News/

Youth redesign Gladstone at CQU STEM challenge

26 July 2021

CQU STEM Central hosted the first of a three-part city design challenge at CQUniversity Gladstone last week.

The Future Cities Hackathon launched the Gladstone Future Cities Challenge' a competition designed for Year Five to Eight students to explore how the city of Gladstone could look like in 30 years.

Focusing on the opportunities in sustainability' technology and community' the 27 participating students worked to develop and pitch an initiative that they think could change Gladstone for the better by 2050.

STEM Central Lead and CQUniversity lecturer Dr Linda Pfeiffer said this first stage of the Gladstone Future Cities Challenge saw students build the foundation of their ideas.

"The Future Cities Hackathon allows students to explore innovations that are being lead around the world in future city design' identify opportunities around Gladstone for innovation' and work through a google inspired design sprint process to develop the foundation of their initiative to pilot in Gladstone."

Students will now move into the Future Cities Design Challenge to continue developing their ideas throughout the term.

This challenge will see students joining a 60-minute virtual masterclass once a week delivered by a team from BOP Industries.

"In this masterclass we will be delivering relevant content to help students develop their ideas' whilst also setting them some additional tasks to complete throughout the week to further their concepts'" explained BOP Industries' Maddie Panther.

"After students submit their ideas at the end of term three' they will be judged by a panel of experts from CQUniversity' BOP Industries and Australia Pacific LNG directly before the official awards which will celebrate the achievements of the top teams."

The Gladstone Future Cities Challenge is a jointly coordinated event between CQUniversity and BOP Industries.

Participants are students of Redeemer Lutheran College' Biloela' Toolooa State High School' Clinton State School and Gladstone West State School.