Awards, Campus & community

150 years and 150 big, world-changing ideas

By Public Affairs

blum

To celebrate UC Berkeley’s 150th anniversary, the Blum Center for Developing Economies created an interactive graphic showcasing 150 Big Ideas winners. Big Ideas is the Blum Center’s annual student innovation contest, which since 2006 has provided funding, support, and mentoring to over 6,000 students seeking to have real-world impact in the areas of clean energy, global health and food security, among other global challenges.

Big Ideas is part of Cal’s burgeoning innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem. It has funded 478 ventures involving more than 1,500 student entrepreneurs. To date, the contest has disbursed $2.4 million in prizes to teams that have gone on to secure more than $480 million in investment. Every dollar invested by Big Ideas has leveraged 200 more to further these ideas.

We invite you to click on the squares in this interactive — designed by Joseph Kim, class of ’20 — to learn more about Cal students’ big, idealist and change-making ideas.

Check out 150 years of ideas