Urban Health Case Challenge

ogólnouniwersyteckie

The Urban Health Case Challenge is an initiative under the 4EU+ University Alliance. In a case challenge the participating student teams strive to develop the best solution to a real-world issue presented by a business or organization within a limited time-span. Each team presents their solution in front of an expert jury at a pitching session on the last day of the case challenge. The competition has been organized to address the many urban changes associated with health and demographic transformation in our growing urban environments. This year we will deal with the question of obesity in an urban environment. The event will be organized in a cooperation with 4th International Scientific Conference Interdisciplinarity of Health and Healthcare.

The focus this year is on the obesity in an urban environment. The obesity is one of main civilizational challenges of our times. According to WHO it is “often the result of environmental and societal changes associated with development and lack of supportive policies in sectors such as health, agriculture, transport, urban planning, environment, food processing, distribution, marketing, and education.” Together with your team, you will work on a solution to a given case question concerning one of these relations.

Bachelor, master's and PhD students from 4EU+'s partner universities and Uppsala University (Sweden), Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Norway) can participate in the challenge. Each partner university has 10 places. Out of these students we will create mixed teams of 4 people each. The competition has been created to strengthen the university students' competencies and commitment to solving real-world problems through practical, theoretical, innovative and interdisciplinary learning. In addition, the participants get the opportunity to engage in a highly topical case from the real world and work in an innovative and interdisciplinary manner.

On-line lectures:

November 2, 2023, 17:00 - Information and organization meeting

November 15, 2023, 17:00 - Stepan Svacina, Charles University, „Introduction to obesity – causes, identification and treatment”

November 21, 2023, 17:00 - Daniela Lucini, University of Milano, "Connection between obesity, physical activity and lifestyle"

November 29, 2023, 17:00 - Simon Cook, Birmingham City University, “Geography of sport: running in cities”

December 5, 2023, 17:00 - Izabella Łęcka, University of Warsaw, “Physical activity as a vital element of the development of the concept of healthy cities”

The actual challenge will take place at the Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw, from December 9th till December 12th. On December 9th the specific case question will be revealed, and the teams will join to work on their innovative solutions to the aforementioned challenges. Background materials on the specific question will be the starting point of students’ research projects. However, the case question will be wide enough to allow very different solutions from multiple approaches meet the realities of several cities in Europe.

The participants will also receive training in problem solving and pitching of results and solutions. The teams will also be trained in developing and concretising their ideas so they can present them convincingly at the finals.

On December 12th, the last day of the competition, the teams will pitch their solutions to an international jury of experts. All teams will receive feedback on their ideas. The winning team may be given the opportunity to put the proposed idea into practice.

If you want to participate in the challenge, please download the application form from: http://www.wne.uw.edu.pl/gkula/Urban Health Case Challenge 2023 application form.docx, fill it in and send it to uhcc2023@wne.uw.edu.pl by October 20th, 2023. On the basis of these forms we will choose 10 people who will represent our university in the Challenge.

Basic materials, data and literature will be delivered by the organizers of the challenge. However, most information the participating students will have to find themselves as a part of the challenge.

The aim is to strengthen university students’ competencies and engagement in solutions to real-world cases through employment of practical, theoretical, innovative and interdisciplinary thinking. Students will be given a unique opportunity to work in mixed teams, to network and learn from and with each other, faculty, the external case provider and other stakeholders. Students will learn to work innovatively and cross-disciplinarily to solve complex case problems, train their pitch skills and practice task and time management.

The grades of the participating students will depend on the evaluation of their challenge solution by the jury.