One-time awards totaling up to $5,000 will be distributed via award competitions in both fall and spring semesters, to the University of Colorado Denver (CU Denver) and Anschutz Medical Campus (CU Anschutz) students, postdoctoral fellows, or community members for the successful design and development of working product prototypes that have high potential to move toward commercialization. The award is open to individuals and teams who have developed a minimum viable product-service-system through CU Denver and/or CU Anschutz.

Make It Matter Award

This award champions the development of innovative solutions that address the world’s most challenging problems. Each fall and spring semester, the Lewis family will award $2,000 (taxes will apply) to the creator(s) of working product prototype ready to move toward commercialization. The award is open to individuals and teams who have developed a product, good, or service in collaboration with a CU Denver and/or CU Anschutz program. A brief application along with a business plan, slide deck, and video are required to be eligible for the Make It Matter award. 

If I Can't Fix It Milestone Award

This award provides $500 to stand-out individuals and teams with strong product concepts or initial prototypes each fall and spring semester, intended to incentivize continued development on early designs and progress toward a minimum viable product.

Fall 2021 Winners

Make it Matter - Winner

Colorado Oral Strengthening Device - Elizabeth Cuadrado, Dannie Fink, Matthew Clary, Megan McDonnell, Robert Elliot, Aaron Treat (CU Anschutz Medical Campus)

If I Can't Fix It Milestone Winner

Ghost Print - Nikolas Dowling, Oscar Maldonado, Atiayo Viafora (CU Denver)

Other submissions receiving judge’s recognition as excellent innovations:

Smart Classroom - Tai Nguyen, Fredrico, Ivan, Nicole, Ngan (CU Denver)

Ticket Me - Eric Sherman, Matthew DeVries, Lucas Johnson, Aaron MuCune, Matthew Ward (CU Denver)

Mod Mask - Awoh-manyi Bate, Annes Benoucef, Alexander Moon, Ada Amolo (CU Denver)

A Breath of Fresh Air - Brenton Yu, Jacob Bradly, Was Aslamy, Miguel Leal (CU Denver)

Organic Chemistry Submission - Andrew Colson, David Frost, Hunter Lazar (CU Denver)

Spring 2021 Winners

Make it Matter - Winner

Facehugger - Abby Krohn, Daniel Rodriguez, Inworks I CU Denver

If I Can't Fix It Milestone Winners (unranked)

Dynamic Forceps - Brandon Manusov, Dr. Maria Albuja-Cruz, Monika Wittig, Inworks (CU Anschutz)

Epidural Hematoma - Dr.  Alexis Cralley, Inworks (CU Denver)

Smart Desk System - Connor Wilson, CU Denver College of Engineering, Design and Computing

Five Points to Five Notes - Ryan Breuer, CU Denver Comcast Media and Technology Center

Other submissions receiving judge’s recognition as excellent innovations:

Robotic Vehicle Sensor Placement System - Ariel LaFuente, CU Denver College of Engineering, Design and Computing Capstone

Bleuth - Dr. Laing He, CU Denver CU Denver College of Engineering, Design and Computing

A Cognitive Vaccine for Perioperative Anxiety - Marie Evans, Inworks (CU Denver)

Wearable Stress-Measurement Device - Claire Charlton, CU Denver CU Denver College of Engineering, Design and Computing Capstone

BLOQUE - Saeed Amirchaghmaghi, CU Denver, Design Horizons

Fall 2020 Winners

  • Make It Matter Award 1st Place: Make4Covid, Andrew Henderson, Lauren Hebert, Dan Griner, Kelsie Faulds, and Kate Goodman. A social innovation, a crowd-sourced organization to design, develop, and deliver Personal Protection Equipment to Colorado during the pandemic.
  • Milestone Award 1st Place: Domain of Discourse, Ishea Lee and Keeley Elliott. A virtual game where participants use healthy communication to discuss contentious topics. Support team: Keith Contois, Afu Vue, Davis-Jay Harris, Gus Williams, Tammy Dinh, and Ayesha Akhtar.
  • Milestone Award 2nd Place: Active Portals, Michael Sperandeo, and Ryan Buxton. A virtual distribution portal for individuals to connect with each other and access digital content.
  • Milestone Award 3rd Place: Community Gym, Afu Vue. Building community resilience after COVID-19 using Design Innovation principles. Support team: Keeley Elliott, Chilli Kellaway.

The Lewis Family

Our family is honored to offer these awards because we were inspired by the Inworks tagline, “Make It Matter.” The Inworks community and program is something that our late father, Drew, and our late Aunt Nancy would have loved, encouraged and embraced. We have been guided by the memory of these two family members to encourage others to be who they are, enjoy everything they do, and make a difference within their community. The legacy they left with us was to make the lives of others easier by always being there to help and to make our work kind and impactful. Even though they're not with us today, the two Lewis Family Awards will honor our father and our aunt by sharing their spirit of encouraging meaningful progress in the world.