Inaugural Goldman Prize Competition Seeks to Improve Education Through Innovation

As teachers, counselors and graduate students presented before a “Shark Tank”-style panel of judges, the aspiring entrepreneur in all of them took center stage to address problems in American education through innovation.

The merger of educational expertise and business acumen during the inaugural Goldman Prize competition, which supports entrepreneurship in education, fell in line with the vision set out by Richard and Renée Goldman.

“I want the Goldman Prize to be a catalyst for why education is added to the list of why Pittsburgh is famous for innovation,” said Richard Goldman during his introduction at the event.

The Goldmans, who are alumni of Pitt’s School of Education, sponsored the contest. The judges awarded $30,000, which was shared among three winners of the event, held at Pitt’s University Club this September.

The competition concept was first developed by Interim Dean of Education Lindsay Matsumura and was then refined by the Goldmans, current Dean Valerie Kinloch and Dean Emeritus Alan Lesgold to encourage ideas from innovation teams composed mainly of Pitt students, alumni and faculty, though others from the community were invited as well.

After presentations and deliberation, the judges awarded the prize money as follows:

• Peerval 3-D Digital Design Critique took home the top prize of $15,000. Mahender Mandala, an assistant professor in the Department of Bioengineering, and his team developed an app that allows large groups of students and teachers to access, map and annotate 3-D digital designs from an internet browser.
• Triple Note: A Data Collection and Instruction App won $10,000. Mary Margaret Kerr, professor of psychology in education and psychiatry, and Laurel Chiappetta, a statistics instructor, developed the app to help field researchers store and access data, video, images, audio and other information in a single cloud-based source.
• The Future of Belonging won $5,000. Alicia Johnson, a Falk Laboratory School counselor, and her company created dolls that use artificial intelligence to listen to students’ concerns and provide data to counselors.

Mandala said the prize will allow the company to hire employees and continue testing the concept with potential customers.

“I really am hopeful the money will help us go to the next step and acquire more funding,” he said.

Mandala also participated in the National Science Foundation’s I-Corps Grant program for educational tech businesses through Pitt’s Innovation Institute, which provided $53,000 in funding to test his idea with potential customers with the guidance of a professional business mentor.

Philip Brooks, executive in residence at the Innovation Institute, said Mandala’s idea is one of many being created on campus that could be built into full-fledged businesses with the help of the Goldman Prize.

“By providing prize money, that’s a huge added incentive to make people think maybe we should commercialize whatever we’re doing and make it accessible to more people than just those at Pitt,” he said.

Other participants at the competition included:

• Karen Boodhoo, academic counselor at South University, whose Interactive Mentoring Software would provide consistent mentoring to transient, low-income students as they move to different school systems.
• Barbara Hasson, School of Education alumna who presented her Feedback App-Through the Coach’s Eye. The proposed app would allow new teachers to reach out to longtime teachers for real-time classroom advice.
• Eva Wegrzecka-Kowalewski, School of Education instructor, for her Online Courses for International Students. The proposed course would emphasize critical thinking and the academic study of literature for students from China coming to U.S. universities.