Countdown to Challenge Submissions

What is The NeuroMaker Creative Challenge?

The NeuroMaker Creative Challenge is an annual, open design competition for Middle and High School students. This competition is open to students around the world in order to investigate the connections between Biomedical Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Programming and more.

Students select a problem to investigate from a theme announced by the NeuroMaker judging committee. Students form teams, conduct research on this problem, build a prototype and then virtually submit their results in a short scientific report and video.

The committee will select six finalists, three from middle school submissions and three from high school submissions. Each group of first, second and third place finalists respectively receive $1,500, $500 and $250 and recognition from Harvard and MIT alumni educators and scientists. Five additional awards will be presented to teams that recognize important engineering and personal growth traits such as empathy, creativity and perseverance.

Registration in the NeuroMaker Creative Challenge is free for any student team that has purchased a NeuroMaker STEM kit from an approved sales channel.

The 2020 NeuroMaker Challenge Theme

Improving Life for Amputees

There are millions of people around the world that face challenges surrounding limb amputations resulting from traumatic accidents, cardiovascular disease, nerve injury and others. Each year there are more than 50,000 new amputations in the United States alone and this community must navigate a series of adjustments to a new lifestyle. Some examples of these potential challenges include:

Communication: Typical body language using a hand can be a difficult transition for those using a prosthetic.
Ergonomics: The fit and user experience of an amputee adjusting to a prosthetic requires detailed knowledge of biomechanics to employ correctly.
Financial: Differing levels of prosthetic technology can cost beyond $100,000 which incurs large burdens on users and the organizations that help pay for them.

Your NeuroMaker Challenge:

Research: Discover issues facing amputees around the world and imagine what methods we can take to improve their life with technology. Use different learning resources to empathize with the issues facing people in this community.

Define: Out of these discovered issues, choose one to focus your efforts. Identify the user, their needs and any insights that can provide design opportunities.

Ideate and Prototype: Brainstorm different solutions to the issue you have identified. Using your NeuroMaker STEM Kit and other resources at your disposal, create material prototypes that demonstrate the effectiveness of your solution.

Refine and Present: Test your prototypes and document your learning and design process. When ready, create a video and written summary of your solution and submit these to BrainCo engineers for review.

Recognition and Development: Attend our January 2021 virtual awards ceremony and learn how others have solved the issues they have defined. Win cash prizes to further refine your solution and gain recognition from real prosthetics engineers!

2020 NeuroMaker Challenge Schedule

August 10th 2020:

NeuroMaker Challenge 2020 Theme Announced

August to December 2020:

Students form teams, research, prototype and create their written and video submissions

December 20th 2020:

Deadline for written and video submissions.

January 2021:

Award winners are announced at the Virtual NeuroMaker Awards Ceremony

Ready to Submit Your Project? Complete These Steps

1. Sign up Your Teams

Please make sure that each one of your student teams have signed up on our 2020 NeuroMaker Creative Challenge Sign Up Form. You will receive a confirmation after we have received your information.

2. Submit Your Project

Once you have completed the video and written portions of your submission, please submit them to this 2020 NeuroMaker Creative Challenge Submission Link.

Please make sure each of your submitted items is labelled in the following format:

grade level.school.team name. For example a submission could look like:

middleschool.westspringfieldmiddleschool.thebestteam.pdf

middleschool.westspringfieldmiddleschool.thebestteam.mp4

3. Vote for the Awards Ceremony Date

We have two available time slots for our live awards ceremony:

Thursday January 21st at 5 pm EST

Saturday January 23rd at 1 pm EST

Choose your preferred date with this online poll! Polls will close on December 20th and we will send all registered teams a zoom link to tune in. The ceremony will be recorded so that participants and offline parties can view the ceremony afterwards.

4. Attend our Awards Ceremony

Join us as we announce the winners! NeuroMaker 2020 awards will be presented live over zoom on January 21, 2021 from 5 pm to 6 pm EST. Sign up via our zoom link here to join. This ceremony will be recorded and posted within our resources section following the event.