NSF News

This week with NSF Director Panchanathan


This week, U.S. National Science Foundation Director Sethuraman Panchanathan welcomed the nine winners of the Visionary Interdisciplinary Teams Advancing Learning (VITAL) Prize Challenge to NSF headquarters. 

This week, U.S. National Science Foundation Director Sethuraman Panchanathan welcomed the nine winners of the Visionary Interdisciplinary Teams Advancing Learning (VITAL) Prize Challenge to NSF headquarters.

The VITAL Prize Challenge asked teams to take novel approaches to bringing new, emerging innovations to K-12 learning. The competition began with 100 teams in the Discovery Round, 54 teams advancing to the semi-final round and 18 teams further advancing to the final round. Transformative innovations from the winning teams include hyper-personalized career discovery for young people, a game-based learning platform to support problem-based learning, and multisensory learning systems for students who are blind or have low vision. 

This $6 million prize challenge is possible through a partnership between NSF and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Schmidt Futures and the @Walton Family Foundation.

Learn more about the innovations, winners and details behind NSF's VITAL Prize Challenge. 

This week, U.S. National Science Foundation Director Sethuraman Panchanathan welcomed the nine winners of the Visionary Interdisciplinary Teams Advancing Learning (VITAL) Prize Challenge to NSF headquarters.