The VA Innovation Creation Series aims to facilitate development of personalized technologies to improve care and quality of life for veterans. A curated list of challenge areas facing Veterans with disabilities are posted on Innocentive and GrabCad, which are both online open innovation challenge sites, from May to July. Designers, engineers, and all other solvers can contribute initial design solutions based on the expressed needs and challenges. Feedback will be provided, and the designs will be improved and iterated upon over the course of the innovation series. The VA Innovation Creation Series will culminate in a 2-day “make-a-thon” event at the Richmond VA Medical Center where the online designs will be built and tested to showcase how they meet the needs of Veterans.

At the makeathon, we will have speakers highlighting the need areas and opportunities facing our Veterans. A summary of these challenge can be found on the VA Innovation Creation Series site. In addition, participants will have the opportunity to pitch or present different problems or painpoints impacting differently-abled Veterans. Based on this pitches, teams will form and we will provide prototyping equipment along with mentorship support from Veterans and technical experts to help you co-design and develop your ideas to ultimately demo on the afternoon of July 29th.

We are also thrilled to collaborate with the Ipsos Girls Lounge. The Ipsos Girls Lounge, an experiential engagement Pop Up Box, will be featured at the event and will be a hub for mentoring activities at the event.

Schedule for the makeathon

Tuesday, July 28th

• 8:00 - 8:30AM: Registration
• 8:30 - 10:0AM: Opening remarks and keynote presentations
  
• 10 - 10:30AM: First round of pitche
• 10:30 - 11:00AM: First team formation/network
• 11:00- 11:30AM: Second round of pitches
• 11:30AM - 12:00PM: Team formation
• 12:00 - 8:00PM: Making, prototyping, and mentoring

Wednesday, July 29th

• 8AM - 3PM: Making, prototyping, and mentoring
• 3-5PM: Demo presentations
  
• 5 - 5:30PM: Judging + closing remards from Dr. Beck
  

Release and Limitations of Liability:

By participating in the make-a-thon, entrants agree to release and hold harmless VA, its partners, sponsors, their parent and related companies, and their respective officers, directors, employees, and agents (the “Released Parties”) from and against any claim or cause of action arising out of participation in the make-a-thon or receipt or use of any prize, including, but not limited to: (a) unauthorized human intervention in the make-a-thon; (b) technical errors related to computers, servers, providers, or telephone or network lines; (c) printing errors; (d) lost, late, postage-due, misdirected, or undeliverable mail; (e) errors in the administration of the make-a-thon or the processing of entries; or (f) injury or damage to persons or property which may be caused, directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, from entrant’s participation in the make-a-thon or receipt of any prize. Entrant further agrees that in any cause of action, the Released Parties’ liability will be limited to the cost of entering and participating in the make-a-thon, and in no event shall the Released Parties be liable for attorney’s fees. Entrant waives the right to claim any damages whatsoever, including, but not limited to, punitive, consequential, direct, or indirect damages.

VA employees can participate, but the prize for an employee is limited to plaque, certificate or other presentation item with little intrinsic value. Multiple entries are welcome. Team entries are welcome.

By participating in the VA Innovation Creation Series, entrants agree that any designs and intellectual property (e.g. copyrights, patents, trade secrets) created under this project will be freely available as part of the open source network and shared with the greater community to promote innovation in this space.