The News Wheel
No Comments

University of Pittsburgh Team Wins Ford C3 “Making Lives Better by Changing the Way People Move” Challenge

Decrease Font Size Increase Font Size Text Size Print This Page

Making Lives Better by Changing the Way People Move

In celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Ford College Community Challenge (C3), Ford held the finals of a competition called “Making Lives Better by Changing the Way People Move” at the end of October. Three winning teams representing colleges from across the nation were selected from a field of 10 to pitch their ideas at Ford World Headquarters, with the grand-prize-winning team earning $10,000 and a Ford Transit Connect for the advancement of their ideas.


Shopping for a New Ford? See current sales and lease offers


The winning pitch was the Aquaponics Project, presented by students from the University of Pittsburgh, which posits the idea of combatting hunger and food scarcity by focusing on portable aquaponics, reduction of food waste, and soil remediation.

In second place was Coahoma Mobile Education, a project aimed at making arts and technology available to kids in Coahoma County, Mississippi. The project is a collaborative effort between Olin College of Engineering, Babson College, and Wellesley College. That project earned a prize of $20,000.

In third place, Michigan Tech’s Enterprise Program developed a Medical Transportation Management System to help its partner organization, Little Brothers—Friends of the Elderly. This project, which helps double the number of elderly citizens able to utilize Little Brothers—Friends of the Elderly’s free service, received a prize of $10,000.

“Ford C3 has been a tremendously successful program in that it has completely changed our mindset on how we engage with college students,” said Mike Schmidt, director of education and global community development, Ford Motor Company Fund. “Through C3, we recognized that students can be a huge force for good and that if we give them the right support, they can change in the world. And we are doing that, now, on a global scale.”

The other seven finalist teams—representing Harvard University, Kettering University, Purdue University, Brigham Young University, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Michigan, and University of Michigan—Ann Arbor—split $25,000 in grant funding.


Need a Quick Quote? Try Black Book’s free credit score estimator


Next-Article-Button