Elite student teams from around the world will gather in Blacksburg, Virginia, USA to celebrate global entrepreneurship and to compete for the VT KnowledgeWorks Global Challenge Trophy. The objectives of the challenge are to celebrate the energy and creativity of university students, recognize their important contributions to the global economy, and encourage them to develop their entrepreneurial ideas.  The Challenge provides a unique opportunity for students to initiate their personal global networks through learning, socialization, and friendly competition. 

Thanks to our generous sponsors participating students will incur no food or lodging expenses during their week-long stay in Virginia.  Students or their sponsors are responsible for transportation to and from their home countries to the Roanoke Regional Airport, and a minimal event registration fee.

Learn more about the Rules and Guidelines, Team Registration, and Student Track Agenda.

The Prizes

Students will compete for a $25,000 grand prize and VT KnowledgeWorks Global Challenge Trophy.  The Award itself is a travelling trophy that will reside throughout the year at the home institution of the winning student team.  At the close of each annual celebration and final competition the name of the winning team, their university name, and their home city will be etched into the base of the trophy as a permanent tribute to their outstanding effort.  

Each of the top two runner-up teams will receive $5,000 cash awards.  All participants will take home priceless memories and a personal global network of student friends.

Check out this video produced by the Artbeating team from Paris, France recapping their experiences from the 2010 Global Student Challenge!

Finalists of the 2010 Global Student Challenge

Top honors for the 2011 Global Student Challenge went to Guillermo Vargas Keith, Matias Rojas, Andrés Testón, and Mauricio Ulloa of team Kimeltu representing Pontifical Catholic University of Chile in Santiago, Chile. Their winning concept is a web platform which allows educators to measure students' performance and to monitor their progress by taking easily generated tests.

Two runner-up teams, Bio-Sense Diagnostics representing the University of Kent in England and OOHLALA Mobile representing the University of Toronto in Canada, each received $5,000.