**In 2024 Moving the Cities is heading to BRAZIL!**
MOVING THE CITIES is a team-based project with students from Germany, Brazil, Austria, Chile, the US, and the UK addressing major global issues.
This one credit course aims to develop students’ innovation and entrepreneurial skills while immersed in a collaborative multicultural experience. Students in cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary teams will practice design thinking methods to formulate innovative solutions addressing the current challenges of their cities, regions, or ecosystems. These challenges are drawn from the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Expert coaches and mentors will guide the students through a “digital accelerator” using lean methodologies to help conceptualize and develop their ideas.
- More than 100 students from 10 universities and 6 countries are expected to participate
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For Fall 2024, this program will be run in a hybrid design. Students will participate in one week of remote onboarding and preparation followed by one week in country.
- Week 1: remote onboarding & preparation for the program. Students will be required to attend 1-2 synchronous meetings during this week but all other work will be asynchronous.
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Week 2: in-country program (Brazil) - hosted by UNISINOS
- NOTE: Students will need to arrange to miss courses/classes during this week. All missed course work is the responsibility of the student to arrange with their faculty members prior to the program.
Join us for an Info Session!
Wednesday, February 7 at 4pm in 102 Benedum
If you are accepted on the program you will be required to attend one of the following mandatory Agreement Meetings:
Friday, April 5 at 4pm
Monday, April 8 at 5pm
Key dimensions to the program:
- Address key societal challenges from around the world in your multinational student team
- Professional and methodical input to help your team solve the challenge is provided from coaches and mentors from around the world.
- Great way to enhance your professional profile and network with leaders from many parts of the world.
- Meet students from around the world.
- Cultural explorations of the area will enhance the students understanding of the host country.
- For IE students: this program satisfies Option A of the IE international requirement (approved international experience).
- For the Innovation, Product Design, and Entrepreneurship (IPDE) certificate: this program fulfills the entrepreneurship requirement section. More info can be found on the SSOE Intranet.
see sample Final Pitch from 2021
Application process and requirements:
- Open to SSOE students - must be in their second year or higher
- Must have a 2.75 GPA
- Must apply by the deadline- April 4, 2024 by no later than 11:59 pm. Please click the "apply now" button to apply.
This is a proposed Fall 2024 semester program. The course will have one week of virtual onboarding and then travel, all in late October, 2024.
Please note, program subject to minimum number of accepted/enrolled students to run.
Students from all of the participating universities will stay at a centrally-located hostel in Sao Leopoldo. The hostel will have common areas where students can meet to work on their project and/or just hang out and get to know each other.
If you've never stayed in a hostel before, the term may conjure a variety of images of rooms full of bunkbeds with very little privacy. This is not that kind of hostel. Students will stay in dorm rooms with up to 10 beds. Dorms are modern and clean, and each bed has a locked cabinet to store valuables. Each bed also has a light and outlet to charge electronics. Hostel dorms are an excellent opportunity to get to know fellow travelers or, in this case fellow program participants.
This one credit course aims to develop students' innovation and entrepreneurial skills, while immersed in a collaborative multicultural experience. Students in cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary teams will practice design thinking methods to formulate innovative solutions, addressing the current challenges of their cities, regions, and/or ecosystems. These challenges are drawn from the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Expert coaches and mentors will guide students through a "digital accelerator" using lean methodologies to help conceptualize and develop their ideas.
The program culminates with student teams pitching their sustainable startup ideas to a panel of expert judges. More than 100 students from 10 universities and 6 countries are expected to participate.
Please note, program subject to minimum number of accepted/enrolled students to run.
Alicia JF Olalde, M.A.
Hello! Konnichiwa! I am the Director for Global Experiences and Engagement in the Swanson School of Engineering. After working for the JET program in Japan for just over two years, I decided to pursue a career in international education. I returned to the US via a few months of travel -slowing making my way west with many stops in stunning locations and with amazing people. Whenever possible, I continue explore new countries and cultures and have had the good fortune to work, study and travel all over the world. I have been fortunate to work both as an administrator and as a classroom educator in higher education; my areas of interest are international, adult and comparative education. I enjoy assisting engineering students seize global opportunities!
Schedule an appointment
SSOE students: schedule an appointment with me using Pathways via this link!
non-SSOE students-- send me an email and we'll set up a time to meet!
Brandon Barber
Faculty Lead for Moving the Cities
Brandon Barber brings over 15 years of interdisciplinary design and engineering experience spanning the fields of product development, robotics, and architecture. Having founded a boutique design firm which worked with global clients, his projects can be found all over the world. He currently works in the Swanson School of Engineering teaching in the Bioengineering program, leading a design engineering lab, overseeing the Pitt XProjects, and helping to run the Pitt Makerspaces. Brandon’s interests include human centered design, digital fabrication, and the integration of emerging technologies into design and prototyping workflows. BioE Design, Innovation, and Outreach Coordinator
In-State | Out-of-State | |
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Program Fee* billed by Pitt (see the "What's included" section) | TBD | TBD |
Estimated Additional Expenses (meals and personal expenses) Travel to /from Pittsburgh (airfare) |
$500
TBD |
$500
TBD |
There may be additional costs associated with applying for a visa and/or traveling to an embassy or consulate. |
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Please note,
- This program is subject to minimum number of accepted/enrolled students to run.
- This class operates outside of normal tuition and fee schedules and cannot be combined nor included in full-term tuition pricing. Please consult the program manager with any questions
As part of the program fee, the following are included:
- 1 credit course
- Participation fees for the Moving the Cities program
- All academic-related excursions
- Hostel
- Some meals
Please note,
- This program is subject to minimum number of accepted/enrolled students to run.
- This class operates outside of normal tuition and fee schedules and cannot be combined nor included in full-term tuition pricing. Please consult the program manager with any questions
For Fall 2024, this program will be run in a hybrid design. Students will participate in one week of remote, asynchronous, onboarding and preparation followed by one week in country at the end of October.
tentative dates: in Brazil: October 19-26, 2024