The Big Ideas @ Berkeley Initiative was launched in 2005 to provide funding, advice, and encouragement to interdisciplinary teams of UC Berkeley undergraduate and graduate students who have "big ideas."

Since its founding, UC Berkeley’s annual “Big Ideas” prize competition has inspired innovative and high-impact student projects aimed at solving the world’s most pressing problems. By seeking out novel proposals and then supporting efforts to help them succeed, BigIdeas has produced remarkable results.

Past Big Ideas winners are now making an impact all over the world. Student teams are engineering water purification systems, perfecting low-cost solar heaters, building mobile digital devices that improve literacy, and diagnosing malaria in remote villages using a cell phone equipped with a powerful microscope. Closer to home, Big Ideas winners are focused on adding to Cal’s curriculum, making campus more green and improving student spaces. Beautify Berkeley developed a plan for Lower Sproul Plaza to improve this part of UC Berkeley’s campus for benefit of the entire community.

Propelled by the energy, enthusiasm and results of the Big Ideas competition, the Andrew and Virginia Rudd Family Foundation has generously committed to supporting Big Ideas -- and hopes that others will join them in providing support to students at the greatest public university on the planet! Please email bigideas@berkeley.edu to get involved.

For more detailed information on the Big Ideas @ Berkeley Initiative, check out the Big Ideas Homepage.