Research Frontiers: The Water Challenge

Just last week the University of Glasgow launched an innovation competition that lasted 2 days, in which one of our own, Szymon Calus was part of the winning team. The Water Challenge was an opportunity for PhD students, early career researchers, and Postdocs to come together with other individuals and develop innovative solutions to some of the world’s greatest challenges.  The first day of the event was organised at “Glenlee”, The Tall Ship at the Riverside Museum. It started out with a dynamic welcome in which teams were randomly allocated. Three speakers delivered inspiring stories about their research and work.  Soon after, the teams were asked to pick a challenge (and take a selfie). Eight challenges were proposed and they were all related to water issues ranging from residential to global scales. It was a good opportunity to get acquainted to the other members: learn where they came from and what they do, and socialize over dinner while coming up with new ideas.  The next day, teams gathered at the Western Infirmary and continued brainstorming on the challenge they have decided to pursue. The hardest challenge lied in formulating a problem to solve. In between solution development, various jam sessions directed towards idea generation, product branding and business plans were lead by a series of experts. The teams seemed interested and engaged in the talks, yet they were also eager to continue with their projects and plan their presentation.  Came final day, TEAM PRESENTATIONS! By this point the teams were assembling their displays and thinking about how to wow the judging panel. The day started of with a theatrical workshop that provided tools to tell a compelling story to captivate your audience. The organizers encouraged everyone to be creative when presenting, and boy, were the teams creative.
Overall, the event was a great experience. Here is the pros and cons summary:
Pros:

• Opportunity to learn something new: about the challenge, and about yourself.
• Opportunity to work in an interdisciplinary team environment and meet other students from your department and beyond.
• Opportunity to network with representatives of different organizations (i.e. SEPA, Scottish Water, River Kelvin Foundation).
• Opportunity to gain and apply valuable tools in creativity, engagement, and presentation (oral and visual).  
• Ok food.

Cons:

• Challenges were too broad, a more specific problem within a community would have narrowed down the scope and participants would have been able to present an innovative solution that could potentially have led to collaboration.
• Pressure to deliver a “product”.

By:
Maria Sevillano
PhD Student
University of Glasgow.