IBM & Clinton Global Initiative University engage students to address climate change and environmental injustices
The Call for Code University Challenge has produced hundreds of promising solutions from the worldwide community of student participants tackling global issues
The Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) and IBM have partnered again on the 2021 Call for Code University Challenge. This year’s focus for undergraduate and graduate student developers, designers and innovators from across academic disciplines is to create unique digital prototypes and tools that help build more resilient communities impacted by climate change and tackle environmental challenges. Participating students will have access to IBM technological resources and content experts to engage with and help bring ideas to life, and students from winning teams will receive cash prizes and the opportunity to participate in leadership development programming through CGI U.
This year’s program kicked off with the Call for Code University Challenge: Howard Hackathon for Environmental Justice. This challenge provides participants with opportunities to showcase their coding expertise, expand their professional portfolios, and digitally connect with a cohort of students dedicated to addressing global challenges.
Registered students will have the opportunity to have their ideas assessed by an esteemed panel of judges including Chelsea Clinton and Bob Lord, IBM Senior Vice President, Worldwide Ecosystems and Blockchain. The challenge will commence with the Call for Code: State of the University Challenge, featuring remarks from Mami Mizutori, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction and head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction as well as Dr. Stacy Hobson, Director Responsible and Inclusive Technologies Research, IBM Research.
Since CGI U’s annual meeting in 2015, the Clinton Foundation has hosted a two-day impact driven Codeathon for higher education students of all academic backgrounds. In 2020, CGI U co-hosted twelve virtual Codeathons with IBM for Call for Code, engaging nearly 60k students in tackling pressing challenges such as COVID-19 and climate change.
The 2020 Call for Code Global Challenge — University Edition winner was Pandemap — a team of five international undergraduate students at the University of California Berkeley, a CGI University Network member. The team developed a solution in response to the shift in education due to the pandemic and the challenges it presented in monitoring crowds and social distancing. The intuitive map and destination recommendation app uses an array of resources to provide insightful analytics on crowd and social distancing data to make recommendations to users — university students, staff, and faculty, on what heavily trafficked areas to avoid and which locations are ideal to go to.
Ready to get involved? Answer the call today!
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