From: betaboston.com

Good news, world. The Harvard Innovation Lab has announced the finalists for the 2015 President’s Challenge, a contest in which teams of students write and assemble proposals to tackle some of the planet’s most entrenched problems.

The 10 winning teams will receive $5,000 each to develop their proposals and a chance to compete in the final round of the competition. The grand prize winner will receive $100,000.

Teams submitted proposals in one of five categories, including education innovation, affordable health care, energy and the environment, economic development and sustainable employment, and connected cities.

Here are the ten finalists:

Clear Breath – proposed a low-cost pollution mask for the millions living in poverty in smog-filled cities

Colterwell – a down hole pumping system to help with the deliquification of natural gas wells

Labs on Wheels – developed a resource learning platform to promote hands-on learning in STEM fields

PolityPro – developed a crowdfunding platform for political consultancy

Porter’s Referral Center – proposed addressing information problems in recruiting mountain porters for trekking in Nepal

RapidSOS – proposed a system to commercialize communications systems for emergency response

RumiSpice – wants to cultivate Afghan saffron in order to boost economic development in the region and promote peace

Safire – proposed working with farmers in order to create clean fuel from accumulated waste products

The Urban Farmers Project – proposed bringing aquaponics to urban centers to promote sustainable food and boost nutrition

TetraScience – proposed a platform for drug discovery based off of physical technological platforms

The competition winners will be announced by Harvard President Drew Faust on April 23 at the President’s Challenge Demo Day. In addition to the grand prize winner, the president will also choose up to three runners-up to distinguish.

The President’s Challenge is one of five challenges hosted by Harvard’s i-lab. The others include the Deans’ Health and Life Sciences Challenge, Deans’ Cultural Entrepreneurship Challenge, and two new challenges added this year, the Deans’ Food System Challenge and Deans’ Innovation in Sport Challenge.