Three students and two faculty members from CMR University (CMRU) in Bengaluru are among the 1,000 global talents selected from over 19,000 applications across 100+ countries by UNLEASH – a Denmark-based non-profit organization with a mission to provide the youth an opportunity to create innovative and scalable solutions to help attain the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The selected students are Aastha Das, Mohammed Omer, and P Likhith Reddy (2nd-year students from the School of Engineering and Technology) and Vindhya Umapathy and Shirley Elizabeth Mathew (Design Thinking Facilitators, Dept. of Common Core Curriculum).
The participants were selected based on their application and assessment of their motivation, ability to think critically and creatively about sustainability issues; and openness to collaborate and collectively co-create solutions. The selected talents from across the world will participate in the Global Innovation Lab 2022 which will be held in India for the first time at the Infosys campus in Mysuru from December 3rd to 10th. The participants will come up with new ideas and co-create innovative solutions through a human-centered Design Thinking approach.
With a vision “To nurture creative thinkers who will drive positive global change”, CMR University has integrated Design Thinking as a mandatory credit course across all its Schools of Studies through the Common Core Curriculum (CCC) as it believes that students who are equipped with design thinking skills, develop an ability to deeply understand complex real-life problems in various walks of life and come up with innovative and feasible solutions. CMRU has also integrated the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in its curriculum with an aim to consciously reform economies and communities, making them more inclusive, and environmentally conscious.
Dr. Tristha Ramamurthy (Provost, CMR University) said, “We feel very humbled and honored that the 3 students and 2 faculty members from CMR University were amongst the 1,000 participants selected from across the world to be able to participate in the UNLEASH Innovation Lab India 2022. This will give them an exclusive opportunity to collaborate, innovate, and network with minds from across the world to find solutions for complex real-life problems. This particular achievement is a testimony to the fact that our Design Thinking course is empowering our students and faculty members to become real-life problem solvers.”
At UNLEASH, over a period of 8 days, the CMR University students and faculty members will get a hands-on opportunity to work on some of the most pressing global sustainability challenges. These challenges are divided into 7 thematic tracks that tackle specific UN SGDs. The CMRU students and faculty members will also be guided by global experts through different stages of the innovation process – Problem Framing, Ideation, Prototyping, Testing, and Implementing.
