KENT STATE TEAM CAPTURES “PEOPLE’S CHOICE” VOTE IN INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION
On Monday, November 13, 2017, the College of Arts and Sciences and Office of
Global Education hosted the MISSION: LIFE VI international innovation competition, focused on
bringing together interdisciplinary teams to address major world problems. The team,
whose idea focused on diverting food waste from the landfill stream and converting it into
electricity, won the “People’s Choice” award, after over 300 people visited the three exhibits and
voted for their favorite.
This year’s teams concentrated on Global Sustainable Development in the 21 st Century. The
event, which was held in the new Integrated Sciences building, featured presentations from
teams from , Texas, and Brazil. Judges from in and around watched the
teams’ 10-minute presentations and voted on the juried awards. The team from the Pontificia
Universidade Catolica Do Parana (PUCPR) in Brazil, who developed and tested a Role-Playing
Game focused on teaching the UN’s Sustainability Development Goals for middle and
high-school students, won the juried First Place prize.
The team from the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas, took second place in
both the People’s Choice and juried awards, with their software app designed to connect
students and non-profits, making the tracking of volunteer hours more efficient for both parties.
Judges for the event were Roy Messing, director, Ohio Employee Ownership Center at Kent
State; Melanie Knowles, Manager of Sustainability for ; and Jason Miller,
Echogen Power Systems.
The student teams competed at the local level to advance to the international competition,
which was introduced to via Associate Professor and Director of the Biotechnology
Program, Edgar Kooijman , who has been instrumental in the development of the strategic
partnership with the Pontificia Universidade Catolica Do Parana (PUCPR), an acclaimed
not-for-profit private Catholic university located in Curitiba in southern Brazil, where Mission: Life
originated. Previously, the school of life sciences at PUCPR has hosted the competition.
”As an international scholar myself – I am originally from the Netherlands – I am so excited to
have the opportunity to mentor and lead students in international activities at
University. Hosting the MISSION: LIFE VI competition provides a wonderful occasion for
students to experience some of the international activities the university is engaged in," explains
Professor Kooijman.
The team consists of: Michelle Park (senior, Fashion Design), Andrew Hughes
(freshman, Biotechnology), Michael Mandac (senior, Hospitality Management), Quaid Kloha
(senior, Accounting), Edward Chiyaka (graduate, Public Health), and Paramanand Deginal
(sophomore, Aeronautics).
PHOTOS FROM THE EVENT CAN BE FOUND AT: