Is an asteroid impact a disaster? What about a bee swarm? Can I ask a friend to help me? My postgrad experience is in brain surgery – can I still enter? Is ‘wicked’ good or bad? Don’t panic! We are here to help. Natural Hazards Research Australia will host online briefings on 30 May and 6 June to answer your questions about the Disaster Challenge, help individuals find potential teammates and outline the wicked problem and what makes it wicked.
What is the Disaster Challenge?
The Disaster Challenge is a national challenge to encourage new ideas, new thinking and new research. The Disaster Challenge calls out to early career researchers, postgraduate and undergraduate students across Australia – it is your chance to make a difference with innovative ideas and solutions for the wicked problems the country faces with natural hazards.
Hosted by Natural Hazards Research Australia with support from universities and emergency management organisations, the Disaster Challenge invites the best and brightest minds in our universities to put their creative talents into helping us solve the trickiest problems that surround how we deal with floods, bushfires, storms, cyclones and other natural hazards.
A wicked problem is one that is urgent, but difficult to solve because of incomplete, contradictory, or changing requirements that are often difficult to recognise or evaluate. With a national final and prizes, what innovation can you and your team bring that Australia hasn’t done yet?
The briefings
Online briefing one: learn about the Disaster Challenge
Interested in participating but not yet sure? Keen to enter but after more specifics? Want to find others to collaborate with and form a team? An online briefing was held on the 30 May to cover all the logistical details. Watch the recording below.
Online briefing two: why is this problem wicked?
Learn more about the wicked problem and ask questions of practitioners and researchers with experience of the wicked problem to better understand it and refine your potential solutions. An online briefing was held on the 6 June to give tips on this and more. Watch the recording below.
Learn more at www.disasterchallenge.com.au.