10 Nov 2022
Future-focused college students pitched their vision for 2040 at the ‘College Hack’ Canberra Adaptive City Open Innovation Challenge for 2022 last week.
The College Hack, hosted by the Canberra Innovation Network (CBRIN), was a two-day event where students participated in workshops and mentoring sessions to develop an innovative solution with the aim of making Canberra a better city in 2040.
Six teams of student across four ACT public colleges got to together to target an issue, create a solution, built a business model, identified their target market and crafted a pitch to deliver to a panel of judges. The students had eight minutes to pitch their solution and answer any questions the panel had about their proposals.
The winning pitch on the day came from Erindale College’s Real ReACT, who aimed to address safety on Canberra’s roads.
The pitches were:
Real ReACT – Erindale College (winner)
This team wanted to address road safety issues. The solution they devised is a ‘Virtual-Reality Hazard Simulation Program’ that would assist learner drivers with identifying hazards on the road. The solution was designed to not only support their peers learning to drive but to contribute to the safety of everyone on ACT roads.
Hydronators – Erindale College
With the ACT’s shift to electric vehicles in the coming years, the Hydronators offered a solution to move towards hydrogen powered cars as opposed to lithium-ion battery powered cars. Their proposal focussed on this being a lower emission alternative to battery-powered electric vehicles.
Uniformed - Hawker College
Tonnes of uniform textiles end up in Australian landfill each year. Uniformed is a solution presented by Hawker College designed to tackle the sustainability of school uniforms in the ACT. The idea was to provide a storefront to purchase new and second-hand uniforms as well as a point of return for families in the ACT to ‘trade-in’ their uniforms. The team also proposed to create a partnership with ‘Worn-Up’, a company offering a textile rescue program by up-cycling non-wearable uniforms into Australian products such as school desks.
Hydrox – Hawker College (runner up)
With global supply chain interruptions in 2022, the Hydrox team identified food availability as being a pressing issue for Canberra in 2040. The Hydrox proposal centred around a Wi-Fi enabled hydroponic pot solution that would allow residents in Canberra to grow their preferred crops through a mobile phone app.
Green CBR Cladding – University of Canberra Senior Secondary College (UCSSC) Lake Ginninderra
The team from the University of Canberra Senior Secondary College Lake Ginninderra discussed the pressing issue of the urban heat island effect. Heat islands are where a structure such as buildings or roads absorb and re-emit the sun’s heat, creating higher temperatures relative to the surrounding areas. To tackle this problem UCSSC presented Green CBR Cladding. The proposal from this team was to retrofit ‘green cladding’ on buildings in Canberra to install and maintain cladding with ACT weather-proofed plants and vegetation to create green spaces around the ACT.
Food 4 Thought – Lake Tuggeranong College
Food 4 Thought was a solution presented by Lake Tuggeranong College, aiming to provide free lunches to all ACT Public Schools. By using existing canteen structures, Food 4 Thought wanted to involve students in the process of cooking and creating lunches for the school community. The team pitched a partnership with IGA and other local business to collect food items to be used in cooking classes to create meals for the school.
Well done to everyone involved, we cannot wait to see what solutions are proposed at next year’s event!