Navigating a Greener Tomorrow
Through this Design challenge we hope first and foremost to show how Design interventions can address important societal problems, and to provide student and academic partner with an exciting opportunity for cultural exchanges, to show their creativity, meet with other colleagues across countries and exchange knowledge, to make the world a better place.
As a Design challenge, there will be prizes, mostly of a non monetary nature, attributed to the teams by a jury composed in majority by the participating institutions, international experts, a selected group of local stakeholders and members of the Alessandro Volta Celebrations.
Eligibility
The Design Challenge is open to design and engineering academia and students and research institutes, anywhere in the world
Teams Categories: Open to both individual and multidisciplinary teams.
Projects & IP: the project should be new work done for the challenge, by the participant themselves, between 2026 and Sept 2027.
Participation commitment: Participation is free, and must be confirmed by the Academic institution with a letter of intent to the Volta27 project. We understand the variety of curriculum but expect from a participating institution that they will endeavor to submit 4 to 6 projects of their choosing, with a minimum of 3. Separate designs contributing to one larger project, are seen as individual projects, as long as they each submit a complete original submission.
The challenge is meant to be feasible as part of an academic program at Master level or within a special project in parallel to the academic year. It does require dedicated time to explore the opportunities, concepts and develop design proposals (blue print, small scale prototypes, interactive devices, video, exhibition materials) at a quality level the Academic institution will feel comfortable to be represented as part of an exhibition with peers.
Funding
Volta27 and the local stakeholders will secure the exhibition space and event management at the Lake Como Design Festival 2027.
Universities must ensure they are able to participate and be exhibiting their projects with the appropriate number of staff and students.
Volta27 is currently fundraising with the intention to provide support to the students to help them come at the Festival to meet their fellow challengers. We cannot commit at this stage an amount per student, but will inform the university staff on our progress.