MacGyver In A Box
Do you have an idea to help solve one of the planet’s biggest problems and MAKE the world better? What would MacGyver do? Read on to find out more and then if you are interested register for the challenge here.
Contest and Rules
The specific design challenge or problem that is addressed in this competition is the development of a cost effective, indoor toilet that will allow proper sanitation and privacy for billions of the world’s population without indoor bathrooms. The targeted community for this competition is rural Guatemala. Ideally, the design should not require extensive plumbing and should be designed to consider its potential integration with some of the other potential low-cost infrastructure solutions for a developing community.
ELIGIBILITY & TEAM SIZE:
Anyone is eligible for the contest except employees of the MacGyver Foundation, MAKE magazine and Clubhouse Guatemala. There are no limitations on team size.
JUDGING CRITERIA:
Judging will be performed by a collaboration between field personnel that work with Clubhouse Guatemala, the editors of MAKE and the MacGyver Foundation. The applicable judging criteria includes:
1. Design cost
2. Design accessibility/convenience
3. Design effectiveness towards Hygiene/sanitation
4. Design maintainability
5. Design sustainability (environmental impact)
6. Design safety
7. Design leverage/integration with other infrastructure goals
DESIGN REQUIREMENTS:
The design must be safe to construct and operate. Besides that there are no specific design requirements beyond the assurance that the design does not involve patent infringement as described below.
ORIGINALITY AND OWNERSHIP (Intellectual Property):
No expectation of design originality or novelty is made in this contest. This is a contest about the best Ideas wherever they come from. Developing communities don’t benefit any more from an original or novel idea necessarily than they do to a well known, simple idea. The only limitation would be assurance of no patent infringement by the design submission. (1)
(1) The submissions and any intellectual property associated with the submissions will remain the property of the submitter. However, the physical submissions shall not be returned to the submitter and will remain the property of the Promoter. The Promoter may display submissions on its website, its magazine or via any other media that it considers suitable to disseminate information about the awards.. The submitter takes all responsibility for any infringement or violation of third-party rights, whether under copyright law, patent law, breach of contract or otherwise and will indemnify and hold Promoter harmless from any costs and expenses, including attorneys’ fees, which Promoter might suffer arising from such infringement or violation of third-party rights. Further, since the submitter is giving Promoter the limited license to display submissions, Promoter shall have no liability to the submitter for anything that may occur arising out of displaying submissions such as others appropriating any intellectual property contained in the submission.
Participation in the contest implies acceptance of these terms and conditions and the contest is governed by all applicable federal, state, and local statutes and regulations. No purchase is necessary to enter or win.
Submission Guidelines and Timeline
The submission guidelines and timeline represent the format and deadlines for submission of the design ideas. Documentation of the idea is fulfilled by submitting the idea consistent with the submission guidelines listed below.
GUIDELINES:
The competition is not limited to the completion of working models of the design ideas. Where working models are not completed, submission of documented ideas with full explanation and reference to existing documentation of the idea (report, website, etc.) is sufficient. However, details of how the idea can be constructed and used are required. As a means of verification of the adequacy of the idea, additional judging credit is given for the development and demonstration of the proposed idea. Ideas should be submitted in PDF format consistent with the outline below, with appropriate links to any video documentation that supports the idea submission.
TIMELINE:
Important dates and deadlines for registration, submissions, and the competition itself include the following. Registration will open on November 1, 2025. The contest submission window runs from November 1, 2025 until December 31st, 2025. Contestants can register on the MacGyver-in-a-Box website (macgyver.com/macgyver-in-a-box)
Judging will be from January 1st, 2026 through January 31st, 2026, with the winner’s named on February 1st, 2026.
CONTEST AWARDS:
The awards for the contest are being sponsored by both Make Magazine and the MacGyver Foundation. The winner’s will be announced on the MacGyver-in-a-Box webpage. The award structure includes the following:
First place: First prize is $350 dollars with the potential (if interested) for a Clubhouse Guatemala sponsored opportunity to travel to Guatemala and help implement the idea in local houses for testing.
Second place: Second prize is $100 dollars
Third place: Third prize is $50
Honorable mentions: In addition to the cash awarded prizes, the top 10 ideas will be published online.
What Is MacGyver-In-A-Box?
Every year globally there are millions of WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene) related deaths. In developing communities, home sanitation toilets are crucial for public health, environmental protection, and social well-being. They prevent the spread of diseases, improve sanitation, and enhance overall quality of life. The first MacGyver-in-a-box (MIB) design challenge competition seeks to develop cost effective home toilets to improve the sanitation of developing communities. This contest is expected to be the first of a series of MIB challenge competitions which will seek to incentivize engineers, hobbyists and the “maker” communities to utilize their skills to better the living conditions of many worldwide.
This first contest is partnering with the philanthropic NGO organization “Clubhouse Guatemala” and is designed to both meet an immediate sponsored need of a targeted developing community, while exploring a set of rules and best practices for future contests that will increase in scope, visibility and award and target creating a full range of low-cost infrastructure technologies for developing communities. These might include:
1. Power
2. Clean Water
3. Sanitation
4. Refrigeration
5. Cooking
6. Heating and Cooling
7. Transportation
8. Communications
9. Education
10. Medical
The idea is to take inspiration from large-scale, crowd-sourcing contests like the X-Prize that are intended to solve large-scale problems with innovative solutions. But instead of trying to solve planetary size problems with high-tech solutions, we are trying to solve local problems with low-cost, low-tech solutions. The way MacGyver would.