The submissions to the Global Ingenuity Challenge 2017 were of such a high standard that the winning teams from the University of Amsterdam and the University of Nottingham are both receiving additional support from their universities to implement their ideas.
Malte, part of the winning UvA team, shared an update with us in March 2018:
During the 2017 U21 Global Ingenuity Challenge, our team of Erasmus Exchange Ambassadors won the first prize with an idea to promote cultural inclusiveness at the University of Amsterdam. Since then, we have been given the opportunity to develop our project further in order to create UNIFY, a student community app. We are now in the process of building a network comprised of students and university staff, who will help to build this online platform. Developing an app for the university takes time, but we are determined to make our project successful.
What has happened since the end of the GIC?
After we won the GIC, our team got the opportunity to move forward with our idea. Since then, I have been working as a student assistant at the UvA’s Office of International Student Affairs, responsible for UNIFY. Besides a lot of brainstorming and writing, we have been able to build a network within the university, which we are going to expand in the next months. This way, we want to develop a community app for students, made by students.
What impact has the GIC had on your team, or you personally?
From a personal perspective, I have benefited a lot from the GIC. Not only was the competition a great experience, but I also learned and developed useful skills in the months thereafter. The fact that I can work on this project on a weekly basis, shows that the university is just as excited about our idea as we are.
Who else has benefited from the work you have done on your app since the end of the GIC?
The process of building an app takes a lot of time and effort, especially since we want to integrate it with other UvA projects and want to give students the chance to contribute. I therefore think it is too soon to say we had an impact on others already, but I am sure we will once we can launch the platform.
- University of Amsterdam