While the School of Engineering & Applied Science may teach students to find practical solutions to real-world problems, a new competition challenges them to think outside the box now and worry about implementation later.

Washington University’s newly unveiled Discovery Competition, which kicks off this fall and runs through next April, will offer $25,000 to a winning team that presents the best solution to a real-world problem to encourage them to create a business to pursue their idea.

“The number one feedback, from all of the alumni and the people we have run the competition idea by is: please solve the problem first, the business plan will come,” said Dennis Mell, professor of practice in electrical engineering and Discovery Competition coordinator.

The competition complements existing entrepreneurial contests on campus, like the Olin Cup, but is distinct in its focus on solution development to earn the prize.

Only six teams have run ideas by Mell so far, but he expects more will enter before the Oct. 7 registration and idea submission deadline.

The competition also offers to match people who have engineering expertise but no business plan with those who have entrepreneurial ideas but no engineering background, in order to fill gaps in teams and create a more diverse group of individuals.

A multitude of co-curricular programs exist to integrate entrepreneurial studies with coursework, including an entrepreneurial specialization in the Brown School of Social Work and the Olin Business School’s Hatchery, a course that helps students connect with outside entrepreneurs for support.

Co-curricular entrepreneurial opportunities like the Discovery Program help guide students and provide problem-solving support. They also help facilitate the development of new ideas.

Mell hopes undergraduates will be excited by the application of coursework that could seem distant or irrelevant.

“The engineers tend to not be doing real engineering for a while, so sometimes they lose interest,” Mell said.

Some students also find that class curriculums may not seem applicable to the real world.

“You definitely need theory to base practice off of, but sometimes you can feel like it’s too far away, you can grow impatient with it sometimes,” said Denis Balaban, a senior studying biomedical engineering.

Mell emphasized that students have nothing to lose by participating in the competition.

“You have to look at it as a game,” Mell said. “There’s no penalty for not succeeding.”

Steve Malter, interim associate dean of undergraduate programs at Olin Business School, agreed that regardless of who wins, all the teams will gain valuable experience.

“This is the perfect time to be able to take a risk because, at the end of the day, failure is not that big a deal,” Malter said. “More importantly…if you do fail, what do you learn from it? What would you do differently and how do you improve?”