COVID-19 open call invited Global Grad Show’s community of over 260 universities to put forward solutions to escalating challenges faced by people, communities, governments
A year-round social impact innovation programme for graduate students across the world, Global Grad Show, held in partnership with Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD), and supported by ARM Holding and Dubai Culture & Arts Authority, has received entries from 125 universities in 40 countries during the application phase of its initiative addressing the collateral issues of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Created as a response to the Coronavirus outbreak, the COVID-19 open call invited Global Grad Show’s community of over 260 universities to put forward solutions to the escalating challenges faced by people, communities and governments across the world and the initiative received 390 applications
between March 16 and April 2, 2020. Applications were evaluated by a jury of senior representatives from four leading private and public organisations in Dubai: ICD, ARM Holding, Wamda and the Art Dubai Group, whose inputs will inform the next assessment phase. For the next phase, Global Grad Show will engage with the students and professors behind these applications to analyse their development requirements, with a view to identify proposals that can be supported towards testing and implementation. The creator(s) of any selected proposal will be awarded the tuition fee of their current studies, or equivalent scholarship for the department of selected professor(s) along with support for concept development and business building.
“It is extremely encouraging to see, in critical times such as this, that one of Dubai’s own homegrown initiatives calls on to the world to come together and find solutions for current and future problems posed by the spread of COVID-19. Global Grad Show has been one of the first to put forward such a
proactive initiative, receiving a multitude of incredible proposals by young, brilliant minds from around the world. This initiative and the rapid response it received shows the importance and impact of human creativity and humanity selflessly coming together to provide collective solutions to combat obstacles, no matter how large. Dubai Culture, together with its partners, will continue to support and nurture this important initiative, and to do what we can to see our community thrive through this current crisis.” said Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairperson, Dubai Culture & Arts Authority.
The proposals engaged disciplines varying from medical engineering to game design and focussed on problems with different degrees of urgency, and on solutions with varying implementation complexity and horizon: from critical medical PPE currently out of stock around the world to public policies to
prepare communities for future disease outbreaks.
Students and professors from institutions belonging to the global top-10 rank, such as MIT, Harvard University, University of Oxford, Imperial College London and National University of Singapore applied, alongside institutions in the UAE (including Middlesex University Dubai, AUS, INSEAD and NYU Abu
Dhabi) and in emerging markets such as Peru, Uganda, Egypt, Turkey, Lithuania and Malaysia. Graduates from the world’s top four design schools – Royal College of Art, University of the Arts London, Parsons School of Design and Rhode Island School of Design – also responded to the open call, reflecting Global Grad Show’s strong connection with leading design institutions globally.
Examples of proposals received
- Foresight – an AI system to monitor patient recovery. The COVID-19 pandemic has left health systems worldwide struggling with the overwhelming amount of people needing intensive respiratory care, resulting in a challenging environment to monitor and respond to patient deterioration. Foresight is a trained AI system which is able to constantly process patients’ clinical information, providing an algorithmic distribution of intensive care results, increasing patient turnover and easing clinical staff workload through a prioritising system. By Third Eye Intelligence team, Imperial College London – UK.
- Social Place – using Dubai’s public areas for mental health. Social distancing policies have irrevocably changed the way people use (and will use) public spaces within a city. Project Social Space focusses on repurposing public areas across Dubai to balance the need for outdoor activities in times of social distancing. The purpose is to create public areas for activities that improve physical and mental health, that abide by the rules of safe social interaction. By Alida Bata, Heriot Watt University – Dubai.
- Fresh Tracker – optimising the use of food supplies. How to help people organise the storage of fresh and pantry items in a convenient and hygienic way? Assisting people to have a more efficient and hygienic way to organise their food stock, project Fresh Tracker offers a set of smart stickers that link to an app, tracking information such as volume, expiration and purchase date of food items. By Sheng- Hung Lee and Ziyuan Zhu, Massachusetts Institute of Technology – USA.ClAir Tram – clean and healthy public transport. Public transportation is often associated with discomfort, bad air and potential health hazards. Nevertheless, they are vital to urban infrastructure and need to be relied on. ClAir Tram proposes placing air quality and hygiene at the heart of public transport, with trams equipped with large scale air purifiers and interiors designed with antimicrobial materials. By Erik Mantz-Hansen, Muthesius Academy of Fine Arts – Germany.
- Fridays for Innovation – A digital gathering of problem-solvers. Within three weeks of pandemic in Europe, more than 80,000 designers, engineers, and scientists participated in online hackathons to build thousands of solutions for the pandemic. Unfortunately, most of these solutions go to waste, due to lack of support and coordination, a problem called “design waste.” Fridays for Innovation is a collective intelligence movement, where creatives gather to build, share and remix solutions for challenges, supported by an intelligent digital platform and highly interconnected clustering database. By Johannes Mutter and Yejeong Ko, Royal College of Art – UK.
- Earth Suit – A go-outside suit. How are members of society supposed to keep their sanity, finances, and health afloat, when they are understandably encouraged to stay inside and avoid other humans for everyone’s safety? Earth Suit looks at a scenario of extended pandemic, during which people will inevitably need to get out of their houses, while protecting their safety. It is a one-part suit that contains a built-in helmet and full body coverage while allowing for freedom of movement and social interaction. By Lauren Miyoko, Rochester Institute of Technology – USA.
- Qenqo, a hygiene hub for vulnerable communities. Poor communities are inherently vulnerable to disease outbreaks and certainly more exposed to COVID-19 due to the lack of information, limited hygiene supplies and living conditions in high-density households. Qengo is a neighbourhood hub for hygiene and clean water, produced with low-cost and easily sourced hardware material, providing the minimum means for proper hand sanitation and potable water consumption in all types of human settlements. By Social Chain team, Pontifical Catholic University of Peru.
- BTNL – sterilised home delivery containers. Home delivery packages can be contaminated and the process of sanitising them is not straightforward. BTNL proposes a safe, efficient, convenient delivery process. Considering UV-C lights can help to disinfect surfaces from coronavirus without any negative effects on product quality, delivery teams can put parcels inside UV-C boxes at the point of delivery and activate the process by mobile phone. Buyers can then personally remove products from the box with a significantly lower risk of contamination. By Sara Shafiee, American University in Sharjah – UAE.
- Help Ourselves – a docking app for COVID-19 volunteering. In China, people have shown willingness to help others get through these difficult times, but they lack reliable channels for mutual collaboration and an aggregating database. Help Ourselves is a docking app for people who are in need and those who want to help. Built on WeChat Mini platform for immediate release, it has already helped thousands of senior citizens, enterprises and voluntary organisations in a streamlined and low-cost manner. By team Hygge, Hunan University – China.
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