Oregon Manifest is a non-profit that aims to show that bikes can make the world a better place. The Portland-based organization celebrates the craft, design, and innovation of bicycles by leading an biennial national competition that challenges top bike builders to create the ultimate utility bike, which can both survive a rigorous road trial and integrate seamlessly into everyday life.For Oregon Manifest, the utility bike is the transportation mode of the future for millions of Americans who wa

IDEO’s long-standing relationship with GRiD Systems has included the design of most major products in the company’s line. The PalmPad was designed to be its newest lightweight computer for use by nurses, inventory takers, police officers, and others who need to collect and retrieve information on the go.IDEO designers added comfort and “grip-ability” to the product by employing an elastomeric comolded material on all surfaces where the hand touches the unit. Two Velcro straps allow the PalmPad t

Codecademy’s reach is extensive and has rapidly grown: the site attracted an astonishing 200,000 users in the first seven days following its launch in 2011, and its current 24 million aspiring programmers represent a remarkably wide demographic that is evenly split between male and female, and the very young and the old, something that is unusual in the heavily young, male tech sector. A major factor in the platform’s popularity is its sense of community. Each aspiring programmer has his or her

We go to hospitals expecting to get better. But in many cases, they only make you sicker. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over 2 million Americans contract Hospital Acquired Infections (HAI), resulting in 100,000 deaths and over $30 billion in costs to the health care system per year. Experts agree: simply improving staff hand-washing habits could prevent these needless infections.Enter SwipeSense, Inc., the healthcare startup founded in 2012 by Mert Iseri and Yuri M

Eli Lilly and Company manufactures and markets an injectable, recombinant human growth hormone product. Patients of HGH therapy range from as young as age seven into adulthood. The treatment, which involves a challenging regimen of drug reconstitution and daily injections, becomes an integral part of a family’s life, often for years.Children with medical growth issues walk an emotional line between the negative stigma of being different from their peers and the positive celebration of growth. Li

Arye Barnehama and Laura Michelle Berman, the founders of Melon, believe that when people improve their focus, they feel more mindful, confident, and productive. To that end, the pair developed a breakthrough technology that enables people to measure their brain activity and track their mental focus—no doctor required.Melon ran a successful Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign in May and June 2013. More than 2,700 backers pledged $290,941, nearly triple the project’s fundraising goal.THE CHALLENGE