Student innovators at USC come from all disciplines -- from cinematic arts, music and social sciences, to information technology, engineering and life sciences.

Presented by the USC Stevens Institute for Innovation, the university-wide USC Student Innovator Showcase gives parents and students a highly interactive glimpse into the imaginations of USC student innovators, and a sneak peek at tomorrow's world. The showcase is hosted each year during the opening day of Trojan Family weekend and is followed by an awards reception in Hahn Plaza at Tommy Trojan.

During the showcase, the innovators are judged on criteria such as potential for societal impact, novelty, understanding of market and more. Judges select ten finalists to give a two-minute “fast pitch” presentation about their ideas. Under Tommy Trojan in Hahn Plaza, the finalists provide an audience of parents and students an overview of their ideas, discuss potential for societal impact, and share their progress to date.

Check out highlights from the 2010 USC Student Innovator Showcase and Competition here.

Questions? For more information about this program and how to get involved, please contact Erin Stumpf - Marketing Assistant (213.821.6063, erin@stevens.usc.edu)

At its heart, the goal of the USC Student Innovator Showcase is to demonstrate the creative thinking and pragmatic solutions to everyday issues that students are creating right here at USC.

On October 28, 2011 the USC Stevens Institute for Innovation hosted the annual USC Student Innovator Showcase at the VonKleinsmid Center (VKC) on USC's University Park Campus in Downtown Los Angeles.
 

This year's Trojan Family Weekend theme was, “Location, Location, Location."

All student presenters prepared table and poster displays to show judges, parents, and friends the solutions they created. In an open-air courtyard in the Von Kleinsmid Center (VKC) Pavilion, visitors played student-built video games, learned how to utilize a mobile app to interact with their favorite musical artists, tasted a sweet and nutritious cookie alternative to children's snacks, and saw how ultrasound smart-sensors could be attached to surgical tools for more effective medical procedures. The interactive, eye-opening experience was open to the public and featured 47 different displays run by more than 100 students.

Students were competing for two cash prizes:

• "Most Innovative" Award
• "Most Promising Business Concept" Award
•  Plus two-runner-up awards!

Projects were judged for many components including novelty, societal impact, risk-taking and more. The judging panel was selected by USC Stevens administration and was comprised of innovators, entrepreneurs, and investors from industries such as technology, finance, entertainment, marketing, business, and corporate law.

In 2011, the USC Student Innovator Showcase displayed 47 innovations from 12 schools across the USC campus. That's more than one-hundred student participating from all corners of the university!

Finalists from this year's showcase include:

• Spinlister: a peer-to-peer bike rental marketplace where anyone can list their bike to earn cash or rent a bike to explore;
• MODpod: provides for a high performance, prefabricated learning environment that small learning communities can use at a low cost and with relative ease;
• That’s Suspicious Behavior: a smart phone application that allows individuals to report and view reports of any suspicious activity on campus and campus housing around the University Park area;
• eVinyl: the first mobile digital music network and commerce platform that connects brands through bands to fans across tablets and phones;
• FindRelief: an application/software package that facilitates communication between first responders, recovery partners and distressed communities in the wake of a natural disaster;
• trueRSVP: trueRSVP is the first RSVP system that predicts event attendance;
• Fountain Insert: is a liquid dispensing spout system allowing the consumer to provide themselves with an effective way to conveniently retrieve his or her desired fluid in a mess free manner without lifting the jug in and out of the refrigerator or cabinets;
• IrUs: Portable Multipronged Mosquito Repeller: is an amalgamation of three steps of innovation, which at large intends to solve to major two problems afflicting most of rural places in developing countries and even some cities;
• RewardTag: is a label that you put on your valuable devices so that the person who finds it can get it back to you, and you can reward them for giving it back;
• Sonic Edge: integrates ultrasound smart-sensors with disposable surgical tools such as needles and catheters in turn, leads to faster, safer and more cost effective medical procedures.

Winners from the 2011 USC Student Innovator Showcase split $5000 in cash prizes and each team receives a custom, limited edition USC Stevens Institute skateboard, manufactured by Unlimited Fix Design, a USC start-up founded by USC Viterbi PhD candidate, Daniel Singleton.

More information about these innovations and the additional 38 presented at the 2011 event can be found in the event program. Videos of each finalit's three-minute fast pitch will be posted soon! To watch videos from previous years, visit our media gallery.