Cal Poly Students Awarded $15,000 in Fourth Annual Change the World Challenge

Three students holding a giant check.
(From left) Grace Kathryn Hurley (manufacturing engineering), Lea Joan Graham (natural resources management and environmental sciences) and Zoila Anuri Kanu (computer science and software engineering) won first place in the 2025 Change the World Challenge for their product, Buzz Off. They received $15,000 to continue to develop their product with the goal of making a positive impact on the world.

Three Cal Poly students were awarded $15,000 to fund their innovative product at the fourth annual Change the World Challenge.

The interdisciplinary competition is a transformative student design challenge created to address the world’s most pressing contemporary problems.

A group of students at a competition posing for a photo.
The five finalist teams at the 2025 Change the World Challenge gathered for a group photo before the top three teams were announced.

Bill Swanson, a 1973 industrial engineering alumnus and retired Raytheon chairman and CEO, started the Change the World Challenge to give students a chance to address global challenges.

This year’s winners, Lea Joan Graham (natural resources management and environmental sciences), Grace Kathryn Hurley (manufacturing engineering) and Zoila Anuri Kanu (computer science and software engineering), presented their product, Buzz Off, to a panel of judges and placed first among five finalist teams.

A student handing over a product prototype to a competition judge.
Lea Graham presenting a prototype of Buzz Off to the Change the World Challenges judges.

This year’s judges included Susie Armstrong, senior vice president of engineering at Qualcomm; Ed Burnett, retired Lockheed Martin engineer; Michael Allwein, technical director at General Atomics Aeronautical Systems; Sara Ford, senior developer relations engineer at Google; and Roger Benham, CEO of Leak Control Services and Materials Engineering Department lecturer.

A group of people clapping after a presentation.
The 2025 Change the World Challenge judges

Change the World Challenge participants worked closely alongside faculty mentors who guided the students throughout the process. This year’s mentors were Christina Firpo (history), Eric Sapper (chemistry and biochemistry), Miranda Yin (marketing), Priya Verma (natural resources management and environmental sciences) and John Oliver (computer engineering).

A group of student participants posing with faculty mentors at the 2025 Change the World Challenge.
The top five teams alongside this year’s faculty mentors.

The Change the World Challenge is directed by industrial and manufacturing engineering Assistant Professor Jill Speece.

Three students taking a selfie with a giant check.
(From left) Grace Kathryn Hurley (manufacturing engineering), Lea Joan Graham (natural resources management and environmental sciences) and Zoila Anuri Kanu (computer science and software engineering) posing with their first-place check in the 2025 Change the World Challenge for their product, Buzz Off. They received $15,000 to continue to develop their product with the goal of making a positive impact on the world.

By Taylor Villanueva

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