Western hosts international student competition tackling global issues

Bright minds from around the world will cap off a three-day conference at Western University Wednesday, aimed at finding solutions to heavy-hitting global issues.

The World’s Challenge Challenge has welcomed 10 teams from universities across Canada, as well as Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand and the U.S.

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Western University spokesperson Lise Laporte says the teams have identified a global problem and they’ll pitch their solutions.

“These teams have all won their local competition at their home university, so they’ve had some practice already in refining their pitch to that seven-minute time frame,” said Laporte.

“They’ll be presenting to judges, as well as a general audience, and they’ll have some time for questions from the judges for about three minutes.”

Topics include vertical farming to address food security in urban centres, closing the gap in world digital literacy, using biotechnology to remediate electronic waste, plastic pollution, and technology to prevent the poaching of rhinos and elephants in Africa.

The first-place finishers will win $30,000 and the second-place team will win $15,000.

“The hope is that the students are going to take the prize money and be able to put it towards bringing that idea into action,” said Laporte.

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“In some cases, the students have already begun and either developed prototypes or have started research or work on their innovative solution and that the idea is that this prize money will help them further.”

The event runs from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Wednesday and is open to the public, taking place in the McKellar Room, UCC 290, at Western University.

The competition will also be live-streamed here.