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02/10/2026

Congratulations to the five finalists of 2026 Kevin Xu Innovation Challenge.

Selected from 13 semi-finalists, these teams have spent the past few weeks testing assumptions, gathering evidence, and refining early-stage, AI-powered ventures that use AI to strengthen human agency.

This year’s challenge asked: “How might we design AI systems that deepen creativity, cooperation, curiosity, and care as they become part of everyday life?”

The finalists answered with practical ideas spanning healthcare administration, disability access, clinical-trial operations, personal health, and constructive civic dialogue.

Meet the finalists:
- Hameeda Syed, Together for Tomorrow
- Atreya Manaswi & Shaurya Sharma, Auxo Health
- Dr. Melikte Paulos Weldetensaye, Lend a Hand
- Laura Wegner, Selv
- Daliso Zuze, TrialSage

Presented in partnership with the Rhodes Trust and the Kevin Xu Initiative at the University of Chicago, the challenge brings together scholars and fellows from Equitech Futures’ partner networks through venture-building workshops, mentorship, and a final live pitch.

01/10/2026

There is so much on the internet about technology and Society. It’s filled with courses, masterclasses, and programs. Keeping up with it all, and jumping from place to place to find what’s worth your time, can feel overwhelming. Here is our attempt to take some of that weight off your shoulders.

FuturesHub is an interactive learning platform built by Equitech Futures that uses Socratic AI to sharpen human critical thinking and teach applied technology skills for the AI Era. Instead of giving instant answers like most of the LLMs, the platform is designed to challenge users and build deep understanding.

FuturesHub is bringing you AI augmented living textbooks featuring interactive simulations and research-grade content through QueBooks and Expert-curated intelligence briefs covering cutting-edge research and AI policy through QueBriefs.

This October, FuturesHub brings you even more: masterclasses, and office hours where you can talk with Equitech Futures faculty.

This month, applications for the Building Products People Love course are open again. Through it, you can learn how to build products worth building and how to solve real problems.

And there’s The Admit Track, your companion cohort for navigating your postgraduate applications in a way that’s less overwhelming and more strategic.

Sign up on FuturesHub, and spend your time on learning that prepares you for what’s next.

What are you most looking forward to this October?

29/09/2026

Privacy isn’t a limit. It’s a strategy.

Elyse Wallnutt has spent more than 20 years working inside some of the world’s largest nonprofits, including Amnesty International, UNICEF USA, Feeding America, The Nature Conservancy, and World Food Program USA. Along the way, she noticed something: privacy is often treated as a limitation, when in practice it can be a powerful guide.

She started Agility Lab in 2022 to build on that idea. Privacy legislation, she believes, creates real opportunity: a chance to rely less on big tech platforms and build marketing and fundraising practices grounded in cleaner data and more intentional choices.

Elyse is joining Dr. Abhilash Mishra, founder of Equitech Futures and director of the Kevin Xu Initiative at the University of Chicago, for a live conversation as part of Tech in Practice.

Toward the end, attendees will get to ask the panelists their own questions.
Open to all.

📅 Oct 1, 2026 · 2:00 PM UTC
💻 Online · 1 hour
🎟️ Free

Tech in Practice is part of the Chicago Forum on Technology & Society, supported by Omidyar Network and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Comment “Tech in Practice” and we’ll send you the registration link.

28/09/2026

Big congratulations to Alaa Almouiz, Equitech Futures Institute’23 alumna from Sudan, on being named a Google DeepMind Scholar.

Alaa says learning to connect abstract math to real-world problems is something she owes to her Equitech education. We can’t wait to see what you do next, Alaa!

26/09/2026

Privacy isn’t a limit. It’s a strategy.

Elyse Wallnutt has spent more than 20 years working inside some of the world’s largest nonprofits, including Amnesty International, UNICEF USA, Feeding America, The Nature Conservancy, and World Food Program USA. Along the way, she noticed something: privacy is often treated as a limitation, when in practice it can be a powerful guide.

She started Agility Lab in 2022 to build on that idea. Privacy legislation, she believes, creates real opportunity: a chance to rely less on big tech platforms and build marketing and fundraising practices grounded in cleaner data and more intentional choices.

Elyse is joining Dr. Abhilash Mishra, founder of Equitech Futures and director of the Kevin Xu Initiative at the University of Chicago, for a live conversation as part of Tech in Practice.

Toward the end, attendees will get to ask the panelists their own questions.

Open to all. No barriers to join.

📅 Oct 1, 2026 · 2:00 PM UTC
💻 Online · 1 hour
🎟️ Free

Tech in Practice is part of the Chicago Forum on Technology & Society, supported by Omidyar Network and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

👇 Comment “Tech in Practice” and we’ll send you the registration link.

24/09/2026

Some new roles worth celebrating this time around.

Riffat stepped into research work on data privacy, Al-amin is now out in the field as an electrical project engineer, Rustom spent his summer building AI solutions, Eloi took on a research post in a biosystems lab while finishing his program, and Nico is now board president for a disability advocacy organization.

Five graduates of our Futures, Applied Data, and Civic Tech programs, all carrying what they learned into something new. So proud of this group and excited to see what comes next for each of them.

23/09/2026

Its application season now!
Which means a lot of people are about to open a blank document and stare at it.

Thomas Murray is running his ‘Writing without the LLM‘ again on september 28. One hour, online, 2:00 PM UTC. We close the LLM tab and write from our own experienced intelligence.

This is the exact window where the temptation is highest. A personal statement is hard to start, a model will start it for you in four seconds, and the result reads fine. Fine is the problem. Selection committees are reading hundreds of essays that all arrived at the same competent middle.

The first draft is where the thinking happens. We think that is the part worth protecting. Outsource it and you spend the next month editing an argument you never made yourself. The polish arrives early and the substance never does.

Thomas has taught a FuturesHub masterclass on global fellowships. He ran this writing session once before. This is the second run, timed for the people writing right now.

Open to Learner and Learner+ members.
Comment ‘writing’ to get registration linm in your inbox.

21/09/2026

Congratulations to the 13 semi-finalists of the Kevin Xu Innovation Challenge.

They came through a highly competitive pool across the Equitech Scholar, Rise Fellow, Atlantic Fellow and Rhodes Scholar networks, and every venture takes up the same question: as AI becomes more embedded in everyday life, how do we make sure it strengthens what makes us most human?

Sign language interpretation for Deaf patients. Scam letters explained to elderly adults on their own terms. Clinical reasoning captured from neurosurgical nurses in Sierra Leone. Illustrators licensing their own AI models and keeping the revenue.

In partnership with the Rhodes Trust and the Kevin Xu Initiative at the University of Chicago, as part of the Rhodes Forum on Technology & Society.

Congratulations!

18/09/2026

From an internet cake in Kara, Togo to a cohort personally welcomed by former president Obama. Apollinaire Abi has just been named a 2026-2027 Obama Foundation Scholar at the University of Chicago, and honestly, we are still smilung about it. Apollinaire came through our Equitech Futures Institute in 2022, brought in by a friend who saw the fit before he did. That summer became the ground where NawiriTech took shape, the venture he co-founded to close data science gaps across Africa, and something he still leads today. His continued work with our founder Abhilash Mishra later grew into a research paper on the digital divide in West Africa, a question rooted in his own upbringing in Togo. He says the whole story comes down to people who believed in him before he believed in himself. We just feel lucky to be one small part of that chain. Congratulations, Apollinaire. This one is huge.

17/09/2026

Sunday Nwovu spent last month standing in front of a fellowship, teaching a room full of students the exact lessons that once got taught to him, and there’s something quietly full circle about that. Ritvik Sharma was on the other side of a very different table in Bangalore, deciding which young founders would get funded next instead of pitching for funding himself. And Samiksha Khadka from Nepal sat down with a Cultural Affairs Officer at the US Embassy to talk through how the same exchange opportunities that shaped her path could reach more students coming up behind her.

We are proud to watch them open doors for others.

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