Student solution to city congestion wins global challenge

An innovative solution to reducing traffic congestion in the city, developed by UNSW students, has won first prize  in the inaugural Universitas 21 Global Ingenuity Challenge.

The team of five undergraduates competed against nine teams from seven countries in the Challenge, which called for “creative responses to problems associated with moving people around in cities”.

The students, who each received a prize of  $US1000, created a three-minute video to explain and promote their solution, Project Step City, which uses mobile technologies to compare pedestrian traffic with vehicle traffic in the CBD.

Pedestrians are encouraged to use a ‘Step City’ app to geo-locate their movements and record their steps over time, creating a community on social media to promote Sydney as a ‘green city’.

Jane Usherwood, Secretary General at Universitas 21, a leading global network of research universities, said the competition gave students the opportunity to apply their skills and ingenuity to real-world situations. 

“The quality of the work from the participants in this inaugural U21 GI Challenge competition was breathtaking and we applaud the team from UNSW Australia, and indeed all the competing teams, for the creative yet practical ways in which they approached this challenge,” Usherwood said.

Bachelor of Commerce student Laura Walker said she enjoyed the opportunity to work with students from different faculties, including Arts & Social Sciences, Engineering, Science and Business, because they brought unique perspectives to the challenge.

“It was great fun brainstorming and bouncing ideas off each other and using creative media to come up with solutions,” Walker said.

The team’s entry was facilitated by Fiona Tschaut and the UNSW Michel Crouch Innovation Centre, where the students met every day for two weeks.

Fellow team member Tina Tran, who is studying a combined Bachelor of Commerce/Science, thanked Fiona for her support and said she hoped the project might one day be adopted by government and business.

“It was great to work with like-minds and ideate a concept that was scalable and practical. It was a very productive experience,” Tran said.