As part of the sesquicentennial celebration, the Office of the Chancellor launched a grant program to support activities and projects that engage with the university’s history, look ahead to its future, and explore what makes Vanderbilt distinctive and unique, and the Wond'ry was awarded one of these grants to produce an innovation challenge encompassing the theme of Sustainability, which led to the creation of the Commodore Cup.

The Wond'ry team kicked off the Commodore Cup on September 7th, in partnership with the Division of Administration and Clearloop. At the kickoff, participants received an overview of the challenges and guidelines, and met with the partners, as well as the Wond'ry team, assisted them through the design process.

Design criteria and constraints to inform design were provided in the design guide at kick off for full details. Teams will had access to office hours, mentors and advisors to help them flesh out their design and refine their final submission. We also partnered with Dores Design and student designers helped to bring their ideas to life.

For more information for the Wond'ry Innovation Platform (WIP) please contact Kelsey Driscoll at kelsey.g.driscoll@vanderbilt.edu.

For more information regarding sustainability please contact Jaclyn Mothupi at jaclyn.r.mothupi@vanderbilt.edu.

For all other general inquires please email commodorecup@vanderbilt.edu.

No prior sustainability or design experience was necessary. Any Vanderbilt staff, alumni, student or faculty were able to participate. Individuals could apply and request to be paired with a team or apply solo or teams of up to 4 individuals were eligible to apply.