First Falling Walls Lab in Hawaii to be held May 4 at Institute for Astronomy

Photo courtesy of the Falling Walls Lab website.

The UH Mānoa Institute for Astronomy will host Hawaiʻi’s first Falling Walls Lab, with the local winner earning a presentation spot at the International Falling Walls Conference in Berlin, Germany, in November 2017.  

Applications are being sought for Falling Walls Lab – Hawaiʻi, to be held at the Institute for Astronomy, 2680 Woodlawn Drive, on Thursday, May 4, 2017.  Each participant will be given three minutes to present an original work of research, initiative or business model.

Applications will be accepted at www.falling-walls.com/lab until Friday, March 24, 2017.  A coaching session aimed at rehearsing the quickest and most efficient ways to present ideas will be held at IfA on May 2 and 3, 2017, prior to the May 4 local competition.

Expected to apply are bachelor and professional degree university students, holders of PhDs, professors, entrepreneurs and early-career professionals.

Groundbreaking research, projects, initiatives, ideas and business models from all disciplines are welcome. The aim of the Falling Walls Lab is to foster scientific and entrepreneurial innovations, and to promote the exchange between outstanding scholars and professionals emerging from different fields of expertise.

The Hawaiʻi winner of Falling Walls Lab will earn airfare, hotel and convention costs, as well as a presentation spot, at the Falling Walls Conference in Berlin on November 8-9, 2017.  

Said Michael Bruno, UH Mānoa Vice Chancellor for Research and Interim Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, "My experience in serving as a judge for the Falling Walls competition in November 2016 convinced me of the lasting value that the competition can have on the career aspirations of young people from across the world. It also convinced me that the competition, and its competitors, will gain immensely from the creativity and unique perspectives of the students at the University of Hawai’i.”

Added IfA Director Guenther Hasinger, who was in the audience of the Falling Walls Conference in 2016, “IfA is looking forward to hosting the state’s first Falling Walls Lab in Hawai’i. I believe that the Falling Walls competition offers our students the opportunity to not only demonstrate their creativity and passion to change the world, but also enables that message to be delivered from the Pacific, an area that is undergoing significant climate and geopolitical change.”

The Falling Walls Conference is an annual global gathering of forward-thinking individuals from over 75 countries.  Each year, it is held on November 9, which coincides with the anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989.  Twenty of the world’s leading scientists are invited to present their current breakthrough research in 15-minute presentations.

For further information and the online application form, please visit: www.falling-walls.com/lab

To view a Falling Walls Lab video, go to: https://vimeo.com/191254641 

For more information, visit: http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/