Using AI for fatigue risk management amongst aviation and transportation workers, expanding visual arts education to grade school students across India, and inventing a new financial platform for supporting relatives living abroad, are three of the 25 initiatives that have been recognized as finalists in the 2025 Harvard President’s Innovation Challenge.
“The President’s Innovation Challenge continues to draw attention to the creativity and ingenuity of students throughout the University,” said President Alan M. Garber. “The work of our finalist teams encompasses innovations in many disciplines and areas of application. Their dedication is inspiring, and their goals are ambitious and worthy. I look forward to their final presentations in May.”
The President’s Innovation Challenge is an annual competition for Harvard students and select alumni pursuing ventures that are redefining what’s possible in their fields. Participants receive mentorship from the Harvard Innovation Labs, working toward the awards ceremony on May 7 at Klarman Hall. There, finalists pitch their ventures to a global audience and winners receive a portion of the $517,000 in prizes, funded entirely by a generous gift from the Bertarelli Foundation, co-founded by Ernesto Bertarelli, M.B.A. ’93.
The prize money will be awarded as follows: Five ventures will receive grand prizes of $75,000, and five others will receive $25,000. Additionally, the President’s Innovation Challenge also will award $17,000 in Ingenuity Awards to students with ideas that could be world-changing, even if they are not yet fully formed ventures.
This year’s 25 President’s Innovation Challenge finalists and 10 Ingenuity Award finalists represent 12 Harvard Schools.
Changes pushed by government ‘unmoored from the law,’ Garber says. ‘The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights.’
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