School Yourself enters the Dell Education Challenge competition for 2012

We've entered the Dell Education Challenge 2012 and Dell Social Innovation Challenge 2013 competitions.

Please take a moment to vote for us!
http://www.dellchallenge.org/projects/school-yourself

If we advance, we'll get to go make a pitch in Austin, TX this December. And we really, really want to go show off what we've been working on. Thanks for the support!

Dr. Zach Wissner-Gross!

Speaking on "Symmetry Breaking in Neuronal Development," our CEO Zach Wissner-Gross defended his dissertation in Physics from Harvard. Friends and family were on hand to celebrate, and now Zach can look forward to working full-time at School Yourself. He'll officially receive his degree in November of this year.

He probably won't be writing any books on developmental neurophysics anytime soon, but it's comforting to know that we have an expert on hand.

Congratulations, Dr. Zach!

School Yourself a finalist in the Harvard President's Challenge

Harvard's President's Challenge (organized by the Innovation Lab at Harvard) has announced the 10 finalists (out of 170 entries) in the inaugural competition, and School Yourself is among them! We were named one of the two finalists in the education category. The finalists will each be awarded $5,000 and summer space at the Innovation Lab (or "iLab" for short). The teams will then be competing at a later Demo Day for a prize of $100,000.

We definitely plan to make great use of the space!

Here's the list of all 10 finalists:

• SPOUTS of Water’s proposal is to create a self-sustaining ceramic water filter factory in Uganda.
• Slum Sanitation Solutions proposes placing toilet systems in slums and monetizing the systems by using biodigesters to create fuel and fertilizer from waste.

• Balanced Kitchen proposes a casual-restaurant concept that offers great-tasting and nutritionally balanced food at competitive prices through interactive menus based on the latest health research.
• ScentShare plans to harness and capitalize on the power of scent by using odorants on small chips as a virtual placebo to improve personal well-being and to reduce appetite and increase satiety in users.

• School Yourself proposes bringing books alive for a new generation of students accustomed to interactive games by creating immersive and interactive electronic textbooks in math and science for high school and college students.
• Crimson.com will enable better peer collaboration on schoolwork, using a nonmonetary incentive scheme and the development of a suite of learning and teaching applications.

• Revolving Fund Pharmacy proposes tackling issues involving delivery of life-saving medications by creating a supply chain model for government health facilities in Kenya.
• Vaxess proposes using silk to stabilize vaccines, eliminating the use for cold-chain transport, which lowers distribution costs and puts more vaccines in the hands of people in remote areas and developing countries, where they are needed most.

• Zoom hopes to bring the car-sharing business model to Indian cities, providing vehicle availability to millions while removing vehicles from the road and reducing miles driven.
• Essmart proposes bridging the gap between producers of essential technology and global consumers through proposed distribution plans.