5 ‘World Changing’ Ideas Get $10 Million from Google

Five ‘world changing ideas’ are to share $US10 million in funding as the winners of Google’s Project 10^1000.

The 10^1000 project was launched 2 years ago by Google to find innovative solutions to global challenges.

Marking their tenth anniversary two years ago, Google launched Project 10^100 by posing a simple question: If you could suggest a unique idea that would help as many people as possible, what would it be?

Google says even its most optimistic expectations were surpassed when people from more than 170 countries submitted 150,000 ideas.

Just 16 ideas were selected by Google and put up for public voting, with the 5 ideas with the most votes winning the competition.

Google has spent 12 months reviewing proposals to tackle these ideas, and has announced a total of $US10 million funding to five organisations working on solutions to each of these global challenges.

Idea: Make educational content available online for free
Project funded: The Khan Academy is a Not for Profit educational organisation that provides high-quality, free education to anyone, anywhere via an online library of more than 1,600 teaching videos. Google is providing $2 million to support the creation of more courses and to enable the Khan Academy to translate their core library into the world’s most widely spoken languages.

Idea: Enhance science and engineering education
Project funded: FIRST is a Not for Profit organisation that promotes science and math education around the world through team competition. Its mission is to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders by giving them real world experience working with professional engineers and scientists. Google is providing $3 million to develop and jump start new student-driven robotics team fundraising programs that will empower more student teams to participate in FIRST.

Idea: Make government more transparent
Project funded: Public.Resource.Org is a Not for Profit organisation focused on enabling online access to public government documents in the United States. Google is providing $2 million to Public.Resource.Org to support the Law.Gov initiative, which aims to make all primary legal materials in the United States available to all.

Idea: Drive innovation in public transport
Project funded: Shweeb is a concept for short to medium distance, urban personal transport, using human-powered vehicles on a monorail. Google is providing $1 million to fund research and development to test Shweeb’s technology for an urban setting.

Idea: Provide quality education to African students
Project funded: The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) is a centre for math and science education and research in Cape Town, South Africa. AIMS’ primary focus is a one-year bridge program for recent university graduates that helps build skills and knowledge prior to Masters and PhD study. Google is providing $2 million to fund the opening of additional AIMS centres to promote graduate level math and science study in Africa.