OpUS and Singularity University to open the youth innovation projects contest

The Open University Skolkovo (OpUS) and the Singularity University, Silicon Valley (SU) announce the launch of the next competition of youth projects My idea for Russia 2012 which will be held for the second time. The contest aims at making the best ideas innovations in real projects, in to support each of them. In addition, winners will receive prizes and gifts, as well as grants to participate in the 10-week internship at Singularity University to work on their projects in an international team of Silicon Valley's largest university. The $ 25,000Grant in addition to learning includes accommodation and meals in the USA.

The participants were given a difficult task: to develop a project on improving life in Russia. The solution must involve at least five million citizens of the country or a particular region, it must be implemented during the next 5 years and be based on the use of modern technologies in the field of biomedicine, energy, IT, and in the field of sustainable development.

The jury will assess the announced projects on a number of criteria, such as the prospects of implementation, entrepreneurial, innovative and technological vision of the problem, consistency and conformity with the idea of the competition concept. There will also be taken into account the knowledge and personal characteristics of applicants: leadership experience, English skills, teamwork abilities.

On March 17, 2012 a webinar devoted to the competition My idea for Russia will take place. A.Egorov, OpUS CEO, winners of the contest in 2011, as well as OpUS students will participate in discussion. A live webcast is available at sk.ru. It starts at 12.00.

The deadline for the contest applications is at 12.00 (Moscow time) on March 27, 2012. The two winners will be announced by April 16, 2012.

The first Contest My idea for Russia was held in 2011. The authors of the best projects were Sergei Musienko (MIPT postgraduate student with the idea Open genome project), Anna Trunina (the 6-year student student of Bauman MSTU with the idea Developing of bioresorbable scaffolds for stents with cellular technologies), and Olga Avryasova (Saratov State Technical University postgraduate with the idea Mathematical modeling of electromagnetic pollution power lines). The winners were trained in Silicon Valley studying and working on joint projects in the international youth team representing 35 nations in the world.

Today, a year after the first contest, the winners’ ideas are fully transformed into real business projects. The joint development of A.Trunina and S.Musienko PrimerLife, an Internet resource for personalized medicine based on genetic data, using artificial intelligence technology and social networks, - became Skolkovo Fund resident in January 2012. The project of O.Avryasova undergoes preliminary examination to obtain this status. Her development in the field of energy efficiency, the project PlayEnergy, a multi-user game platform allowing to reduce the consumption of electric energy by playing virtual games.

The three winners of the first contest My idea for Russia in 2011 are the jury members this year. In addition to them the competition committee includes Oleg Alekseev, Vice President of Education and Research of Skolkovo Fund, Andrey Egorov, OpUS CEO, representatives of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Strategic initiatives Agency, the OpUS Expert Council, Skolkovo Fund.