Designing Change 2018 will be held on March 24 at the WWF headquarters. (World Wildlife Fund Canada)
Maheen Malik
Sustainable Humber and Canada’s World Wildlife Fund partnered up for this year’s Designing Change competition.
Six students from Humber College have the opportunity to compete with teams from other colleges and universities for the chance to win $1,200, work-shadow with an industry professional, and network with experts. The teams will be tasked to solve issues or problems related to sustainability.
Humber College is a pilot member of the WWF and is the first ever school to have the Living Planet @ Campus program.
“Essentially the competition is to commemorate this first year together and open to all participating colleges and universities,” Roma Malik, a Sustainability Specialist for the college, told Humber News.
“We’re inviting three top students from their programs along with three students from our sustainability club to participate,” she said. “We want to be as diverse as possible so ideally I’d like to have one person from various programs.”
The competition takes place on March 24 at the WWF Canada headquarters and helps launch Humber’s Earth Week.
Ankit Joshi, with the civil engineering technology program at Humber, said he has applied and most likely will be going to the competition.
“One of my friends from electro-mechanical engineering is also interested, there are people from international development and sustainable energy wanting to go as well.” he said. “People from different fields, if they can come together and try to come up with an idea it would be awesome, you can definitely get different perspectives about different issues.”
Participating students will be given a challenge or problem for their teams to solve on the day of the competition. Students will have a few hours to come up with a creative yet feasible solution to the issue along with a pitch.
The problem given to the students can be anything related to sustainability and conservation, including waste, energy and water.
“They will be able to consult various industry specialists and experts to serve as their research source,” Malik said.
This will be an incredible opportunity for those who are interested to network with specialists and experts in the industry as well as students from other colleges and universities, she said.
The pitch and solutions by each team will be graded and the winning team will get $1,200 to split among themselves, along with a certificate and networking opportunities.
“It’s definitely a big opportunity (for networking) for anyone attending.” Joshi said.
The takeaway from the competition is that there will be all sorts of people from different fields bringing new perspectives to the table.
“I’ll have some input from a civil engineering standpoint to put into this design competition and i feel like can help make a difference along with the rest of the group,” he said.
The competition has definitely gotten attention from students interested in sustainability.
“We want it to be really creative. We want the (creative) juices to be flowing,” Malik said.
The competition can also be added to resumes since being chosen by the school itself is a great honour, as the process of selecting students is going to very competitive, she said.
“All schools have developed their own criteria on picking candidates. We have pitched it first to the executive members of the sustainability club and general members as well,” Malik said. “They show a lot of enthusiasm and leadership and it’s the first year we’ve had the sustainability club, so it’s to encourage them as well.”
Students interested in participating must submit their GPA, resume, and a reference from a professor to sustainability@humber.ca.