Mobile app for sexual health recognized at Deans’ Challenge

A proposal for a mobile phone app to help college students manage their sexual health was named second runner-up in Harvard’s inaugural Deans’ Health and Life Sciences Challenge, hosted by the Harvard Innovation Lab (i-lab). The mobile phone app proposal came from one of two teams with HSPH students represented that were among eight finalists vying for funding in the competition. The other team had proposed a program linking vehicular trauma patients in Bangladesh to first responders and emergency transportation.

HSPH students were represented on eight of the 54 teams that submitted proposals for the competition. Grand-prize winners and runners-up took home a share of a $75,000 purse.

The challenge invited Harvard students and postdoctoral fellows from across the University to develop entrepreneurial solutions that facilitate the delivery of affordable health care and the development of new and effective therapies for people around the world. Finalist teams earned $5,000 to invest in their projects, and another six weeks to hone their pitches. They also were given access to workspaces at the i-lab and the opportunity to consult with venture capitalists and other advisors. Video pitches from each of the finalists were reviewed by a panel of judges, with the results announced at the i-lab on May 22, 2013.