Announcing The 2021 IEEE Entrepreneurship Impact Award Recipient
The IEEE Entrepreneurship Impact Award recognizes an individual who has had a significant impact on the engineering-driven entrepreneurial ecosystem.
The accomplishments of the candidate should be of “significant importance” and should have made a distinguishing contribution to the entrepreneurial ecosystem of a country/region.
The person/team will receive an honorarium of $2000 USD and a plaque commemorating their achievement.
The IEEE Entrepreneurship Impact Award Judges identify individuals/teams that are building innovations geared towards benefiting humanity and building a strong inclusive ecosystem.
IEEE Entrepreneurship would like to offer the utmost gratitude for the volunteer time and effort of our 2021 IEEE Entrepreneurship Impact Award Judge team:
- Subodha Charles, Member at Large 2021 IEEE Entrepreneurship Steering Committee
- Janati Nakimera, Vice-Chair – Programs 2021 IEEE Entrepreneurship Steering Committee
- Mohamed El Dallal, 2021 Affinity Groups: YPs Liaison 2021 IEEE Entrepreneurship Steering Committee
Award recipients are scored and selected based on the following judging criteria:
- Entrepreneurial Spirit
- Value creation
- Impact
- Sustainability
IEEE Entrepreneurship is excited to announce the first-ever IEEE Entrepreneurship Impact Award recipient:
Samantha Snabes is Co-founder and a Catalyst for re:3D where she facilitates connections between others printing at the human-scale and/or using recycled materials to access locally-driven manufacturing in 53 countries. As a serial entrepreneur, she currently volunteers as the Global Chair of the IEEE Entrepreneurship Steering Committee. Previously, she served as the Social Entrepreneur in Residence for the NASA HQ and Deputy Strategist supporting the NASA Johnson Space Center’s Space Life Sciences Directorate after selling a start-up for a DARPA-funded, co-patented tissue culture device. Samantha holds a BS in Biology, BA degrees in International Relations & Hispanic Studies, an MBA with concentrations in Supply Chain Management & International Relations, and certifications as a firefighter & EMT-B.
re:3D® Inc. is committed to decimating the cost & scale barriers to industrial 3D printing. After pioneering the world’s first affordable, human-scale, industrial filament-based 3D printer, re:3D is now enabling 3D printing directly from reclaimed plastic pellets or flake.
Samantha is the 2020-2021 Immediate Past Chair on the 2021 IEEE Entrepreneurship Steering Committee and was Chair on the 2018 – 2019 IEEE Entrepreneurship Steering Committee. She has been an active volunteer leader with IEEE’s Entrepreneurship Exchange since 2016 and was the 2017 Vice-Chair, Industry Partner for the IEEE Entrepreneurship Steering Committee. Samantha is a judge for the IEEE Entrepreneurship Stars Program (previously known as the IEEE N3XT Stars Program.)
Samantha Snabes pitching her company re:3D at the 2018 WeWork Creator Awards, where she and her company won the grand prize of $1 million! Watch on our YouTube
Samantha Snabes joined her IEEE Entrepreneurship colleagues at the 2017 IEEE Vision, Innovation & Challenges Summit (IEEE VICS)
Samantha Snabes at 2017 IEEE WIE ILC discussing the use of affordable, industrial 3D printing for changing the world #WIELead @samanthasnabes @re_3d
Interviewing Gigabot Design Team at 2016 SXSW MakerFaire! Video on IEEE.tv Entrepreneurship Channel