if you had a chance to make a difference in the world would you create an environment for children in developing countries to continue learning once the sun has gone down design a tool to decrease the massive amount of food that is wasted or develop an identification system for migrant workers to help them access jobs and secure finances those questions and others may be answered as the engineering entrepreneurship program at texas a&m university is hosting the first invent for the planet a 48-hour global design challenge that aims to solve some of the worlds most pressing problems from cambodia to new mexico 14 universities around the world are joining the challenge to invent for our planet the event kicks off in cambodia at 4 pm local time (3 am central time) feb 16 as the earth continues to rotate other universities will join the challenge invent for the planet will give engineering students around the world the ability to collaborate together to solve problems and experience what its like to be an engineer in our global society said rodney boehm director of the engineering entrepreneurship program adds m katherine banks texas a&m engineering vice chancellor and dean texas a&m is addressing the most challenging problems facing our world by encouraging the brightest young minds to develop innovative solutions from flood water management for rebuild texas to biomedical devices that help children in cambodia access health care the sun never sets on innovation and this is a wonderful example of engineers changing the world microsoft is providing a collaborative platform for teams to communicate with each other for example if a team in boise idaho is working on a challenge that might affect citizens of thailand team members can ask specific questions of mahidol university students in bangkok by video chatting or messaging venturewell and autodesk also have joined invent for the planet to provide support at each location teams are formed based on a shared interest in one of the available need statements over the following two days the teams research the topic come up with a plan and build a simple prototype at the end of the final day each team presents its prototype to a panel of judges presentations include a video about the teams innovation at each site three teams are selected for first second and third-place prizes the first-place teams from each university will have about a week to perfect their pitches before submitting new videos that will be judged remotely for a chance to be named the overall winner participating universities include the institute of technology of cambodia phnom penh cambodia; mahidol university bangkok thailand; the university of technology at yadanabon cyber city myanmar; texas a&m university at qatar doha qatar; technical university of cluj-napoca cluj-napoca romania; arab academy for science technology and maritime transport alexandria egypt; universidad politecnica de yucatan merida yucatan mexico; swansea university swansea wales; state university of pernambuco recife pernambuco brazil; wichita state wichita university kansas; arizona state university phoenix arizona; boise state university boise idaho; new mexico state university las cruces new mexico