National Hackathon
The Experience Venture' network of partners hosted the second iteration of the Experience Ventures National Hackathon (EVNH), which focused on developing innovative, wellness-focused solutions that have the potential to enrich the lives of all Canadian post-secondary students. Leveraging entrepreneurial thinking, students nationwide developed potential solutions to address a question related to this year's theme of food security. Each team was challenged to develop a pitch that proposed a solution to the question of "What accessible, impactful, and scalable solutions can post-secondary schools implement to improve food security for students on campus?". Congratulations to the Queen's team, Good2Go, who placed third for their on-campus grocery store that aims to address affordability and accessibility to food products for all students.
Learn more about the Experience Ventures National Hackathon competition.
Imagining Digital Future for the Art Museum / 3.0 units
This course provided students the opportunity to engage with Agnes in a pivotal year of change as the new, future-oriented vision for the museum, Agnes reimagined was mobilized. In multi-disciplinary teams, students went behind the scenes to help reimagine Agnes and what the 21st-century museum can be. By researching online collections portals as co-creative spaces, reimagining how, what, why and for whom information about the collection is shared and displayed online, students produced research reports, prototype interfaces, activities for Digital AGNES to inform a new cutting-edge collections portal being implemented by the museum.
Learn more about Imagining Digital Futures for the Art Museum.
Next Generation of Medical Simulation
Ingenuity Labs and UP360 partnered with Experience Ventures to offer The Next Generation of Medical Simulation Hackathon. This experience provided students with the opportunity to explore innovation at the cross-roads of medicine, engineering, and design. Diverse multi-disciplinary teams comprised of undergraduate students from across Queen's University applied to compete in this paid opportunity with the goal to harness the power of diverse thinking from across the university. The hackathon took place over the weekend of 5-6 March and was designed to take advantage of Ingenuity Labs on-campus space in Mitchell Hall and allowed teams to also compete remotely. The design challenge was broad ranging to encourage diverse designs while organizers provided hardware and software to encourage hands on prototyping.
National Hackathon
The National Hackathon was a local Queen's University competition, as part of the Experience Ventures National Hackathon competition. Students worked within teams comprised of their peers and were supported by challenge mentors and wellness professionals to develop innovative solutions to the challenge problem. At the end of March, select finalists from the local Queen's competition had the opportunity to present their winning challenge solution to a national panel. For the hackathon's inaugural year, the theme was wellness, zeroing in on developing innovative, wellness-focused solutions to enrich the lives of Canadian post-secondary students. Wellness is a complex, multifaceted, and nuanced concept, and the National Hackathon challenged students to engage with the individual dimensions of wellness, including mental health, physical health and nutrition.
Social Innovation Hackathon
The Social Innovation Hackathon was an engaging immersion into the world of social innovation and its implications for using business as a catalyst for social change. Students had the opportunity to work in a team to create innovative solutions for social impact challenges that growing dynamic organizations face today. In a fully virtual environment, student teams began by reviewing a challenge provided by their sponsor company and had one week to engage with the problem and brainstorm potential solutions. Teams then provided a pitch deck presentation that detailed their unique ideas and resolutions.
Edge of Lyme Case Competition
Edge of Lyme was a case competition that raised awareness for the consequences of tick-borne diseases (e.g. Lyme disease) and facilitated a trans-disciplinary approach to improving disease prevention, treatment, and management. The week-long event took place between January 22nd and 29th and was divided into three phases: an education phase, a project phase and a presentation phase. Students with an interest in group-work, planning, problem solving, and abstract thinking applied and were assembled into teams and competed in a case competition that tested their critical-thinking and problem-solving skills in the context of tick-borne disease. At the end of the event, teams competed for the best solution to their dilemma as judged by the quality of their: 1) poster presentation and 2) visual presentation. Separate from the student delegates, the Department of Biology also recruited student leaders who were responsible for coordinating the Edge of Lyme case competition event.
FILM 511 - Imagining Digital Future for the Art Museum / 3.0 units
This course gave students the opportunity to be involved in the pilot Youth Advisory Council of Agnes Etherington Art Centre and engaged them in developing the future of Digital AGNES through brainstorming new templates and initiatives. Students participated in hands-on activities and gained professional experience in an innovative institutional environment, leading to active and collaborative learning opportunities across disciplines.Students researched online collections portals as co-creative spaces, innovations in digital publishing, uses of AR/VR and mixed reality experiences, and interdisciplinary digital lab spaces within museums. Students then produced research reports, and prototype interfaces and activities for Digital AGNES to inform new cutting-edge templates being implemented by the museum.
Students in Residence
The Department of Chemistry recruited students from outside of traditional science programs for 3 ‘students-in-residence’ positions:
- Artist-in-residence – Explored science through an artistic lens and created art that visualized the invisible molecular world of chemistry
- Writer-in-residence – Collaborated with scientists and the stories that surrounded their work and learnt about the challenges that come with communicating science in writing to help scientists tell their stories effectively
- Entrepreneur-in-residence – Learnt about cutting edge research in chemistry and some of the real world applications for those innovations
Students worked with chemistry researchers in an interdisciplinary research environment, learnt about the fascinating ways our scientists worked on to create a better world, and contributed their unique perspectives and methodologies. Not only did students gain practical and professional experience, they also had the opportunity to connect with members of the Queen’s Chemistry Innovation Council (QCIC) which provided them with a forum for idea exchange, advice for innovation, and a network to potential employers in global industries or agencies related to chemistry and science.
(Un)hacking Downstream Consequences - Student Placements
The McDonald Institute partnered with Experience Ventures for unique virtual student placements that focused on building innovation networks, future preparedness, and making an impact. (Un)Hacking Downstream Consequences was a deconstruction of the typical hackathon. The event occurred online over 10 days between February 22, 2022 to March 3, 2022 with both synchronous and asynchronous pieces. This non-competitive event focused on championing collaboration and good-will amongst participants. Students were placed in small cross-disciplinary groups to brainstorm unique solutions to problem sets held by Institute-identified problem holders. The goal of the experience was to develop and apply entrepreneurial thinking and skillsets for resiliency, opportunity recognition, action orientation, risk management, systems thinking, and trans-disciplinary thinking.