Are you interested in tackling real-life global challenges together with students around the globe?
Are you passionate about the Sustainable development goals?
Would you like to develop employability skills with global corporations while taking a course and earning credits?
Overview
Future 17 is a new global initiative offered by the University of Exeter and Quacquarelli Symonds Limited (QS) in the UK with participation from leading international universities. It is designed to support students to develop skills needed for tackling 21st-Century global challenges through working with industry and academic mentors as well as peers from around the world to create innovative solutions for real-world issues associated with one or more of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Students form international, interdisciplinary and multicultural teams with their peers from a consortium of universities to work on projects defined by SDG Challenge Partners (businesses, charities, governments, NGOs, etc.).
The Programme is available for both terms in 2024–25. The registration period for the Programme in Term 2, 2024–25 starts now until 20 December 2024. If you are interested, please sign up by completing the application form: https://cloud.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk/webform/view.php?id=13698197 (Students will be required to upload a photo and explain your aspirations in this programme.)
Programme structure
The programme is comprised of the online induction, online group collaboration and the final presentation.
Online programme induction on SDGs and skills for tackling sustainability challenges
Online group collaboration with global students and mentors (academic and industry mentors)
Future17 solutions showcase event
Programme Timeline for Term 2, 2024-25
10 February 2025 – 07 March 2025: Induction Programme
03 March 2025 – 07 April 2025: Collaboration Phase
14 April 2025: Final presentation and Report Submission
Partner universities
Students will form groups with peers of partner universities from different continents: University of Exeter and UCL School of Management in the UK, Stellenbosch University in South Africa, the University of São Paulo in Brazil, the University of Auckland in New Zealand, Luiss Guido Carli in Italy and the American University in Egypt, and Duke Kunshan University in China.
Projects
Each student team will be given the challenge of designing ways to research in sustainability problems and identifying approaches for delivering appropriate solutions, honing your skills in design thinking, knowledge in sustainable development goals and hands-on experience in problem solving.
Eligibility
Students from all disciplines who have completed the first year of undergraduate studies are welcome to apply.
After fininshing the programme, students may apply for unit exemption (applicable to undergraduate students only). Approval for credit exemption subjects to the final endorsement by the Office of University General Education.
Application
For interested students, please submit the online application form before the deadline. Please prepare a profile photo of yourself for uploading to the application form, and a short paragraph telling us why you wish to join the programme. Shortlisted participants will receive a confirmation e-mail and programme details 2 weeks after the application deadline.
Information Session (Previously recorded)
*The information session in 2022 is for reference only. Please refer to the most updated information above for the latest programme.
List of Completed Projects
Building a Global Community for Eco-Friendly Web Alliance
Sharing by Wong, Chi Fung Jonathan (MPhil in Sociology)
Jonathan is a Sociology MPhil student at CUHK, with a strong background in Gender Studies and Cultural Studies. He shared with us about his learning experience through the Future17 programme.
Why did Ivolunteer for Future17?
With strong enthusiasm in reducing inequality in the society, Jonathan joined the Future17 programme to enrich his understanding in Sustainable Development in an inter-disciplinary approach. ‘It is a golden opportunity to work with students from globally well-known universities, and design innovative solutions to tackle contemporary grand sustainability problems,’ explained Jonathan, ‘Ultimately, you can even express your brilliant ideas with a practitioner in the related industry through an online showcase.’
My Future17 Project
Jonathan’s project was titled ‘Building a Global Community for Eco-Friendly Web Alliance’. The industry partner was an Eco-Friendly Web Alliance (EWFA), an organization based in the UK, with a mission to fight climate change by reducing carbon emissions and creating a cleaner greener internet for all.
Jonathan sees the importance of the project in contributing to sustainable development, ‘The internet contributes to approximately 4% of global carbon emissions, a relatively obscure factor significantly impacting global warming,’ he recalled, ‘We created a Low-energy Campaign to raise public awareness about the emissions from electrical energy needed to power servers and websites.’ He believed that small actions by all internet users plays a role in reversing the trend of high emissions due to internet usage.
The project required collaboration with different parties to complete. Jonathan met his groupmates and mentors every week to discuss the project, ‘It was a fantastic experience since we can always sum up excellent ideas, everyone was indispensable and unique in this meeting. We all have talents, and this was a great time to exchange our knowledge and culture to improve our group work.’ He also appreciated the help from the company partner, ‘they are tremendously patient and in-depth in analysing our project’s weaknesses and improvements, giving us much support and appreciation.’
Overall, Jonathan had a great time participating in the programme, especially during final presentation, ‘a memorable and lively experience’ as he puts it. The project equipped him with SDG knowledge he was eager to acquire and a sense of achievement working with the international team.
Designing an Intuitive Website and UI/UX for a Computer Vision and Ml Analytics Platform
Sharing by Kelly Ho, Electronic Engineering (Year 3)
Kelly is an Electronic Engineering student in her Year 3 when she joined Future17 at the start of the academic year 2023-24. With great passion and interest in sustainable development, she had a rewarding experience in participating in the programme.
Why did Ivolunteer for Future17?
Kelly joined Future17 for a wider exposure beyond her everyday professional training. As an engineering student, Kelly did not overlook the importance of understanding sustainability issues in the 20th century world, ‘Being an engineer does not only require hard knowledge, but also soft skills and the ability to look at the big picture,’ she explained, ‘I believe cooperation, especially among inter-national companies, is required to tackle global issues by implementing local solutions. With more understanding of the SDGs, I could show to my employers that I am capable of thinking in a macro perspective about challenges faced by our society.’
Meanwhile, Kelly also thinks that it is a valuable opportunity to collaborate with students in other countries. With her active and out-going personality, Kelly was confident that she would make a good teammate in facilitating conversations and brainstorming ideas in the team. Her expectations eventually came true, and she cooperated smoothly with her team, ‘My team was very active, everyone in the team is very helpful. The mentor taught us essential UI/UX design principles, the partner company patiently explained the project, and the teammates met every week to ensure that we are making progress.’
My Future17 Project
Kelly was allocated the project ‘Designing an Intuitive Website and UI/UX for a Computer Vision and Ml Analytics Platform’ for the partner Ekak Innovation, a product development firm based in India, dedicated to creating innovative solutions for various industries.
The project was a new experience to Kelly, who was not familiar with software development before. ‘My project was to help redesigning partner company’s website to become more user-friendly. The project was very meaningful as it helps speeding up accident-processing by using computer vision and machine learning, which can potentially save more lives on the road.’
Having worked hard to develop a brand-new interface for the partner, the team had an especially rewarding experience in their final presentation by showcasing their project outcome. Kelly recalled the team celebrating the success, ‘We kept sending each other thank-you messages, one of the teammates even sent me a 30-second-long voice message!’ It has been an unforgettable experience for all students in the team.
Kelly utilized both the soft skills and hard skills in the programme. As an active member in the group, she demonstrated her communication skills and inter-cultural competence. She also harnessed high-quality research skills and teamwork skills in completing project. ‘Our hard works pays off!’ concluded Kelly.
What I have learnt from the Future17 journey?
In the below, Kelly shares the details of the project and her learning outcomes with us:
‘What I learn the most from participating Future 17 Programme is the importance of Active Learning and Working as a Team. At first, we have no clue how to start doing the project. After the first meeting, we start researching topics on UX/UI designing and get to know more on essential designing tools and user research methodology. Fortunately, we also have a mentor who is an expert in UX/UI designing.’
‘I have volunteered to be a group coordinator and a leading role to arrange meetings with mentors/partner regularly so we can do regular check-ups and avoid any silo. Being a group lead, I have learnt finding way to guide groupmates in the right track and arrange meeting efficiently: I have even develop a booking system in Google AppScript!’
Slides I have prepared to guide my teammatesOne of the Final PrototypesMy Mini Meeting-Arranging “Software”
‘We have all grow from knowing nothing about UX/UI to an amateur designer and we received positive feedback from the partner. After the mid-project review and meeting with partner, a bigger challenge came to us: How can we code an interactive prototype?’
‘Luckily, I am an engineering student, so I helped everyone turned their ideas into reality. That is teamwork to me, they make suggestions and I take notes. We all have our own talents and together we have the perfect synergy to make the best prototype.’
‘The best thing I have gained from this programme, apart from the highly demanded skills (UX/UI designing and prototyping), is the bonding with my teammates. Some teammates even private messaging me to thank me. I am very touched because it supposed to be a “school work”, but turn out it is very fun and engaging.’
