UvA students of the Bachelor Computational Social Science will research effective opportunities for making a positive impact in the fields of climate change, health, mobility, privacy, surveillance, digital inclusion, digital democracy and more.

We aim to work on wicked problems together with a variety of partners, both public and private.

They will deliver a website focused on propelling behavioral change among its visitors.

The students will work with desk research, focus groups, and experiments and  learn how to leverage various prototyping and web-design skills.

In this challenge, a team of bachelor students in Computational Social Science will explore complex social issues, like climate change, surveillance, or health, focusing on how the challenge partner’s different stakeholders perceive, while exploring opportunities for digital solutions. Previous projects have focused on topics such as promoting Nature-based Solutions or other relevant social or environmental issues.

Our complex societies have to deal with several "wicked problems," including climate change, which is seen by many as the most pivotal challenge of our time. It spills over into other areas of our lives, such as health, politics, and mobility, worsening existing disparities. Another rising problem in the digital age is surveillance. This manifests itself in many ways, such as the monitoring of behaviour and information gathering by the state, social media and private companies. 

The final deliverables include:

• A website
• A written report, investing divergent stakeholder perspectives and emphasizing effective opportunities for digital interventions

✅ Key features of the challenge

• Students per team: 4 or 5 students
• Programme: Bachelor in Computational Social Science
• No. of hours spent per team: approximately 200 hours
• Deliverables: Website and written report (max 3000 words).
• Company time investment: Your time involvement is 16 - 18 hours in total, divided across 18 weeks. This entails an initial planning meeting, short weekly status update sessions (~15 minutes, student-led), a mid-project review meeting, and a final presentation.

📑 Main deliverable and challenge examples

The final deliverables include:

• A website
• A written report, investing divergent stakeholder perspectives and emphasizing effective opportunities for digital interventions

Students will also prepare and deliver a presentation of the study’s major findings to the partner, stakeholders, and their peers.

The student teams can work on challenges such as, but not limited to, the following;

Climate change:

• Renewable energy
• Circular economies
• Sustainable Amsterdam

Surveillance:

• Social media and corporate surveillance
• Physical surveillance of public spaces
• Government surveillance

Please feel free to challenge us with your wicked societal challenges!

🏢 Requirements for participating public & private companies  / organizations

• Any company or community organization with social/sustainable objectives.
• At least two founders/employees currently working at the company.
• In business for at least 6 months.

We encourage a wide variety of companies to apply, as we do not limit ourselves to a specific industry or sector.

💰 Costs

This challenge is free of charge. Your investment in terms of time is:

• Around 1 hour per week (18 weeks total) for the contact person (e.g., joining the kick-off and final presentations, providing information, and answering questions).
• Spending more time is appreciated, of course.

📨 How to apply

Provide a title that summarizes the challenge. Briefly elaborate on your challenge (max 150 words). Click here for a template you could use.

🗓 Planning

• Tuesday, February 4: Pitches of our partners (14:00-17:00)  Students will listen to the pitches from partners, form teams & rank the challenges, including a brief motivation why they want to solve this challenge. Location: Impact floor in the JK Building Roeterseiland campus, Nieuwe Achtergracht 184, Amsterdam
• Friday, February 7: The matching algorithm will create successful matches. Matches are shared with the teams and companies, and initial meetings are scheduled on Tuesdays or Thursdays.
• Week of Monday, 31 March: The students will organize a meeting with their partners for a dedicated feedback moment. 
• Tuesday, June 3: Prototype party ( 14:00-17:00) Students will present their prototype to our partner network and community. Be there to celebrate the website creations!

Questions? Do you want to discuss your challenge before submitting one?

Feel free to call us 👉 +31 6 482 72 193