City intercollegiate competition of social projects "People need you!" will be held this year in conjunction with the University of California (UCLA), which became possible thanks to the victory of the ITMO University in the contest for proposals under the program "Russian-American Peer to Peer Partnership”.

This year's competition "People need you!" will be held in parallel in two cities: St. Petersburg and Los Angeles. A joint training course in the field of social entrepreneurship will also be developed, and in June 2015 there will be the final competition at the ITMO University, which will be attended by the best Russian and American student teams.

The main objective of the competition, organized by the ITMO University, is to develop students' skills of design and entrepreneurship, teamwork and leadership skills that will enable them subsequently receive additional benefits in the labor market. Many social projects have the potential commercialization, and can be further developed and implemented in the business incubators at the ITMO University, as well as within accelerator program SUMIT and training on fundraising FundIT. Thus, the social engineering activity of students is directly related to the development of an entrepreneurial culture at the university, which is one of the main features of modern innovative university.

The necessity to work in this area was discussed at the Tomsk International Forum " The Triple Helix and Innovation Based Economic Growth: New Frontiers and Solutions”. Representatives from the ITMO University spoke about their experience in the development of social engineering in the work of several sections. The information provided was particularly relevant in the context of the new trends in the development of the concept of Triple Helix, consisting in increasing the value and role of civil society in the development of innovation ecosystems.

Experience of the ITMO University in cooperation with community organizations and leaders of the city of St. Petersburg in the field of social engineering student interested the partners from the United States, China, the Netherlands, Mexico, Brazil, India, South Africa and other countries. As a result, an agreement was reached on the visit of Henry Etzkowitz, the author of the concept Triple Helix, to the ITMO University in October 2014 and an international competition of student social projects "People need you!" in 2015 in the format of cooperation between universities of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China , South Africa).

More information about the competition of students' social projects "People need you!" is on the site.

More information about the conference TripleHelix in Tomsk and the participation of the ITMO University is on the site.

Reference:

Triple Helix is the concept of development of innovation ecosystems based on the interaction of three institutions (university, business and government), who seek to cooperate. The innovative component is precisely the result of this interaction, and not the result of government initiatives. The author of the concept is Henry Etzkowitz, professor at  the Stanford University (USA). More information is available on the website.