UNSW is celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2024. Since its opening in 1949, the university has seen many changes from alterations to the physical campus to the addition of new schools, centres, and institutes.
As UNSW celebrates its 75th anniversary, the question arises: What might the university look like when it turns 100?
The challenge:
Your task is to think ahead to the year 2049 and consider what the UNSW Kensington campus might look like when UNSW turns 100. When brainstorming ideas for this challenge, you should think about the new technologies and areas of research that may emerge in the next 25 years. How might these affect physical changes to the campus, the addition of new schools, and the culture at UNSW? Your proposal can be as big or as small as you like!
Let’s first look at some of the changes that have occurred at the UNSW Kensington campus over the last 75 years:
- The university changed its name from the New South Wales University of Technology to the University of New South Wales, and more recently UNSW Australia to UNSW Sydney;
- The introduction of new faculties including Arts, Medicine and Law; and during the COVID-19 pandemic, the merging of three faculties (Built Environment, Arts and Social Sciences and Art + Design) to become one large faculty called Arts, Design and Architecture.
- The enhancement and addition of new buildings to cater for emerging technologies and the growing student population, including online learning and hybrid formats;
- The addition and redevelopment of student accommodation;
- The inclusion of a supermarket, post office and fitness centre;
- The approval of new environmental policies; and
- The advancement of various research areas.
When thinking about your design, consider the following:
- What resources and technologies will be available in the next 25 years?
- What will the student experience be like, i.e. how will you as a student like to interact with the future campus?
- What will jobs of the future look like?
- What impact will artificial intelligence (AI) have on education?
- How might future issues such as climate change affect UNSW?
- How will changes to the campus impact staff, students, and the general public?
- What will be the role of engineers in realising and implementing your design?
Submission
Due 11:59pm, Sunday, 21 July, 2024. Email your submission to wie@unsw.edu.au with the Title “The Future of UNSW Kensington campus challenge” and your name, school, and year stage.
In your submission, please make sure you include the following:
- A brief introduction about yourself and the aim(s) of your design proposal
- Your design proposal
- The resources required to implement your design proposal.
- Images, prototypes, models, sketches, videos etc of your design proposal.
- The team of engineers required to implement your proposal e.g. civil, electrical, mechanical, software etc.
- OPTIONAL: Are there currently any other designs or visions that are like your proposal or have similar goals?
Format
- 2–6-page PDF document; or
- 2-5-minute video; or
- A2 poster **
If there is an additional format you think would work better for your proposal, please run it by the UNSW Young Women in Engineering Club team first by emailing wie@unsw.edu.au.
**Note: when doing a poster, try to limit the amount of text and preference diagrams you use to make it easy for the reader.
Need some inspiration? Check out these links:
Are universities of the past still the future?
What Australia will look like in 2049
How AI Could Save (Not Destroy) Education