The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, in collaboration with the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University, is sponsoring a business design and innovation competition to redefine the tire for the Internet of Things.
The Goodyear Innovation Challenge invited teams of four to five business school graduate students to submit an intelligent tire business case by Oct. 10 in response to a design brief for the chance to compete in a two-day hackathon at Case Western Reserve’s Larry Sears and Sally Zlotnick Sears think[box], a world-class center for innovation and entrepreneurship.
“There is no question that you can improve vehicle performance by adding intelligence to tires—it’s already happening,” said Jim Euchner, vice president of global innovation at Goodyear. “The question is what are you sensing, and how do you integrate that data with the vehicle in a way that adds value not only for the automaker, but also for the driver.”
Five team proposals will be selected to participate in the Nov. 10-11 hackathon in Cleveland, where students will be asked to design a service by validating user needs, brainstorming concepts, prototyping the best fit, and developing “back of the envelope” business model calculations.
“This is not like the typical app development contest,” said Case Western Reserve design and innovation Professor Youngjin Yoo. “We are seeing a moment where an industry is literally being reimagined. It is as real as it gets when it comes to digital innovation.”
A jury of Goodyear executives and Weatherhead School professors will select the first, second and third place winners for awards of $5,000, $3,000 and $2,000, respectively. In addition, the first place team will have the opportunity to interview for a position on Goodyear’s global innovation team.
For more information, including proposal rules, visit design.case.edu/.