Explore Student Work

Real challenges. Real thinking. Real outcomes.

“At first I was nervous, but by the end I wanted to stay and keep working with my team.”

Hudson Lab Ventures students work on challenges that companies are actively trying to solve. The examples below show how students identify problems, test ideas, and communicate their thinking in real-world settings. The examples below offer a snapshot of student work. Projects vary by challenge, team, and location, but all reflect how students think, collaborate, and communicate in real-world settings.

How we find problems and design solutions

These artifacts show how students move from understanding a problem to designing and testing solutions under real-world constraints.

Colorful sticky notes arranged in a spiral, with the central sticky note labeled "Answer" and surrounding notes labeled "Problems" and "Time" with additional handwritten notes.
A series of handwritten notes and sketches taped to a wall, including dog walking challenges, community cleanup events, and a profile of a person with interests and activities, with some sticky notes attached.
A person is writing colorful notes and drawings on a white sheet of paper at a table, with a half-eaten cookie on a napkin nearby and a smartphone beside them.
A whiteboard covered with multicolored sticky notes discussing social issues such as inequality, pressure, mental health, AI, funding, and low income, arranged in clusters with handwritten notes on each.

Make sense of competing stakeholder problems

Start with the problem,
not the solution

Understand the user’s experience end to end

Design a
solution grounded
in daily behavior

This process mirrors how teams work inside companies and venture studios, not how projects typically unfold in classrooms.

Sample Student Project

One of our student teams designed this solution to reduce food waste while increasing customer loyalty for the national grocery chain Continente. This team was just one of the teams invited to present to the Board of Directors for Sonae, the largest employer in Portugal.

The Challenge

Slide presentation showing a fresh green apple on the left and a compost bin filled with food waste on the right, with the title 'The Problem' and text indicating that old produce looks unappealing and results in food waste.
A landfill with large piles of trash and trucks, with cityscape and hazy sky in the background, overlaid with the text 'leading to HUGE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT'.

The Solution Students Proposed

Close-up of a clear plastic container labeled "terra box smoothie" placed on a background of assorted fresh fruits including red cherry tomatoes, orange pumpkins, bananas, green grapes, green cucumbers, spinach leaves, and dark blueberries.

In addition to thoughtful design and clear messaging, the Terrabox team developed a solution that addressed food waste by focusing on how families actually plan, shop for, and prepare meals. Using surveys and interviews, students uncovered behavioral and operational constraints that shaped what would realistically work inside a national grocery chain. Team members took on distinct roles across research, product development, marketing, design, business strategy, and storytelling, learning how different strengths come together in effective teams. Working collaboratively, they translated insight into a cohesive proposal that balanced creativity, feasibility, and business impact.

Feedback from one of our Innovation Challenge Sponsors

“Mind Blowing! We would love to welcome you to share your ideas with our Board because we are really proud of what we saw.”

– Director of Innovation at José de Mello

Ready to learn more?

Curious how projects like this fit into the full experience? Watch the on-demand information session or download our one-page summary.

Watch info Session
Watch info Session
Download One-Pager
Download One-Pager