competition itself proceeds in two phases. The Preliminary Round will be a Poster Competition. The Final Round will be oral presentations. For more details see How the Competition Works page. The I2S is also supported by a series of optional workshops. The purpose of the workshops are to help students get focused on developing ideas for "triple bottom line" organizations, as well as learning how to approximate the likely social impact or market potential to determine idea feasibility. Teams are not required to attend the workshops but the intent of the workshops is to support the interested students’ early stage social and for profit entrepreneurial planning activities.

Important steps and dates

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