Lewis Award Program

One-time awards totaling up to $5,000 will be distributed via two 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.

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.

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 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.