More than 15 students from the University of Florida traveled to the American Seed Trade Association’s 2015 Vegetable & Flower Seed Conference in Tampa, Florida, to present posters showcasing possible solutions to the grand challenges associated with the population explosion expected by 2050.
Called the Challenge 2050 Project, students were charged with developing human capacity solutions to meet the needs associated with a population projected to exceed 9.6 billion by the year 2050.
Students participating in the program come from diverse academic backgrounds and range from freshmen to seniors. Proposed solutions presented during the conference ranged from creating an association that can help businesses improve corporate social responsibility to the awarding of microloans, and from sending out a variety of brigades to deploying wellbeing boxes. Some proposals
could easily be implemented today while other concepts still need the advancement of science and technology to become a reality.
Challenge 2050 is part of the university’s sustainability certificate program. Through the program five courses have been developed and are offered to students. It’s really “a transdisciplinary approach that merges knowledge and innovation to develop solutions to complex, global problems.”
The Challenge 2050 Project is an integrated process that creates synergistic opportunities for University of Florida students and faculty to work with industry partners and policy makers. Corporate sponsors include Groupe Limagrain, HM.CLAUSE and the United States Peace Corps.
More information about the program is available at http://challenge2050.ifas.ufl.edu/.
