Congratulations to the National Competition Winners

Congratulations to the National Competition Winners

A big shout out to SMASHxUCLA and SMASHxBerkeley for winning this year’s first ever SMASH Academy virtual competition.

The virtual competition was held on Friday, July 31st as the culmination of this year’s virtual Academy program. In making the move from a residential to a virtual program, the SMASH team used the opportunity to create an online competition between the nearly 500 Scholars participating in this year’s program across the country.

The challenge put before the Scholars was to generate solutions to the challenges posed by COVID-19 using design-thinking and leveraging technology. Their innovative ideas, primarily focused on health and education issues created by the pandemic in their communities, again demonstrate how young people can be incredible agents of change.

The eight teams competing in the national competition were:

• Second Year Cohort: SMASHxDavis, SMASHxIllinois, SMASHxWharton, SMASHxUCLA
• Third Year Cohort: SMASHxBerkeley, SMASHxStanford, SMASHxWayne State, SMASHxWharton

The Second Year Cohort at SMASHxUCLA won the competition with their solution of utilizing AR as a tool to make remote learning more entertaining for elementary students. The members of this team were Tyson Brazil, Chelsie Charles, Isabella Diaz Gonzalez, Joseph Toscano, and Patrick Zavalla.

The Third Year Cohort at SMASHxBerkeley took home the prize with their solution that provides assistance with health insurance applications. The members of this team were Owen Cruz, German Jimenez, Giovanna Gonzalez Rojas, Griscelda Diaz, and Griffin Yearby.

Each of the two winning teams received a $2,500 cash prize for their novel solution to the novel coronavirus.


Special thanks to the American Family Insurance, TE Connectivity, DE Shaw and Seiler for their generous support of this event.