Accelerating Creativity and Passion At The Idea Incubator 2014

The Melton Foundation Idea Incubator helps cultivate Fellows’ creative ideas for tackling global challenges, so that these ideas can become reality and the projects can be scaled for success. For the third year, we invited Fellows to submit their innovative ideas to the program to receive personalized support and mentoring as they develop their ideas and translate them into action following our annual Global Citizenship Conference.

Hari Ravikumar is the co-author of The New Bhagavad-Gita, a translation of 
the ancient text into simple English.
 At various points in his life, he has worked as a software programmer, music teacher, copyeditor, product strategist, translator, graphic designer, and event manager. He also plays the violin and writes short stories.

Hari’s idea is to create Polyglutton, a method to teach languages in a fun and effective way through an online app. The method includes customizing the lessons to user needs, using intuition and familiarization rather than rote memorization, while also drawing heavily from local cultures.

Nickhil Sharma is a Mechanical Engineer, currently working with Mercedes-Benz R&D India. He loves travelling, writing, reading, and listening to music. He is interested in global citizenship, climate change mitigation and conflict resolution.

Nickhil’s idea is to create Chatting Global Citizens, a team of Melton Fellows who will design a curriculum to teach school kids the meaning of global citizenship and the roles of a global citizen. He plans to model
 his social enterprise based on inputs from the pilot he currently runs in Bangalore and expand to 5+ schools by the summer 
of 2015.

Diego Cantos is a Computer
 Science engineer and digital animator. He studied at Universidad
de La Frontera. He spent his life admiring art -- especially animation -- and how it can represent life in a beautiful and complex manner. He started Canzu Animation Studios, where he puts his skill and talent for animation into practice.

Diego’s idea is to create animated videos for learning and building understanding of different subjects. These videos will be elaborated, created
 and shared using social media 
and online networks.

Javier Mora is a cardiac surgeon who
 works in Santiago, Chile at a public hospital and a private clinic. He is also
 a professor of surgery at Universidad de Chile. He became a Melton Fellow in 1995 and has been an active member ever since. He has personal and family interest in business and investments.

Javier’s idea is to create The Entrepreneur Bunker, an international network of low cost lodging and working space for social, research and business entrepreneurs, offering the facilities and flexibility of an entrepreneurship microclimate.  

This year's Idea Mentors include: Victor Valenzuela, Divya Tyam, Sartaj Anand, Lars Dietzel