Zillion Solutions is an annual competition at the University of Michigan Flint, where students have the opportunity to submit a short video or slide presentation to showcase their creative product, service, or idea that solves a real-world problem. This competition is open to graduate, undergraduate, dual-enrolled, and Genesee County high school students.
First launched in 2017, this campus-wide competition aims to encourage students to think critically and foster creativity and design thinking to reinforce cross-disciplinary collaboration and education, encouraging students to recognize that entrepreneurship and innovative thinking aren’t limited to business or technology disciplines.
“Anyone, regardless of major, can be creative and entrepreneurial,” Brian Blume, director of the Hagerman Center and organizer of the Zillion Solutions Competition, said.
Samantha Jarbou, a senior biology major at UM-Flint, competed as a high school student and became a finalist. Jarbou currently serves as the president of the student government body. Jarbou said her long-term goal is to be a surgeon, yet she remains grateful to Zillion Solutions.
“Zillion Solutions helped shape my creativity, innovation, and communication skills by pushing me outside of my comfort zone and teaching me how to articulate vision with purpose. As Student Government President, I regularly collaborate with administrators, faculty, and students. Those skills translate far beyond entrepreneurship and continue to influence how I lead, collaborate, and serve my campus community today,” Jarbou said.
E Shirl Donaldson, assistant professor of engineering at UM-Flint and inaugural faculty member of the College of Innovation and Technology, CIT, implemented participation in the competition as a requirement for her course to inspire her students to think beyond their curriculum requirements. Donaldson said the College of Innovation and Technology utilizes the polytechnic model to educate their students beyond the scope of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, STEM.
“The T-shaped model helps educate students in a way that not only focuses on STEM but also embraces the human side and acknowledges the validity of business acumen. I also want students to know there are other things on campus besides just what we’re doing in CIT and start developing that entrepreneurial mindset,” Donaldson said.
Donaldson emphasized the importance of cross-disciplinary collaboration. “Entrepreneurship is interdisciplinary and multifaceted. You might be great in technology or a great programmer or inventor, but you still need some other people around you that may be better in business and product development, market research, etcetera,” Donaldson said.
Anna Burk, program manager of the Hagerman Center and organizer of the competition, said that the organizers and judges of Zillion Solutions emphasize the importance of clearly defining the problem at hand and its significance, while demonstrating a solution that directly addresses the issue. Burk said that judges look for submissions that include research on existing solutions and explanations on what makes their idea different, better, or more effective.
Raymond Kusch, an alumnus of UM-Flint and a frequent participating judge, highlights the importance of originality and conducting research before submitting a pitch. “If the idea already exists, then it gets disqualified. It can be something else that already exists, and then some sort of modification or enhancement that it causes, like a different use case,” Kusch said.
Kusch said that judges and organizers understand the difficulties associated with developing an idea and crafting a unique solution, and said that students should pay attention to the world around them and think outside of the box.
“I think the hardest part is just getting started. Think about your everyday life and think of your pain points, your friends’ pain points, and your family’s pain points. Think of things that are not entirely optimized in a way that you would like them to be, and then see if other people have that same problem. Then start thinking about how you can solve that problem,” Kusch said.
Semifinalists for the 2026 Zillion Solutions Competition will be announced by Mar 12, 2026, and finalists selected by Mar 26, 2026, with the ceremony taking place on Apr 8, 2026, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the Riverfront Conference Center.
