Make48 returns to Wichita State University to launch the 10th season of the invention competition and host teams from its first Classroom Innovation Experience on March 20-22.

Tom Gray, CEO and co-founder of Make48, views this visit to the Wichita State campus as a full-circle moment.

“Returning to Wichita for our 10th season feels like a homecoming,” he said. “When we first brought Make48 to GoCreate, we were blown away by the city's unique density of doers – from world-class aerospace engineers to the students and educators who are redefining innovation and entrepreneurship daily.”

The competition takes place at GoCreate, a Koch Collaborative. GoCreate hosted the 48-hour collaborative inventor and maker challenge in June 2021.

Make48 is a nationwide invention competition docuseries that gives teams a challenge at the start of a three-day event. Within 48 hours, teams must create a prototype, promotional video, and sales sheet, and present their idea to a panel of judges.

Housed within the John Bardo Center at Wichita State, GoCreate is a premier workspace open to creators of all ages and experience levels to bring their ideas and projects to life. The 18,000-square-foot space features studios for 3D printing, design, electronics, woodworking, finishing, metals, welding and textiles with an evolving inventory of sophisticated tools, machinery and equipment.

During the 48-hour sprint, teams will utilize expert Tool Techs and Mentors to transform their sketches into physical, working prototypes. The stakes are high: the first and second-place winners from the Wichita event advance to the National Championship this fall. There, they will face a brand-new challenge and compete against the best teams in the country for the ultimate Season 10 title.

This season's kickoff follows a highly successful nationwide Classroom Challenge tour.

Last fall, students across the country worked to solve complex, real-world problems. The top teams from across the region secured their spots in the Wichita tournament.

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Wichita State University is Kansas' only urban public research university, enrolling more than 25,000 students between its main campus and the WSU Campus of Applied Sciences and Technology (WSU Tech), including students from every state in the U.S. and more than 100 countries. Wichita State and WSU Tech are recognized for being student-centered and innovation-driven.

Located in the largest city in the state with one of the highest concentrations in the United States of jobs involving science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), Wichita State University provides uniquely distinctive and innovative pathways of applied learning, applied research and career opportunities for all of our students. The National Science Foundation ranked WSU No. 1 in the nation for aerospace engineering R&D, No. 2 for industry- and defense-funded engineering R&D and No. 9 overall for engineering R&D.

The Innovation Campus, which is a physical extension of the Wichita State University main campus, is one of the nation’s largest and fastest-growing research/innovation parks, encompassing over 120 acres and is home to a number of global companies and organizations.

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