Announcing the Hydra III Maker Scholarship

A few months ago I had the pleasure of being introduced to Moritz Bierling, the Science Ambassador at Exosphere. Exosphere markets itself as a learning and problem solving community that hosts immersive learning experiences in technology, science, and startups.

A bright 22-year old double college dropout from Germany, Moritz excitedly shared one of his big projects at Exosphere — organizing the world’s first space elevator bootcamp (you heard right), called Copernicus, earlier this year. For three weeks, students from various scientific and economic studies collaborated with entrepreneurs, professors, and professionals to do multidisciplinary research and build the initial plans and considerations for a working space elevator.

While the concept was exciting in its own right, I was particularly interested in how the programs Exosphere built combined people from a range of backgrounds, experience levels, ages, and world views to produce novel insights to create impactful opportunities. This way of bringing seemingly unrelated people and things together in playful, creative, and collaborative ways is exactly what made me fall in love with the maker movement I have spent a large part of my adult life building.

A few weeks later, I was on the on the phone with Exosphere’s founder, Skinner Layne. Skinner and I shared similar thoughts on the potential of the maker movement, and the need for bridges — individuals and organizations that are able to connect makers to one another, and to the resources to translate ideas and projects into tangible products.

So this year, I’m thrilled to sponsor a $1,500 Maker scholarship for one participant at Exosphere’s upcoming Hydra Startup Lab.

Hydra is an 8-week program (Jan 11-March 4th) in Viña del Mar, Chile for makers, entrepreneurs and problem-solvers to work together with some of the word’s top experts on how to apply emerging technologies (3D printing, biohacking, drones, robotics, virtual reality, and more) to the world’s most pressing problems.

The scholarship application is simple. Complete the Hydra application here, and denote that you’d like to be considered for the Maker Scholarship in the “How did you hear about Exosphere?” field.

I’ll be speaking personally with every applicant, and I’m excited to hear about your ideas and projects.

Both the Exosphere community and I believe that entrepreneurship is the force that will drive us into the future. But for this to happen:

1) Everybody needs to think about and focus on bigger problems than the ones we are currently targeting, and
2) We need to learn how to build sustainable businesses by applying emerging technology to solve these problems.

There’s no one technical solution to solve the grand challenges. Rather, we need to facilitate collaborative environments of different disciplines and cultures working together to provide access to better tools and resources.

Do you care enough to dig in, get dirty, and do what needs to be done to change the world for the better? I hope to see your application soon.