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October 6, 2020: The IC² Institute has again launched the George Kozmetsky Memorial Student Challenge—a competition in which teams of UT Austin students research select Texas communities, receive a specific problem written by leaders of their assigned communities, and do their best to come up with innovative solutions and presentations in a short period of time. For this fall, the number of teams accepted to compete was capped at 20.
The 87 student participants represent 9 different areas of study—engineering, liberal arts, natural sciences, public affairs, business, communication, architecture, information, and social work—and include 12 freshmen, 61 upperclassmen, and 14 graduate students. Each team must represent at least 2 UT Austin schools/colleges—encouraging an interdisciplinary approach and innovative thinking to problem solving strongly encouraged at UT.
Each team has been assigned to one of the over 50 communities participating in IC²’s Regional XLR8—a program designed to assist city leaders in dealing with challenges and preparing for growth.
On October 23, each team will receive a one-page problem brief—a document written by the leaders of the team’s assigned city and describing a specific current situation in the community. The team will then have ten days to work without assistance to come up with ideas to address the problem and to document and defend those ideas in a PowerPoint presentation.
The teams are hoping to make it to the ten-team final phase of the competition, where they will be able to compete for first, second, or third place and substantial cash awards.
Stay tuned to this site for updates as the Student Challenge progresses.
A list of communities assigned to student teams:
- Alice
- Amarillo
- Bandera
- Beaumont
- Boerne
- Brownsville
- Childress
- Cuero
- Del Rio
- Giddings
- Hondo
- Jacksboro
- La Grange
- Luling
- Midland
- Prairie View
- Spur
- Van Horn
- Wheeler County