Genesis is a student-alumni partnership with over $1.8 million to distribute to student-founded companies through non-dilutive grants, along with the time and talent of our diverse and entrepreneurial leadership team. Genesis has helped founders develop their businesses, build their products, generate their first revenue, recruit cofounders and early employees, brainstorm ideas, and raise future funding from top investors. All students can apply for funding and mentorship.

The George Kozmetsky Memorial Student Challenge is an interdisciplinary program that links students from any major/or year in teams to address relevant community problems. The program begins each Fall and generally engages 150 students across the campus. Teams are given problems, research possible solutions, and submit presentations. Top 10 presentations pitch to judges and $15K in prize monies are presented to top solutions. Solutions are shared with communities.

March Economic Madness is an interscholastic competition, building on our internal student challenge, that provides university students an opportunity to form teams and compete across universities to develop fitted and beneficial solutions for real community problems. A two-tiered selection process is used, first at each university, then between universities for top teams. Presentations will be delivered online with no need for travel. Cash awards are provided to top teams.

The Innovation Corps (I-Corps™) program offers $50,000 grants for Faculty and Grad Student/Postdoc researchers to reduce the time and risk associated with translating technologies from lab to market, quickly assessing the market potential of inventions developed from fundamental discoveries in science and engineering. Teams work directly with leadership from the Southwest I-Corps Node (SWICORPS) at UT Austin to gain eligibility and prepare for the NSF grant program through regional activities.

The Sustainability Education and Enterprise Development (SEED) program is more than just a competition. Unlike other challenges that occur over a shorter period, we provide mentorship, curriculum, and networking opportunities for students over two semesters. Our goal is to train future problem solvers to address root problems through a sustainability lens – not just to give a great pitch. SEED’s long-term mission is to create a collaborative network of educational institutions, impact businesses, and community programs to train youth to become sustainability innovation leaders in any career through education and experiential learning.