The City of Kingston has announced that Dunin-Deshpande Queen’s Innovation Centre (DDQIC) is now sponsoring an additional prize for the 2018 Mayor’s Innovation Challenge, where teams of post-secondary students are vying for the chance to have a 16-week paid internship with the City to implement their project idea.
UPDATE: The winners have been announced! See embedded Twitter posts at the bottom
Sponsored by DDQIC, the winners will now also receive a $7,000 stipend per team member for the summer, $4,000 in seed capital for the idea, and
access to the entire summer’s Queen’s Innovation Centre Summer Initiative (QICSI 2018) programming to accelerate their innovation.
“I’m so thrilled that we’ve partnered with Queen’s University and the DDQIC to offer another prize for students as part of the Mayor’s Innovation Challenge,” said Mayor Bryan Paterson in a release. “We have a great relationship with Queen’s and we both want to help launch our post-secondary students into the workforce by providing paid opportunities to help build their skills and experience. It’s amazing that we will now be able to award two teams with truly unique and potentially life-changing summer experiences.”
Benoit-Antoine Bacon, provost and vice principal (academic), Queen’s University said that modern cities “need to consistently innovate to improve the lives of their citizens, and modern universities are always looking for ways to enhance and support their communities. In that spirit, Queen’s is very proud to support the Mayor’s Innovation Challenge and to work in partnership with the City to leverage the innovative talents of Kingston’s citizens to address real municipal issues.”
Super excited to announce an additional prize for the Mayor's Innovation Challenge! The @ddqic is sponsoring an additional team! Two unique and potentually life changing summer experiences, double the number of youth employed, double the municipal projects! @cityofkingston #MIC18 pic.twitter.com/dWxLYGD54V
— Bryan Paterson (@MayorPaterson) February 14, 2018
Members of the public are invited to attend the pitch competition on Friday, March 2 between 9:30am and 12pm when students will be pitching their ideas to judges in Council Chambers at City Hall.
The City will also be hosting a networking lunch with the students from noon to 12:45pm in Memorial Hall while the judges deliberate. The winners’ names are expected to be announced at around 12:45pm.
Register to attend the pitch competition here
March 2nd, 2018 update:
Mayor’s Innovation Challenge winners!
The proposed winter cycling network pitch by Gurraj, Mac, Anna and Nick wins the internship with the City to implement their idea! Congratulations to all student teams! #MIC18 pic.twitter.com/FilfJkWGhF— City of Kingston (@cityofkingston) March 2, 2018
Mayor’s Innovation Challenge winners!
We have a tie for the Dunin-Deshpande Queen’s Innovation Centre internship – the winners are teams Mark & Brandon and Skyler and William both form the enhancing local attractions for youth pitch category! Congratulations! #MIC18 pic.twitter.com/vtdpiGVvW9— City of Kingston (@cityofkingston) March 2, 2018