Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Dell Awards $60,000 Top Prize In Social Innovation Challenge

Round Rock-based Dell has awarded $60,000 in the grand prize of its Dell Social Innovation Challenge, its efforts to encourage social entrepreneurs who are solving the world's problems. According to Dell, it awarded the grand prize to a team from India, which created a "social conduction dryer", which uses the sun to reduce the estimated 20 to 30 percent food spoilage rate seen by poor rural farmers. Dell also awarded $40,000 to a group, Foot Soldiers, offering up affordable shoes to the poor in Bangladesh; Good-Benefits.com received $20,00 for its efforts to make it easier for people to make payroll contributions towards nonprofits; and two finalists, Semka Biomedical Technologies and Citizen Power / Sunriding, both received $10,000; Semka is working on a device for non-invasive tumor biopsies, and Citizen Power on a crowdsourced online social platform for solar installations. The Dell Social Innovation Challenge grew out of an effort originally started at the University of Texas at Austin.