Living Progress Challenge Inspires Technology-based Ideas to Solve Society's Big Problems

Beyond our wildest dreams may sound like a cliché, but it is exactly how the members of the Living Progress Challenge team feel right now.

March 11 saw the close of the Idea and Proposal submission phases of the Living Progress Challenge—which invited the global community to submit their best ideas for software solutions and digital services that can improve lives.

By midnight we’d received almost 350 ideas and more than 130 proposals—three times the number we ever hoped to receive! The scope and brilliance of hundreds of great minds all thinking about how to make the world a better place through technology is truly inspiring.

• A tablet application that helps new mothers in developing countries ensure their babies receive appropriate vaccines on schedule
• An application to improve the business continuity of small and medium-sized businesses struck by natural disaster.
• A mobile app to help disabled youth and adults gain life skills and confidence to pursue independent living

These are just three of the bold, diverse proposals we received. A special thanks goes to the Hewlett Packard Enterprise Spark community, an internal global crowd made up of software engineers, designers and project managers that donated their expertise to help a number of NGOs enhance their proposals through co-innovation. 

That sense of excitement and potential was in full flood at the SXSW Interactive Conference held in Austin, Texas, March 11-15. The Living Progress Challenge was front and center in the Fast Company Grill where it was brought to life through a coloring-book style wall mural created by Austin-based artist Will Bryant. The mural enticed visitors to learn more about the Living Progress Challenge ideas and color elements of the stories that touched them.

I was honored to be interviewed by Fast Company one of the world’s leading progressive business media brands, about how HPE is working to bridge the digital divide by leveraging the power of the crowd and our cutting edge technology. I felt incredibly proud of the role the Living Progress Challenge is working to play in accelerating opportunity for people in need.

Right now the HPE team of reviewers is hard at work, evaluating the dozens amazing proposals we’ve received. On May 2 we’ll announce up to 20 proposals that will move on to be developed into prototypes by software developers, designers, project managers and data scientists from HPE and the crowdsourcing community.

Up to five finalists will move on to the final phase of the Challenge, where their prototypes will be developed into fully functional software solutions and deployed in regions around the world where they can positively impact lives.

I commend everyone who has participated and wish you all the very best of luck!