Last Friday the Scientia hosted the UNSW Service Improvement Conference, a bi-annual event that aims to connect UNSW IT with those who use our services the most — the students of UNSW. The Service Improvement Conference is part of the IT Heroes Program, and aims to discover ideas from the student body on how we can improve our services, while giving students the chance to develop their skills in teamwork, problem solving and communications.
Congratulations to the winners, teams Unviate, Mayte, and Handbook 2.0 – the judges had a difficult time narrowing down the field to just three winners.
In third place on the night was Univate. Univate is a concept that will use creative and intriguing physical installations to spread knowledge and ideas. These installations will be real world portals into the virtual world linked by a simple QR code. When integrated into major Sydney events they will promote UNSW internationally.
Team Mayte proposed an innovative app aimed at helping students to minimise the use of social media during lectures and tutorials. The app features a reward system to encourage students to be more attentive during lectures and tutorials. The app also allows students to see the rankings of fellow classmates and also provide student feedback to lecturers and tutors.
But the winner on the night was Handbook 2.0. This idea aims to improve students’ experience in the enrolment process by transforming the UNSW handbook. Students will have access to a more interactive centralised platform that integrate the handbook, the enrolment procedure and timetable generator all at one place. Handbook 2.0 will replace the typical textual format of presenting information and allow UNSW to pioneer an experience fit for a modern era.
The UNSW Hero program is aligned with the Educational Excellence component of the UNSW 2025 strategy. By leveraging our network of industry partners such as CISCO and AWS, coupled with the existing workshops by UNSW professional Staff and Academics, we can ensure that we are providing the necessary mentoring and real – time student support. Thereby, assisting UNSW to establish itself as a leader in transforming our students and empowering them to become the best they can be.
We aim to build a program committed to acting as an incubator platform to promote both entrepreneurial spirit among each and every new cohort of students, creating a channel for students to share and implement UNSW Service Improvement Ideas. Promoting an innovative and inquisitive mindset within our program participants, a highly sought after skill in graduates.
The UNSW Service Improvement Conference is part of the UNSW Hero Program. The conference is a chance for Heroes to form teams and investigate ways to improve the university experience at UNSW by leveraging technology and embracing the 2025 Strategic Plan. Eight teams of students will pitch their ideas and compete for the best Service Improvement Initiative. Prior to presenting, each group of students have completed several workshops ranging from innovation to project management, organised by internal and external UNSW Hero Program partners.
The bi-annual event has produced initiatives like the MyIT Mobile App and the Virtual Campus concept. We’re always excited by the great ideas our students come up with, and how we can turn them in to services for the greater UNSW Community.
– Anatoli Kovalev, UNSW Hero Program Manager, UNSW Australia.