American Evolution Innovators Cup
Charlottesville
April 11-13, 2019

The American Evolution Innovators Cup showcased Virginia’s academic excellence through a unique competition that amplified the intellectual property and social enterprise capacity of students from across the Commonwealth. Hosted by the Tom Tom Founders Summit and Festival, the event celebrated innovation, technology, leadership, and diversity of the future generation of ideas in two competitions. The first, the Social Impact Challenge, called upon students to reimagine high school for the future. The second, the Commonwealth Challenge, engaged participants in developing and presenting concepts for commercializing inventions or other output from research. In the semi-final stage, 41 teams representing 17 colleges and universities and two high schools participated. Finalists presented their business cases before a panel of industry experts as judges for cash prizes. The top honors in each competition went to separate teams comprised of Virginia Tech students. “Redshift Education, Inc.” was the grand prizewinner of the Social Impact Challenge and “Rendyr” won the Commonwealth Challenge’s grand prize. The Galant Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Virginia assisted in organizing the event. Event trophies were provided through the generous support of the Virginia Lottery.