#InfyMakers Awards 2019 Winners

At Infosys Foundation USA, we're proud to support advancing maker education in K-12 populations across the United States. In pursuit of this mission, each year the Foundation holds the Infy Maker Awards competition to expand opportunities for more students to have access to maker activities. The contest is open to K-12 schools and youth-serving organizations who aim to create more opportunities for students to engage in hands-on, interdisciplinary learning through making. Ten organizations each receive a $10,000 grant.

This year's winners were announced this past weekend at the Nation of Makers' Collaborative Community-Wide Maker Convening (NOMCON) in Chattanooga, Tennessee. They hail from different communities across the country and will collectively reach over 5,000 underserved and underrepresented students though their Infy Makers grants.

Each of the awardees is taking a unique approach to expanding maker education in the communities they serve. From creating mobile makerspaces to developing programming for the blind to designing maker activates around social and environmental issues, these winners exemplify the true power of the maker spirit.

Learn more about the organizations and their plans for their Infy Maker grant below:

Council of Schools & Services for the Blind (Mableton, GA) Council for Schools and Services for the Blind will develop a series of modules for educators that provide online instructions, equipment and training for hands-on STEM activities adapted to the needs of blind students. @NiebruggeNancy

Discovery Cube OC (Santa Ana, CA) Discovery Cube OC will create a series of makerspace water challenges for students to learn about, design, and make innovative solutions to the issues of water scarcity and conservation in Southern California. @discoverycubeoc

Girls Write Now (New York, NY) Girls Write Now will grow its Digital Media Mentoring Program, including integrating multimedia curriculum across all programs and fostering youth-driven creativity at the intersection of language, technology, and art. @girlswritenow

HackSchool (Denver, CO) HackSchool will design and build a mobile HackSchool Make-Break-Tinker Lab to take its maker programming on the road into the community and into other schools. @hackschoolCO

People In Education (Detroit, MI) People In Education partners media artists with classrooms to facilitate student-led community investigations, which culminate in a collaborative media project and will continue this work through the 2019-2020 Artist in Residence program in three Detroit area classrooms. @PeopleInEd

Project Invent (Menlo Park, CA) Project Invent will host workshops in California and Vermont focused on making for social good for students who often don’t have access to maker programs. @project_invent

SAM Academy (Sanger, CA) SAM Academy will increase participation by underserved children and youth in rural San Joaquin Valley, CA with learning experiences in the Sanger SAM Academy Community Science Workshop (CSW), the Wilson Elementary Library CSW, Maker Festival, and the High School Art/Maker Mentor program. @SAMAcademyMaker

The Big-Brained Superheroes Club (Seattle, WA) The Big-Brained Superheroes Club will renovate its current lab and outreach assets to increase capacity and community awareness of its programming in the low-income Yesler neighborhood near downtown Seattle. @BBSuperheroes

The Whitney Workshop at the Eli Whitney Museum (Hamden, CT) The Whitney Workshop at the Eli Whitney Museum will double the scale and versatility of its Maker Programs in New Haven schools including the creation of Maker Carts to equip workshops in 6 schools. @sh_hill

Thinkery (Austin, TX) Thinkery will create a series of new hands-on projects for school groups at the museum’s maker space, engaging more than 25,000 students in meaningful making. @ThinkeryATX

For more information on the Infy Maker Awards or about the Infosys Foundation USA, email foundation.usa@infosys.com.