Date

Come and collaborate

September 20-23

McDalBridge Challenge 2019 - 5 Macdonald Campus students will be participating in this inaugural Canadian innovation design challenge for Agriculture @ Lethbridge College.

October 2019 McDalbridge Team share their five pitches and challenge experience; join the 2020 team.  Details forthcoming.
October 2019 Student Organized Entrepreneurship Seminar:  panel discussion and interactive workshop.  Details forthcoming.
Have an idea? Make a suggestion - margaret.forrest [at] mcgill.ca (subject: Suggestions%20for%20the%20Mac%20I%20%26%20E%20Drop-in%20Sessions%20-%20Winter%202019) (click here)

 

McDalBridge Challenge 2019

Congratulations to the 5 cross-institutional innovation teams, you are our inspired future!  Thanks to our awesome hosts at Lethbridge College and our sponsor, Farm Credit Canada.  Kudos to the expertise at Cultiv8 (Dalhousie University) and AgENT (Lethbridge College) for accompanying us on this extraordinary problem solving adventure.

To move towards sustainability in food production we need...

  • “We need to close the gap between producers and consumers.”
  • “... consensus; how can this happen if we don’t know one another?”
  • “Sharing knowledge as one community is a more sustainable model.”
  • “It’s not the dollars, it is the way we want to be farmers that will make the positive change."
  • “It’s not one idea that will make the difference, it’s all the ideas.”

The 2019 Macdonald campus teamSimon Brault (U2 Ag Econ); Jeremy Chevalley (Y2 FMT); Alexis David-Dandurand (U3 Ag Econ); Stacey Godin (Y2 FMT); and Kyla Ness (Y3 FMT)

 

About the Challenge

Dalhousie University, Lethbridge College and McGill University are collaborating with Farm Credit Canada on a two year pilot project to bring Canadian post-secondary agriculture students together to create innovative solutions to Canadian agricultural challenges. Fifteen students will bring their diverse Canadian perspectives to a creative problem-solving process. Day one, teams will meet with local producers to discover the full amplitude of the challenge question. Day two, teams will design solutions that are sustainable and respond to community needs. On the final day, students will present their early prototype pitches in a showcase event that will provide feedback from local Ag researchers and innovators.

 

Why collaborate? Successful design innovation is the result of empathetic problem solving -- understanding the multiple perspectives of all the stakeholders, and inspiring change by responding to those needs in a sustainable solution. One person, one institution, or one region will not provide the robust suite of solutions needed to meet the challenges of the 21st Canadian agricultural practices. A national agricultural design innovation challenge provides a platform for Canadian students to bring their particular agricultural knowledge together to grapple with specific regional issues. Innovative solutions, and collaborative skills that build them, will resonate far beyond the boundaries of the weekend challenge event.

Goal: Meet the challenges of 21st century sustainable Canadian agricultural practice

This cross country collaborative challenge engages students in agricultural innovation at the foundational level, building capacity to innovate sustainable Ag solutions, targeting social need while respecting dynamic ecological change.

 

  • Engage in collaborative team innovation: students from diverse Canadian agricultural settings will work in cross-institution teams to discover, design and deliver prototype concept solutions

 

  • Inspirational Ag Innovation: students will observe, experience and inquire about innovative production sites during visits to producers in the challenge region

 

  • Cultivate producer dialogue: student teams will interact with local producers to 1) deepen understanding of client needs; 2) innovate solutions that respond directly to client need; 3) incorporate client feedback in early prototype/solution validation process

 

  • Practice transferable problem solving skills: student teams will 1) construct a human centered design framework that aligns with community perspectives; 2) focus innovation on a strong prototype/solution; 3) effectively communicate early-stage solutions/prototypes

 

Join the 2020 team and experience inspirational Ag innovation.

For more information please contact margaret.forrest [at] mcgill.ca (subject: Query-National%20Design%20Innovation%20Challenge%20for%20Agriculture) (Margaret Forrest)

 

 

 

Food Solutions Challenge 2019 @ Macdonald Campus McGill University

Create climate-friendly cold storage solutions to reduce food loss in sub-Saharan Africa that will increase the amount of edible food while producing less climate changing emissions. 

LEARN about the impact the cold storage supply chain in sub-Saharan Africa has on food loss and its connections to climate change and the need to feed a growing population. Then, IDEATE potential solutions for these tough, interconnected issues with like-minded people in your community and win a chance to incubate your ideas at a paid event in the spring!

Submitted solutions will be judged and the top teams will travel to an event in Spring 2019 where they will expand their knowledge and skills on these critical issues. The top team will win $10,000 in seed funding to turn their ideas into action.  *The Food Solutions Challenge is supported by Bayer

Date: Monday November 26, 2018 | 3:30-5:00 PM

Location: Macdonald Campus, Macdonald-Stewart Building, Room MSB-016. Hangout with refreshments after the event!

Free event. Open to all students at McGill.

CONGRATULATIONS! 17 Mac campus students are eligible to submit innovative solutions to this challenge

Finalists will be announced in Late Spring 2019

Questions? Contact Margaret Forrest by margaret.forrest [at] mcgill.ca (email)sarah.barker [at] mail.mcgill.ca (.)

 

MAC-JAC-MAC Social Innovation Collaboration

Macdonald High School (MAC), John Abbott College (JAC) and McGill Macdonald campus (MAC) are collaborating on a neighbourly social innovation project to enhance wellbeing through gardening. 

The JAC student garden space (between the Science building and Hochelaga, just north of the Arctic Circle) is growing into a garden classroom.  Kudos to JAC student gardeners and McGill Mac Campus student expertise.  The main pillar of this activity is the positive relationship that is developed between gardening activity and individual human well-being.  Sustaining the garden includes goals of developing scientific knowledge of gardening, and constructing an inviting, ecologically respectful and sustainable environment. 

Are you interested in cultivating the growing campus garden community?  Innovative collaboration might include collaboration in teams that include students from each campus; participating in a variety of mini challenges; creating vlogs/presentations along the way; with the end result of an outdoor garden classroom.  Future visions of this garden collaboration could include mini garden science teaching modules, or gardening partnerships supporting local community groups.

Interested?  margaret.forrest [at] mcgill.ca (subject: Mac%20(McGill)%20-%20JAC%20-%20Mac%20(High)%20Community%20Gardening%20collaboration, body: I%20would%20like%20to%20know%20more%20about%20this%20initiative...) (click here)

Ideas

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts - Aristotle

margaret.forrest [at] mcgill.ca (subject: Creative%20Ideas%20for%20Mac%20I%20%26%20E, body: Thanks%20for%20sharing%20your%20creative%20innovation%20and%20entrepreneurship%20ideas.%20%20All%20comments%20will%20be%20treated%20with%20respect%20and%20will%20be%20promoted%20positively%20only%20with%20your%20explicit%20permission.%20) (Share) your creative ideas for social innovation challenges, ideation strategies, collaborative success stories

Mac Innovation and Entrepreneurship is what you make it!

 

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