Meet the Solver Teams: Introducing our 8 Community-Driven Innovators

In March, we launched the Community-Driven Innovation Challenge and asked innovators around the world a critical question: How can citizens and communities create and improve social inclusion and shared prosperity?

The response was impressive, with 580 teams submitting their ideas from 85 countries. These innovators are responding to the changing nature of economic, social, and political inclusion and engagement in a variety of ways, from using tech to provide on-demand assistance to visually impaired users, to enabling citizens to crowdsource data about public infrastructure and demand better services. You can learn more about the submission trends here.

On September 22, the Community-Driven Innovation Challenge Leadership Group had the difficult task of narrowing down the list of 15 exceptional finalists who were invited to pitch their solutions live at Solve Challenge Finals. Today, we are delighted to announce the eight teams who will join the 2019 Solver Class and receive support from the Solve community as they scale their innovative solutions.

Aira

Aira integrates emerging technologies like AI, augmented reality, and smartphones with its network of agents to provide blind users with on-demand access to information and assistance. 

Elpis Solar

Elpis Solar provides “solar hubs” to underserved refugee communities, enabled with off-grid water filtration, mobile charging, provision of digital services, and light. These solar hubs are operated by refugees, who by enabling essential services in their communities, earn wages and are financially empowered. They can then pass on these benefits to the communities where they have settled. 

The Future is Offline

The Future is Offline, developed by Libraries Without Borders, unleashes the potential of refugees by providing them with access to learning and skills development opportunities through offline access to digital learning materials. 

POKET

POKET is an Android app that boosts small retailers in emerging economies by incentivizing regular users to map their communities. POKET confronts the key challenges for discoverability, visibility, city planning, and enterprises requiring retail insights and maps these places by creating a crowd-sourced, consensus-driven registry of new unmapped merchants.

RETOS

RETOS is an AI-powered web platform that facilitates, enhances, visualizes, and predicts connections between thousands of challenges posted by rural communities—and academic or practitioner counterparts in local universities. 

RevelaGov 

RevelaGov harnesses AI technology, big data, and citizen participation to confront corruption in Brazil. 

Supercívicos

Supercívicos is a citizen journalism video app that crowdsources data about public infrastructure and public services issues in Latin American cities. 

WheeLog!

WheeLog! enables wheelchair users, people with reduced mobility, and others to access and share accessibility information through an interactive map that lets users see the accessibility of public spaces and the routes they can take. 

Feeling inspired? Find out how you can support these innovators and learn more about joining Solve as a Member.

Photo: Joe Jenkins / MIT Solve