Conrad Challenge: Creating Innovative Entrepreneurs

Nancy Conrad is the Founder and Chairman of the Conrad Foundation, based on the rich legacy of her late husband Pete Conrad, the Apollo I2 astronaut. Her mission is to promote collaborative, student-centered, real-world learning that fosters innovation and entrepreneurship and unleashes students' potential to create future-defining solutions and a sustainable society for generations to come. Ankesh Madan is an accomplished Conrad Challenge alumnus, whose entrepreneurial focus was sparked by his participation in the Challenge. He competed in the challenge in 2010 while attending a high school that specializes in math and science in North Carolina. He and his team were finalists in the Renewable Energy category, and he is currently a member of the Conrad Alumni Leadership Council. As an undergraduate at North Carolina State University, he and some fellow students co-founded Undercover Colors, a company that is addressing drug-facilitated sexual assault by developing products that detect date rape drugs. This invention sparked a flurry of media interest that spanned the globe. In 2008, Nancy Conrad established the Conrad Challenge, a multi-phase innovation and entrepreneurship program, which includes mentorship and support from worldwide experts. This annual global competition challenges students to combine education, innovation and entrepreneurship to create commercially viable, technology-based solutions to local and global real-world challenges. By enabling young minds to connect education, innovation and entrepreneurship, the Foundation helps provide a bold platform for enriching the innovative workforce of the future. Teams of students from around the world can enter the Conrad Challenge in one of several categories including the following: Aerospace & Aviation Cybertechnology & Security Energy & Environment Health & Nutrition Smoke-Free World Transforming Education through Technology Through the challenge, students learn to apply the Conrad Design Method (CDM), a structured five phase collaboration framework for teachers and student teams to understand and accomplish innovative and entrepreneurial solutions. Finalists congregate for an Innovation Summit at the Kennedy Space Center in April.