Close to 550 people attended Pi515’s 10th annual Day of Innovation and dinner, said Pi515 founder and executive director Nancy Mwirotsi.
The first year, about 100 people came to the event run on a shoestring budget of $500.
“That went to food, we learned to make sandwiches ourselves to serve the kids,” Mwirotsi said.
The Day of Innovation this year was April 24 at the John and Mary Pappajohn Education Center, followed by a dinner and awards ceremony at Northridge Event Center.
The day featured the culmination of two student programs: The AI Challenge, where college and high school students built artificial intelligence solutions for challenges ranging from Iowa’s agriculture sector to addressing chronic absenteeism and the Girls Entrepreneurship Incubator, where young women ages 14 to 22 develop and pitch business ideas.
“I don’t even know what they come up with until I see it, and then I cry,” Mwirotsi said. “Kids don’t have to go to Stanford to build. They can do it right here.”
Each challenge had $10,000 to share among winners and participants. For the AI Challenge, the prize was shared among the top three groups. For the Girls Entrepreneurship Incubator, $5,000 is shared among the top three and the remaining $5,000 is shared among anyone who pitches, Mwirotsi said. This year, each participant received $400.
“So as long as you pitch in the Girls Entrepreneurship Pitch Day, you will get something,” she said. “We don’t care how you use it.”
Historically, the Girls Entrepreneurship participants have put the money back into their businesses. The second-place winner last year used the money to buy uniforms and clothes for the girls in her dance group, a business she had been running for two years, Mwirotsi said.
The winners of this year’s Girls Entrepreneurship Incubator are:
- First place, Kiki Gbor (left in photo), $2,500. Gbor pitched Kiluxe Lashes, a premium lash service for women with health issues, post-menopausal women and luxury-seeking women.
- Second place, Frise Mukina (right in photo), $1,500. Mukina pitched Congo Connect, a nonprofit that teaches people about the Congo.
- Third place, Tama Gardoud (center in photo), $1,000. Gardoud pitched Draped, a business offering satin-lined headscarves and undercaps to help prevent hair damage caused by regular fabrics, targeting people — especially with curly or coily hair — who wear head coverings.
For the AI Challenge, the winning teams were:
- First place, Crop Disease Detection System, $5,000. An AI-powered plant disease identification and treatment solution for sustainable farming.
- Second place, Aqua Vitals, $3,000. An app that predicts fish survival.
- Third place, Zephyrus, $2,000. A solar smart forecast AI.
The Trailblazer award went to John Deere, Microsoft, BHE Renewables and Principal Financial Group. The Legacy award went to Dan Houston, executive chairman of Principal Financial Group.
“It is certainly energizing to be in a room with so many bright minds and rising stars,” said Debi Durham, director of the Iowa Finance Authority and the Economic Development Authority, who won Pi515’s Impact award at the event.
Durham said the thing she most admired about Mwirotsi was that she makes things happen.
“Your work on behalf of the youth and innovation in Iowa embodies the term impact. You’re a true role model,” she said.
Mwirotsi said her hopes for future Days of Innovation is to “make it bigger.”
“I really hope the businesses in town invest in it, because this is talent,” she said. “The future talent is going to be dependent on future [of] work skills. … We are ambitiously pushing AI.”