CreativeProblem-Solving
Student Works
YEE GLocal
white paper excerpt
Existing Treasures
During the ICEE program’s very first unit, groups explored well known aspects of Chongqing and how these most popular destinations might be made more attractive, publicized better, or updated to encompass more opportunities within the city.
While these products and services, along with those highlighted in the next section, were developed in their very first cycles through an entrepreneurship process, ICEE groups in their third year of the program were able to revisit and refine the treasures most worth knowing, adding in research, enriching resources, and finalizing product and service pieces to better represent and promote Chongqing.
Hidden Treasures That Must Not Disappear
As students moved into successive units, ICEE groups sought to find those areas of Chongqing that might be well-known locally but that can contribute to the city’s advancement, appeal, and culture if they were to be more widely recognized and highlighted. As they moved into the second semester, they also unpacked the theme of disappearing treasures. With all development and growth, some buildings, habits, and pieces of past lifestyles will shift. However, students identified those treasures that are culturally significant, that no matter the development within Chongqing should be protected, promoted, and revered.
Particularly during this final year of expanded research, they found many of those treasures that are hidden from wider society and visitors are also those treasures most at risk of disappearing. Recognizing the cultural significance of these locations, styles, and cultural traditions, ICEE groups selected a sample of treasures representative of these two thematic units.
Food and Dining
Food is a topic that has been at the center of many of the learners’ and groups’ problems worth solving, ideas they have come up with, and products they create even before they encountered this unit dedicated to the cultural associations with food, the ability to extend ideas further, and the interactions with food and dining and the local and global environments.
To ensure groups went deeper in their understanding of the needs associated with food, they explored, among other extensions, food insecurity and food waste, impact of food production on the environment and safe food practices, cultural perceptions of Chongqing food and dining, and the impact many of today’s foods have on physical health. The latter two are presented here with solutions that can impact the food and dining industry in Chongqing and people’s perception of it.
Transportation
n our hyperconnected world, people are always on the go. Cities are often full of congestion, traffic, the sounds of busy individuals bustling from one place to the next. For a city that has experienced rapid growth like Chongqing, the hustle and bustle of daily life can have significant interactions with the transportation needs of the city’s inhabitants and guests and the side effects transportation causes.
ICEE learners explored how Chongqing has tackled these varied issues already as well as coming up with ideas where they still found significant need. The ideas highlighted here represent the needs students were most passionate about in their busy, growing city and solutions they hope can inspire change.
Architecture
In order to address problems worth solving within architecture, ICEE groups researched and learned about the interactions between architecture and a number of additional factors, including renewable resources, alternate energy, ecosystems and habitats, the human need for social interactions alongside everyday needs, and the dangers encountered in natural disasters.
ICEE learners explored these themes both in Chongqing and around the world to find what is currently being implemented and envision what could be implemented in the future. The following represents the blending of several groups’ focus, combining physical and mental health and safety through an architectural lens.
New Solutions for Old Models
Class of 2023
Value Creation
passionate about improvement and promotion of their city