Winning teams in Dean’s Cultural Entrepreneurship Challenge display a diversity of cultural solutions

On May 14, the Harvard Innovation Lab celebrated the accomplishments of six finalist teams and crowned winners of the Deans’ Cultural Entrepreneurship Challenge. Now in its second year, the challenge calls upon students to utilize the platform of entrepreneurship to help sustain the longevity of the arts and expand their impact on society.

PIVOT was announced as the winner of the $25,000 grand prize. The winning team is working on a cutting-edge interactive mobile application that reveals images, videos, and information about ancient and modern Palestinian history to visitors in locations that would otherwise be unmarked.

“I’ve always loved maps and preserving history and cultures.” said Asma Jaber, founder of PIVOT. “Being a challenge finalist helped our team translate a passion and idea into a prototype and a social enterprise that will address an issue we are all passionate about —cultural preservation, first in Palestine-Israel and later throughout the world. This would not have been possible without the resources and supportive staff at Harvard’s Innovation Lab.”

The runners-up included Worldi, an interface that helps urbanites explore music and dance from around the world, and SPOUTs of Water, which aims to create a sustainable workspace for potters in Uganda to carry on their long-lived tradition while increasing access to clean water by producing and supplying effective and affordable ceramic water filters.

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