First Round of Proposals Received for SDSN and Siemens Gamesa Award
The SDSN and Siemens Gamesa alliance to promote STEM talent in the fight against climate change continues: the selected student teams will have the opportunity to refine and develop their projects thanks to the dedicated mentoring program
On 1 May, student teams from the five participating institutions in the “Universities for SDG13'' competition submitted their final projects that will be part of the international award finale. This competition is a collaboration between the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and Siemens Gamesa , a global leader on renewable energy, to promote university talent in the fight against climate change (SDG 13) while enhancing the relevant role of innovation for quality education (SDG 4).
For this first edition, five institutions selected from SDSN’s network participated in the competition: the Institute for SDGs of Tsinghua University (host institution of SDSN China Hub ), the University of Pretoria in South Africa (host of SDSN South Africa ), the University of Göttingen in Germany, the Pontifical University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, and Arizona State University in the United States of America.
A total of 15 teams were shortlisted, three per university. The students presented solutions which focused on SDG13 (Climate Action) themes including issues such as the use of biofuels, sustainable land use, sustainable wind turbine, generating sustainable energy through solar, wind and hydro power, public policy recommendations for wind powered energy, community participation in climate change, carbon sequestration and forest management, and carbon trading.
The selected teams will proceed to the next round of the competition on the global level.
During May and June these teams will be assisted by teaching staff and mentors from Siemens Gamesa to develop and refine their proposals. The mentorship program foresees meetings on a weekly basis and ad-hoc assessment by Siemens’ staff. Among them are Bianka Hoffmann, Head of industrial engineering for Le Havre Plant; Zadhya Mohammed, Head of strategy and business development, Americas; Daniel Kuhlich, Head of System and Business Integration, Germany; or Murilo Hideki Okashaki, Regional Technology Manager, Brazil, just to name a few. At the beginning of May all the students had the chance to meet their mentors.
The next deadline will be June 30th when the teams will have to submit their refined solutions. A jury composed of experts from SDSN and Siemens Gamesa will select 5 finalists for the SDG13 Universities Award which will be announced in September.
Our most sincere congratulations to all the students that have participated in this first round and to the teaching and management staff that have supported the process!
More information about the collaboration between Siemens Gamesa and SDSN
