The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), with support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) will support students and faculty from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) to participate in the 2022 HBCU Making & Innovation Showcase.  The showcase is one of several activities under the newly awarded, Enhancing Making and Innovation Capacity for HBCU Students and Faculty Via an Inclusive Community of Practice grant. The 2022 HBCU Making and Innovation Showcase will take place on September 22-24, 2022 in Washington, DC. The showcase is designed to provide an opportunity for students to showcase the talent and innovation at their institution.

The HBCU Making and Innovation Showcase was developed to allow HBCU student entrepreneurs, inventors, and innovators to team together to design a hardware or software prototype that addresses one of the 17 United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). With the SDGs as a guiding foundation, teams will be encouraged to research and address social justice and environmental issues in their hometown communities or the community surrounding their institution. This construct for innovation and prototype creation helps teams to contextualize and localize the global issues and challenges that the SDGs address. The Showcase will culminate with a pitch competition.

The AAAS HBCU Making & Innovation Showcase will consist of 1.5 days of professional development workshops on topics such as invention, intellectual property protection and communication. The event will culminate in the Showcase pitch competition where student teams will pitch their project prototype to a panel of judges. Prizes will include $1,200 for the 1st place team, $800 for the 2nd place team, and $400 for the 3rd place team.

To participate in the showcase teams consisting of a maximum of six (6) participants (3-5 students and 1 faculty member) must identify one (1) team member to complete the online application. That team member will complete the application on behalf of the team and will upload a power point presentation (template will be provided) describing the project. Details in the power point presentation should include who the team members are, which of the UN Sustainable Development Goals the project will address, what the social justice, educational, public health, environmental, or other issue the project will address, how the project’s prototype will provide a solution to the problem, and who the audience is for the prototype. Projects can be a new design or one developed in previous academic years. The deadline for the application is 11:59pm EST, Monday, March 18th, 2022.

Teams will be notified of acceptance via email on Friday, March 28th 2022.

Accepted teams (team members and faculty member) will receive a travel award that covers the housing, airfare, and ground transportation travel to Washington, D.C. 

The 2022 Showcase Cohort

Congratulations to the 10 teams selected to the 2022 AAAS HBCU Making and Innovation Showcase. The teams come from eight HBCU’s. The institutions representing the 2022 cohort include:

Alabama A&M University

Bowie State University - Two Teams

Jackson State University

Lincoln University of Missouri

Morgan State University - Two Teams

North Carolina A&T University - Two Teams

Philander Smith College - Two Teams

Tuskegee University

Showcase Resources (ppts/recordings):

Click here to view the AAAS HBCU Making and Innovation 2023 Showcase video.

Click here to read about the top three winning teams of the 2022 HBCU Making and Innovation Showcase.