From March 18 to 20, 2022, Centennial’s Centre of Entrepreneurship (COE) welcomed students, staff and faculty members, along with community partners and leaders, to participate in an online two-day “Global Goals Jam” focused on actioning the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). A part of change-making activity occurring all around the world, Global Goals Jam 2022 was organized by Centennial in partnership with the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers (OSPE) — coinciding with National Engineering Month in Canada — along with Canadian Partners, and with support from United Nations Development Programme and Digital Society School Amsterdam.
Attendees included students from Centennial as well as from other institutions; faculty leadership and expertise from both Centennial and neighbouring Toronto colleges and universities; and a host of executive mentors and high-quality coaching experts. Among the judging panel was OSPE CEO Sandro Perruzza.
The student response was overwhelming, with teams learning from their mentors and working virtually throughout the weekend to develop solutions that supported three key SDGs: equality and non-discrimination, clean water and sanitation, and climate change. Following an afternoon of high-quality pitches and tough deliberations, three winning teams were awarded cash prizes totalling $4,500:
- The first-place prize of $2,000 was awarded to team Inicio Mutatio for their project on helping data centres in managing “dark data” that is unnecessarily stored, yet aggressively consuming energy. Centennial student Saranya Hari Kumar was among the winners on this team.
- The second prize of $1,500 was awarded to team Building Healers for their ideas on reducing greenhouse gases by retrofitting buildings and educating residents in order to reduce heating and electricity usage. Centennial students Royalty Adelola and Bianca Wan Wyk were on this team.
- The third prize of $1,000 was awarded to team Great Lakes Avengers for designing eco-friendly systems to de-ice roads and sidewalks in North America in order to decrease salinity in water bodies, reduce damage in infrastructure, and protect the paws of pets. Centennial student Francis Paul was among the winners on this team.
SDG activity at Centennial College supports the changemaking activity and the student experience by broadening pathways to meaningful work and community empowerment. “Social Entrepreneurship means the students themselves choose a problem, work on it, start a social enterprise, employ some people for a good cause, and make a living,” explains Lalit Guglani, Manager of Business Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Centennial College. “Every aspect of this movement is driven by youth, all over the world. All we are trying to do is provide a platform for them to feed their aspirations.”
Centennial has established itself as a national leader in events such as social entrepreneurship design jams, and was a national organizer of the first ever Techstars Global Online Startup Weekend focused on COVID-19 solutions (April 2020) as well as Global Goals Jam 2021. These events are part of an ongoing series of events developed by our Centre of Entrepreneurship directly supporting SDG activity at Centennial College.
To learn more, visit accel.centennialcollege.ca.
Congratulations to the winning teams!