- This competition is part of the Higher Education Innovator program of the ENHANCE Alliance, which comprises seven universities, including the UPV, that promote the creation of a joint European campus.
- The challenges of the “ENHANCE Challenge” promoted the diversity and inclusion of higher education students and the use of artificial intelligence in university administration.
Six work teams from the universities that make up the ENHANCE Alliance have been awarded in the ENHANCE Challenge, an innovative ideas incubator competition held on the Vera campus for two days. The winning proposals have received €35,000 each in funding for their subsequent development and start-up.
The two challenges proposed by this incubator that is part of the Alliance’s Higher Education Innovator programme focused on promoting diversity and inclusion among higher education students and the use of artificial intelligence in university administration.
Concerning the two topics raised, nine work teams from the different universities that make up the ENHANCE Alliance presented their projects to a jury that considered, among other issues, innovation and the viability of implementing the initiatives. Finally, three teams per topic have achieved the economic reward. In addition, their ideas will be incubated for a year at the UPV and the NTNU in Norway and later integrated into the Alliance.
The main objective of the ENHANCE Challenge has been to select the six most disruptive ideas resulting from the ten groups formed by members of various universities of the Alliance, made up of both academic and administrative staff and students, to advance the development of the European Higher Education Area. In addition to funding from the ERASMUS+ programme, the incubator for the Higher Education Innovator program is sponsored by Sensedia, BRAVE M&T and the Chair of Digital Divide and Functional Diversity of the UPV.
WINNERS OF THE TWO CHALLENGES
Three teams were declared the winners for the first of the topics raised by the ideas incubator that promotes diversity and inclusion among students. One of the groups is made up of students and academic staff from the UPV, the Warsaw University of Technology (WUT) and the Technische Universität Berlin (TUB). Their project aims to promote diversity and fight against discrimination through a point of contact for incidents, even those of low impact and the collection of quantifiable and real data.
Another of the work teams on this subject has won the award with a proposal for a tool that uses physical, measurable sensory and cognitive indicators to improve spaces in universities. The group is composed of students and academic staff from POLIMI and TUB.
Finally, the third of the groups that has achieved recognition in this challenge is formed by students and academic staff from the UPV and WUT. Their idea is based on the connection between student projects from all universities with real users with reduced mobility or other disabilities.As for the second of the challenges, the use of artificial intelligence in university administration, three groups have also won the award.
One of the winners is constituted of students and staff from POLIMI and Warsaw WUT, who have based their work on a sensor network that provides information for analysis, thus optimising university spaces and thus creating a more welcoming place to study and work.
Furthermore, with an idea related to the improvement of air quality through an awareness platform, a POLIMI working group has obtained funding of €35,000 to develop their project.
Finally, another working group has been awarded with the idea that aims to resolve the difficulties in the admission process at universities, turning them into more inclusive spaces with a greater impact on society. This team is made up of students and academic staff from POLIMI, WUT and the UPV.
