Anirban Banerjee, MBA ’22, Brelyn Hatfield ’23, architecture, and Aida Ayuk ’22, architecture, were each selected as winners of the Paul J. and Kathleen M. Severino Center for Technological Entrepreneurship’s Change the World Challenge competition.

In a change from past competitions, student competitors this semester were asked to explain their process of how they went about validating a problem in the market through customer interviews rather than simply presenting their idea. 

Honorable mentions were awarded to Bryce Meizen ’24, information technology and web science, and management doctoral student Vitor Ferreira.

Established in 2005 by Rensselaer alumnus and entrepreneur Sean O’Sullivan ’85, the Change the World Challenge competition supports innovative entrepreneurship education through awards, cash prizes, and other opportunities to encourage Rensselaer students to apply their talents in ways that will positively impact the world.

An exemplar of the New Polytechnic, the dynamic learning paradigm at Rensselaer, the Change the World Challenge is open to Rensselaer students across all disciplines who are interested in advancing their skills in entrepreneurship and testing a market need before building a solution.