When 71 students from eight high schools from across Iowa converged on the Iowa Memorial Union on Sept. 19, they were greeted and motivated by several slogans:

Defeat Cancer. 

Conquer Cancer One Idea at a Time. 

And, perhaps most significant: Encourage Wild Ideas.

The event that brought the students to Iowa City was the popular DesignDash, hosted by the Jacobson Institute, the University of Iowa’s John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center K-12 division. But this time there was a slight spin (pivot if you will): Jacobson Institute partnered with the University of Iowa Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center in a continual quest to exterminate cancer. 

Hosting DesignDash is nothing new for Director Dawn Bowlus and her team in the Jacobson Institute. In fact, they have completed up to eight in a year. But teaming with the folks from Holden was a new and exciting wrinkle.

“We were thrilled to partner with Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center on a DesignDash that gave high school students a chance to tackle real cancer-related challenges,” Bowlus said. “It was STEM innovation in action, and I’m confident students left inspired and empowered as problem-solvers.” 

One of those students was Fyona Shi from Ames High School. Her group’s initial idea was to attack cancer-causing nicotine addiction by creating chewable gummies that included an a trifling dose of nicotine. The idea was to decrease the amount of nicotine until the user was no longer reliant. 

But once Shi and her group moved to its discovery phase, they realized a similar product already existed. Uh oh, the clock was ticking, but there was no panic.

“We had limited time and at the end we were crunched on time,” Shi said. “It was valuable to have an idea, realize this idea had its flaws, and then pivot to a new idea.”

The final product was using an alternative for nicotine, so it has the same feeling, but without health issues.

A few other cancer-related options tackled by students included adaptive apparel, alcohol, water quality, and radon.

The Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center received a grant from the National Cancer Institute to start a high school program. The moment the center became aware of DesignDash, it was a slam dunk of a partnership. 

“The more and more we heard, the more and more we were excited,” said Jon Houtman, deputy director of research, University of Iowa Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center. “We pitched to Dawn the idea of modifying DesignDash to surround questions that are important for cancer and could engage high school students in discussing ideas around cancer. It was this synergistic thing where the moment we talked about our goals and concepts we were in it together.”

Houtman said a goal of the cancer center over the past five years is to engage more with community to understand the thoughts and questions from various demographics. One group with little or no representation (until Sept. 19) was high school students.

“We’re excited about listening to students who have ideas bubble up,” Houtman said. “Maybe they bring up an idea where we say, Hey, that’s actually a pretty good one, and we can move that forward in our cancer research.”

Whether a life-saving idea or two surfaced at DesignDash is yet to be determined. What isn’t debatable is the energy the students put into the day-long event. 

“My favorite part is watching students from so many different places and so many different backgrounds meet each other and then collaborate on a project,” said Logan Chaloupka, an English teacher at Linn-Mar. “Usually the biggest stressor for the kids is, ‘Oh gosh, I have to meet people I don’t know.’ Then when they get put in their groups they really do take a shine to collaborating with strangers.”

Forming diverse teams is a DesignDash requirement. Each student group consists of 4-5 people and no more than two or three can be from the same high school. The teams then pick a problem, conduct research and discovery interviews, create a poster, and pitch to judges.

The partnership between Jacobson and Holden was a year and a half in the making. Students were briefed on the fact that Iowa has more than 1,300 cancer survivors under the age of 19. And, Iowa has the second-highest rate of new cancers in the United States.

On this day, there were no perfect answers, just ideas. It was seven hours packed with possibilities. 

“Share your wild ideas,” Bowlus said. “This is brainstorming on steroids.”

And when the day ended, this DesignDash wasn’t about finding a fool-proof solution. It was about sparking ideas, inspiring collaboration, and reminding students that their voices matter in any fight, especially against cancer.