Innovate x LA: Das Family Student Competition

Calling all innovators, engineers, entrepreneurs, creatives and makers to join a passionate team of students who will work on transformative innovations for Los Angeles!

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About the Competition

The USC Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) holds its Innovate x LA: Das Family Student Competition annually, with the generous support of the Das Family. Focusing on some of the most pressing challenges facing the City of Los Angeles, student teams must develop innovative solutions using civil and environmental engineering concepts. This competition is designed to provide students with guidance for launching a startup and creating compelling pitches for their ideas.

Kickoff with Design Day & Buildathon

This year, the department is launching the Innovate X LA: Das Family Design Day & Buildathon as our kickoff event for the competition on Thursday, November 20th, 5:00-7:00 PM in RTH 526. All USC students (not just CEE) are invited to attend and participate. The event will run until final presentations on Friday, November 21st at 5-7pm. Winning teams from our Design Day & Buildathon will continue refining their ideas and pitches as part of the larger student competition.

Who can apply?

Competition teams will be led by CEE students, but students from a variety of disciplines at USC are strongly encouraged to apply. We are looking for big, bold ideas that can be implemented to make Los Angeles a more sustainable, prosperous, equitable, joyful and healthier city for all to live in for generations to come.

Competing student teams in the competition will have the chance to win a grand prize of $20,000!

Participants will attend monthly workshops and receive mentorship from faculty and industry leaders throughout the competition.

The goal of the competition is to create a learning opportunity for students and encourage them to address Los Angeles’ biggest challenges that could be solved by innovations in civil and environmental engineering. Students will develop innovative engineering ideas for the City of Los Angeles based upon one of five categories: disaster resilience, environmental stewardship, urban livability, extreme habitats, and transportation service systems.