Challenge, Accepted: Four TAF Academy Teams Provide Solutions for Comcast Network Outage

Earlier this month, four teams of four TAF Academy students presented solutions to a panel of judges during the culminating event of the Comcast NBCUniversal Innovation Challenge. The challenge was the first of its kind between Comcast and TAF in an effort to engage students in real-world problems and provide industry interaction and exposure.

For the challenge, students were presented with a hypothetical scenario involving a major earthquake coupled with a zombie apocalypse. They were charged with coming up with ways to restore communication and offer medical care given a $500 budget. Each team worked with a Comcast mentor and learned about the foundations of telecommunications to gain an understanding of how to best approach the challenge. The team who offered the most practical yet innovative solution would not only win the challenge but also receive college scholarships on behalf of Comcast.

After the four teams gave their presentation, judges had the opportunity to probe the students with questions to fill in any missing information that would aid in deciding the challenge’s winning team.

Read the full story on Undercurrents, a blog powered by Comcast, to learn about the creative solutions TAF Academy students offered as well as which team won the big prize!

Here are some pictures of the presentations, deliberation break, and the challenge winner announcement: