Smiles all around from UCB Education & Entertainment team!
IEOR 185 students
Listening and evaluating to smart city business models created by the Indian student teams
Initiating the Smart Cities Open Innovation Challenge Competition
Booth Showcase
Indian students showcasing their business models at the booths
Indian students presenting their smart city business model
Indian Cultural Performances
A variety of exquisite and beautiful performances put on by Andhra University's Music and Dance Departments

Open Innovation often begins at the root of an issue, which leads to a holistic solution that benefits the triple bottom line: the people, planet, and profit. Indian teams reminded us about the importance of groundwork and the value of creating a bottom-up solution to help clear a problem from its root cause.

On Monday, January 4th, we spent the day at Andhra University listening to and evaluating models created by the Indian teams.  Each Indian team created a technological solution and business model that helped improve a particular sector within Vizag –a true testament of the use of Open Innovation within India. Booths were set-up outside the auditorium with demonstrations of their prototypes. About 29 teams presented and gave a 5 minute elevator pitch to a diverse group of judges. The day was filled with presentations, cultural showcases, and speeches from school officials, including a speech from our very own Professor Darwin.

While all the solutions were extremely commendable, quite a few stood out. Most teams did not know they had to create a business model until the day before, yet they managed to deliver well thought-out models. Most models emphasized the importance of improving and connecting current services and sectors already in place. For example, one model included an integrated healthcare system that connected the patient, doctors, insurance companies, and pharmaceutical companies. Other examples included a transportation system for the local police in order to optimize their routes in case of a disaster; a bus system that allows citizens to know how many seats are in a particular bus, so that their routes are planned ahead of time. Another project incorporated 5 solutions that interconnected housing and transportation to alleviate stress, especially during times of disasters and heavy traffic. The idea for housing was to create self-sustainable communities to minimize vehicle usage and generate employment. They identified a need within a community, while creating designs that kept the location and terrain in mind.

At the end of the day we received a special dinner invitation to the Vice Chancellor’s bungalow. With our stomachs filled with spicy Indian delicacies, we rested to prepare for tomorrow where we bring together everything we learned from the Indian teams, as we continue working on our own models.

Divya Suri