The Stanford Center on Longevity invites university students from around the world to compete to win the grand prize of $10,000 USD in the 2023-2024 Design Challenge: “Designing for Life Transitions.”

Students are invited to create solutions that help make life transitions more meaningful or healthy. As it becomes increasingly common to live for 100 years, the traditional life course will become more complex and flexible. People may take time off at different points in their work lives to focus on family or personal development; they might return to school more than once, and they are likely to change careers several times; they may retire, only to re-enter the workforce in an entirely new capacity.

The 2024 Stanford Center on Longevity Design Challenge invites student designers to help develop a new vision for how to move through these new life transitions. Designs may include physical products, digital solutions, or programs, and can address a life transition at any point in the life span. The list of life transitions that can be addressed by design is long and includes (but is not limited to) transition such as:

• Moving out of a family home to live independently
• Cohabiting with roommates (of the same or different generations)
• Moving to a different location or community and adapting to a new culture or language
• Downsizing in later life
• Completing a stage of education (could happen multiple times at different ages)
• Getting retrained or going back to school
• Joining the working world (at any age)
• Changing or losing a career
• Retiring
• Starting an encore career
• Becoming a volunteer
• Getting married, re-married, or committing to a long-term partner
• Transitioning to single life after divorce
• Becoming a parent, grandparent, or great-grandparent by birth or adoption
• Transitioning from a family environment to an “empty nest” in mid-life
• Taking on caregiving duties for a loved one
• Adjusting to the death of a partner, parent, child, or close friend
• Beginning or ending military service
• Joining or leaving a religious or civic community
• Adapting to environmental or societal changes (e.g., natural disaster, political instability)
• Moving to a life that accommodates a chronic disease or disability
• Changing diet or fitness routine
• Going through puberty or menopause
• Other (you may write in another life transition in your application)

Eligibility:

• Each team must consist of at least one full-time student from any accredited institution of higher education anywhere in the world (can be undergraduate or graduate)
• Teams may have a total of up to 5 members, and may include non-students. Students may also compete alone, as a team of 1.
• Only students are allowed to present at the Finals