We recently announced the start of our fifth annual Cisco Global Problem Solver Challenge, with prize cash totaling $1 million USD. The Cisco Global Issue Solver Challenge is really a competitors that awards money prizes to early-stage technologies business owners solving the world’s interpersonal and environmental problems. Year this, we are supplying a Digital Inclusivity Prize also.

The $50,000 USD Digital Inclusivity Prize will be awarded to a startup using technology that closes the ever-widening digital divide. This award has been provided by Cisco’s Emerging Technology and Incubation (ET&I) Group within the spirit of our new objective to Power an Inclusive Future for All. The ET&We Group’s vision would be to advance another bold moonshots and bets for Cisco by sourcing, generating, partnering, and incubating brand new ventures, that may fuel Cisco’s development for several years to come.

The partnership between your Cisco Global Problem Solver Challenge and ET&We is symbolic of our expense and commitment in the organization social responsibility space.

The winning solution shall concentrate on closing the electronic divide by addressing accessibility, affordability, or electronic literacy to build a far more inclusive digital world.

The winner of the Digital Inclusivity Prize may also be offered the opportunity to present their solution and receive feedback from the Emerging Systems and Incubation team. This exclusive opportunity includes around five hours of specialized mentorship within an certain section of the winner’s choice, plus a program with this engineering group or an engineering luminary at Cisco to greatly help broaden the solution’s specialized scope.

What will be digital inclusivity and just why is it a significant issue?

Digital Inclusivity is approximately addressing inequalities through technologies. Half of the planet’s population nearly, or 3.7 billion people, don’t have access to the web. This is a massive problem, and it’s already been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which includes widened the digital divide even more. We see a massive gap with some interpersonal people devoid of connectivity or usage of digital capabilities. Lacking internet connection is detrimental to therefore many areas of society, like schooling, work, e-commerce, financing, and more.

While Cisco is fortunate to possess remote working features, not absolutely all of our clients and companions have made the changeover. Some grouped families might not have computers in the home, so not having usage of products and hardware is another nagging problem. The opportunities become restricted without proper internet online connectivity.

This challenging challenge, however, offers many potential solutions because of this prize, like the connectivity problem itself, addressing the presssing problem of affordability, or access to the internet in rural communities. The options of solutions are unlimited. There may be solutions around specific audiences who may have usage and entry challenges, like the impaired visually, hearing impaired, or individuals who require assistive technologies. You can find no boundaries from what we can attain by stretching our creativity and thinking bolder.

The Inspiration Behind the Prize

Digital inclusivity is essential to all of us as a ongoing organization, from our executives to your employees. Insufficient connectivity is not a concern that just affects developing nations, but developed nations just like the United States also, as well. This season as adults and kids want to virtually access work it has been highlighted a lot more, school, and healthcare.

Both pillars that constrain the chance of ubiquitous internet connectivity are accessibility and affordability. From the technology innovation viewpoint, we can concentrate on accessibility, and then function from the business enterprise side with several partners and companies to greatly help bridge the gap of affordability and level.

As a networking giant, Cisco is rolling out research just like the Digital Readiness Index (DRI), which holistically measures countries’ degree of electronic readiness. The Index offers help with how countries can enhance their general readiness to foster an inclusive electronic economy. Cisco’s intent would be to help bridge nations in to the next generation.

Additionally, we turn to the United Nations (UN’s) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) simply because a body of reference for looking at how these technology are being utilized and delving in to the core of the issue with electronic inclusivity. Are you currently providing quality education possibilities through technology? Are you currently providing better wellness wellbeing and care? Are you currently creating the digital infrastructure for sustainable communities and metropolitan areas? Are you currently reducing inequalities for individuals who are usually disadvantaged, disabled, or disenfranchised? You can try all those different parts and say your solution addresses the issues developed by the digital divide.

Complex Mentorship Opportunity

Within Cisco’s Emerging Incubation and Technologies Team, we’ve distinguished engineers and excellent individuals near the top of their fields. The champion of the Digital Inclusivity Prize will outline what they would like to learn, alongside where they wish to grow. Whether it’s team development, expertise development, or something particular to the solution, we are able to assist refine it or provide advice on how exactly to level it or stage them in the proper direction. Finally, if the ET&I Team decides to provide an incubation possibility, there may be a chance for the champion to become a business owner in Residence, which includes the potential to commercialize the essential idea.

The Emerging Technology and Incubation Group may also advise from an engineering or technical perspective or perhaps a business and strategy perspective. We’ve a lot of knowledge in scaling across industrial sectors and scaling across open public and private sectors.

Finally, with regards to this prize, we believe that it is essential to love the nagging problem you are solving, not the answer that you’re building. Most probably for refinement, iteration, and strategic pivots.

Interested? Connect with win!

If you have a forward thinking solution that you imagine could win the Cisco Global Issue Solver Challenge 2021 Digital Inclusivity Prize, please go to our website to join up and find out about the application procedure. January 29 the application form deadline will be, 2021, at 5 p.m. PT.