Tag: globalfellowsprogramme

Imperial/Tokyo Tech-VCC Challenge

Kai and Laura are engineering PhD students at Imperial College. They met last year in Tokyo on the Global Fellows Programme and have since started a social business together.

By Laura Braun

In March 2018, Kai and I attended the Global Fellows Programme run by Tokyo Tech and Imperial College. The theme of the programme was: “Innovation to eradicate poverty” and brought together 40 students who share an interest in humanitarian work. The programme was based in a brutalist student accommodation set in a forest in Hachi-oji, and on arrival we were welcomed with green tea, sake and sushi. Over the course of the week, we heard from guest speakers, participated in team-building activities, and developed solutions to poverty-related challenges.

The cohort was divided up into teams, each of which came up with some incredible solutions, ranging from a fridge-station for reducing fish waste, to an “education bus” that improved literacy rates in Senegal. My team came up with a medical app that allowed health professionals to record disease outbreaks in developing countries, and Kai’s team developed a smartphone microscope for diagnosing diseases. Although Kai and I were on different teams, we saw that our ideas could potentially be merged into one solution; a smartphone microscope that together with an app, would have the ability to diagnose and record diseases. Soon enough, our business idea was born! What we did not know is that exactly one year later we would be pitching this idea and winning £15,000.

Having spent a week with likeminded people, we all left feeling inspired, empowered, and with many new friends. We continued to stay in touch and although the programme was over, the solutions we had developed stayed in our minds. Kai and I often discussed how we could turn our idea to reality, so we started prototyping and after a few slow months, we had a tool that could detect parasites in water.

A few weeks later, we saw a flyer for the Venture Catalyst Challenge (VCC) and decided to apply to the 7-week accelerator programme. We were accepted and thanks to the Enterprise Lab our idea very quickly developed into a focused business: Capta is a handheld microscope that, together with an app, automatically diagnoses parasitic worms in stool samples. Parasitic worms affect 1.7 billion people worldwide, and our vision is to make diagnostics available to everyone in low-resource settings. The VCC allowed us to build momentum for this project, which is exactly what we needed.

After one week of intense pitching, we somehow came out as the winners of the Social Impact track at the VCC, as well as the IGHI Student Challenges Competition! This was a game changer. Winning meant that others believed in our idea, but more importantly gave us confidence to continue our work on Capta. So what’s next? The £15,000, will enable us to further develop our product and test it using real samples in sub-Saharan Africa. The thought that our product could one day be used to diagnose parasitic worms in a health clinic gives is our driving force. Although this achievement is thanks to so many people, our idea was ultimately born in Hachi-oji where the Graduate School provided a space to develop innovative research ideas for poverty alleviation, and for that we are incredibly grateful!

Institute of Global Health Innovation, student challenge winners. Credit: Owen Billcliffe

 

Pitching at the VCC 2019

Connections and Collaborations: The Global Fellows Programme on Cities of the Future. Charishma Ratnam, PhD Candidate, University of New South Wales Australia

by Charishma Ratnam, PhD Candidate, University of New South Wales, Australia

Introduction

It is becoming a household statistic: by 2050, 66% of the world’s population will live in cities[1]. This statistic holds much value for me as I pursue my research on migration (specifically in regard to refugees and asylum seekers) and how migrants settle in places. When I was given the opportunity to apply for the Global Fellows Programme: Cities of the Future with this year’s focus on health and well-being, this statistic resonated with me even more. The current state and future of our big cities has become contentious, and the programme was able to offer a space for interdisciplinary discussions to take place.

The Global Fellows Programme was held from June 10 to 15, 2018 at the Velodrome, Olympic Park, London, a place that saw much victory for England in the 2012 Olympics. Before arriving in London, each participant was placed in a team, and each team was allocated a theme for the week: health, mobility/transport, smart data/interconnectivity, housing, and business/infrastructure. These themes would form the framework for our project ideas and pitches. On entering the Velodrome, I was excited by the opportunity and motivation, as I saw the cyclists making their way around the track. The first day was about meeting and connecting with the group and the teams we were placed in. The most challenging task of the day: coming up with a team name. Our team (after much deliberation) settled on ‘The Lazy Foxes’! Lazy, defining some of the members of our group, and foxes, being the clever strategies and initiative we would take throughout the week. The second day tested our teamwork skills, where we undertook five fast-paced team-building exercises, followed by a period of reflection. After these team-building exercises, there were several outings that took place for the rest of the week. A few highlights included a visit to The Crystal – one of the world’s most sustainable buildings by Siemens, showcasing an exhibition about the future of cities – next to London Royal Docks, the Emirates Cable Car trip to North Greenwich where we were able to see the scale of redevelopments occurring in East London, and a visit to Imperial’s new White City campus.

After absorbing all the information delivered to us, we were left to our own devices. Although overwhelming and challenging, my team managed to come up with a concrete idea that focused on business and infrastructure. I gained important experience and knowledge from this collaborative process. Working together with other interdisciplinary, inter-institutional and international PhD researchers, academics and industry professionals meant that we learned a lot from each other. Delivering our final team pitch was a highlight for me – we were given feedback from a range of academics and industry professionals from different fields.

I would encourage PhD researchers to apply for similar professional development opportunities when they are offered. I was able to build networks, collaborations and connections with participants in the programme, and also benefit from the professional/personal development, team-building skills and interdisciplinary exchanges. I have gained a wider perspective on research that engages with the cities of our future, and I am interested in expanding on this area of concern further with the new friends, collaborators and research networks I have fostered at the Global Fellows Programme on Cities of the Future.

[1] https://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/publications/files/wup2014-highlights.pdf.

Photos

UNSW PhD researchers (L to R): Malshika Dias, Henrique Benites and Charishma Ratnam and UNSW Visiting Researcher Daniel Lu (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore).
Cycling track at the Velodrome, Olympic Park, London.
View of East London redevelopments from the Emirates Cable Car from Emirates Royal Docks to North Greenwich.
My team that worked on a business and infrastructure idea for the week (L to R): Stephanie Hewitt (ICL), Kahar Abula (TUM), Charishma Ratnam (UNSW), Heba Awadh (ICL), Clare Hunt (ICL), Shreyash Hadke (NTU), Mayu Sakuma (TUM), Mudussir Ayub (TUM), and Christopher Voss (TUM).

 

Global Fellows Programme “Innovation to Eradicate Poverty”, a rich educational and cultural experience in Japan!

By Vasiliki Kioupi, PhD student in the Centre for Environmental Policy

Doing my research on Transformative Education for a Sustainable Society I always thought about visiting Japan. Not only because the Global Action Plan on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) was launched during the UNESCO World Conference in Aichi-Nagoya in 2014 but also because during the decade for ESD (2005-2014), which was initially proposed by the government of Japan to UNESCO, I was a classroom teacher actively engaged in Environmental Education Projects with my students in Greece.

When I saw the opportunity for the Global Fellows Programme themed “Innovation to Eradicate Poverty” advertised by the Imperial College Graduate School in collaboration with Tokyo Institute of Technology, I was intrigued to apply. I strongly believe that Poverty Eradication, currently Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) #1 in the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda, is a global challenge clearly linked with how the society, the economy and the environment function and in order to arrive to a thorough solution, access to quality education is the key. The better part of this Programme was that I could also apply for a research visit to a Tokyo Tech lab, provided a Professor had agreed to act as a supervisor during my stay.

The Global Fellows Programme took place in Hachi-oji, a quiet suburb of Tokyo, from March 5 to 9 2018 and the venue was the Inter-University Seminar House, an all-inclusive facility on top of a hill. During the first-day of activities we attended lectures on the theme, did ice-breaker presentations and formed teams of four, comprised of both Imperial College and Tokyo Tech PhD students using effective team development and team work techniques. Following, we participated in team building activities to boost mutual understanding and effective communication and collaboration, before we started to work on our project to tackle poverty. During the activities we became familiar with each other and we developed strong bonds mainly because of our common interest to empower people through education. So our team was named EduPower! We were an international and interdisciplinary team of two Indonesians Mira and Albert (a Materials and a Computer Scientist), Ashley, a Scottish Bioscientist and myself, a Greek Social scientist, with diverse and valuable skills to contribute to our project. We had the most productive time working on our idea, a platform for collaboration in the education sector and we took pride on the poster we prepared and presented.

The seminar provided opportunities for cultural experiences as well, such as the Japanese puppet performance and the student lead outing to Takao Mountain. The Programme culminated with an amazing farewell event at the Ishikawadai area of Tokyo Tech O-okayama campus, featuring amazing talks, delicious sushi and traditional Japanese drinks, followed by karaoke at a nearby club. I was also able to witness the sakura (cherry blossom), one of the most spectacular sights Japan can offer to the visitor.

I highly encourage all students who are interested in enhancing their research and also creating memorable experiences to apply to similar opportunities provided by the Graduate school. The benefits to my personal development, network expansion and team-working skills were immense. The possibility of a research visit is also an invaluable experience for all PhD students to widen their perspectives. To read more about my research visit in Professor Abe’s lab please follow the link to my personal website.