Universities from 5 Continents are Going to Get Together in St. Petersburg at the WC2 Symposium

12 July 2019 International activities 0

The main annual forum of the Association of leading universities of world cities - the World Cities World Class University Network; WC2 is coming to St. Petersburg. From July 28 to August 2, the universities of major cities of nine countries, i.e., Russia, China, Germany, Great Britain, USA, Canada, Australia, Brazil and Mexico, will get together at Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University to work on solving global problems of the new centenary.

The main annual forum of the association of leading universities of world cities the WC2 Forum will take place at Polytechnic University

The WC2 Symposium is the core summit of the Association, which brings together experts, students, postgraduate students and young scientists. For Polytechnic University it will be the first time to organize the event: previously, the forum was held in London, Berlin, Sao Paulo and Toronto. Every year, representatives of global universities offer their own solutions to the problems of a particular metropolis, which are often mirrored in the lives of other cities. To do this, participants are assigned to clubs, within which they are then divided into teams. The traditional topics of the clubs are “Transport”, “Healthcare”, “Knowledge, Culture and Development of Cities”, “Eco-Campus” and “Business”. All of them will be presented in 2019 at the St. Petersburg Symposium. Within 5 days of the Symposium, teams of students under the guidance of professors-coordinators will carry out project work within their clubs. The coordinators will formulate the tasks of the project work for the participants on July 29, at the plenary session opening the Symposium. Immediately after it, parallel sessions at which club members will be engaged in solving specific tasks will start. During the Symposium, two meetings of the WC2 Strategic Group will take place for the international experts to discuss issues of joint promotion of universities, the possibility of financing joint research projects and attracting funds from different countries; the entry of new members into the WC2 network; issues of coordination of the Association’s activities, etc. Finally, on August 2, at the concluding plenary session, the teams will present the results of their work, and the organizers will announce the winners in each club.

Each year, participants in the WC2 symposium offer solutions to the problems of large cities

The WC2 network aims to bring together the efforts to solve the problems of big cities in the fields of culture, economics and business, health care, ecology and environmental management, transport, logistics and technology by attracting leading universities located in the world major cities. Thus, in the previous years, Symposium participants spoke about the possibilities of using computer vision algorithms in biomedicine; how modern developments at the interface of biology and computer science can simplify the early diagnosis of certain types of cancer, and how interactive online games help to work out communication with patients burdened by mental disorders. As part of the “Eco Campus” theme, participants developed a green-roof project for an existing university building in Toronto, where they proposed to create a public space that would be accessible not only to students but to all residents of the city. To solve transport problems, Sao Paulo was offered to build cycling routes taking into account the landscape features of the city in such a way that it was most convenient for cyclists to use them. And in Berlin, participants presented a design of energy-efficient buildings for the new university campus.

The WC2 Association unites universities of large cities of the world

“All projects that are represented by the participants of the Symposium speak about the solutions of specific, real-life tasks of megacities. And this completely reflects the key goal of the Association: to maximize the use of the research potential and the joint work of leading universities to improve the quality of life in world cities,” Vice Rector for International Relations D.G. ARSENIEV pointed out.

Prepared by Center for International Recruitment and Communications. Text: Olga DOROFEEVA

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