A team of four current BIST-UPF Master students, along with one more team member from UB, won the first prize in the EIT Health Innovation Day competition at the University of Barcelona in November.
The students are currently enrolled in the BIST-UPF Master of Multidisciplinary Research in Experimental Sciences, a pioneering programme focused on hands-on research at the BIST scientific centres of excellence. The programme aims to equip students with knowledge of world-class multidisciplinary research and encourages students to develop their own projects.
The EIT Health Innovation Day at the University of Barcelona took place on November 24th, 2018. Out of 120 candidates of undergraduate and postgraduate students, 70 were selected based on their multidisciplinarity to participate. The participants gathered in a historic building of the University of Barcelona to receive cutting edge training from experts in design thinking, innovative processes, and business & healthcare, and to compete for prize money and the opportunity to take part in the Winner´s Event in December in London, UK.
The competition put the five team members together to work on a challenge. Adam Ali Dahbi Skali (BIST-UPF), Marc Botifoll (BIST-UPF), Jasna Nuhić (BIST-UPF), Alejandra Rodríguez (BIST-UPF) and David Garrido (UB), were challenged with designing an idea about how to promote positive mential health in University students. They developed the idea for a platform called InnovAgora, which offers Universities a compulsary course designed for first year students which would include lessons on time-management, meditation, good sleeping habits, and yoga and would promote social activities such as meetings with alumni and joint outings. The project includes an app which the students can interact with to determine how they are progressing though their first year.
The team presented InnovAgora to a group of judges and won the first prize which came with a 500€ award.
They will have the opportunity to attend the EIT Health Innovation Days Winners Event in December in London, UK.
BIST congratulates the entire team for this outstanding achievement.
