Bridging the gap between technology and society

Taking part in the Future17 course showed fifth-year global studies and engineering student Tessa Brunton the importance of empathy in the realm of technological innovation.

“It’s about bridging the gap between technology and society and how we implement technology,” says Tessa. “We’ve seen AI, we’ve seen robotics. We can already do a lot with technology, but we’re not always making that social connection.”

For Future17, Tessa joined students from universities in South Africa and Egypt to develop a digital learning toolkit for schools in Kazakhstan. Their client was a private education company, and their brief was to enable the next generation of young people in Kazakhstan to connect with the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to inspire change in their communities.

For Tessa, whose goal is to work internationally, joining a multicultural team was invaluable experience for her future career. "I ended up in a leadership position where I was driving the team forward and managing the communications,” she says. “It was a great practical experience for me.”

Scheduling meetings across multiple time zones proved challenging, as did managing varying levels of commitment and assumptions about cultural practices, such as the weekend falling on Friday and Saturday in Egypt. Tessa quickly learned the limits of collaboration and the need to be more directive at times. “You actually have to just say: ‘Here's a deadline and here's a task, and it needs to be done’."

Tessa’s team successfully developed a toolkit to empower educators to effectively integrate the SDGs into the national curriculum in Kazakhstan, enabling long-term impact on quality education in the region. Feedback from the partner organisation was overwhelmingly positive.

“When we presented our final product, the reaction from our partner was emotional, because she could see this being implemented and making a difference,” says Tessa. The team was praised for approaching the task with empathy. “We hadn’t gone in and said, ‘Okay, we’re going to execute and tick these boxes.’ We said, ‘What do people want? What do they actually need?’.”

Tessa was part of the third cohort from the University of Auckland to take part in Future17, which was created by higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) and the University of Exeter in 2022.

Using the United Nations’ 17 SDGs as a framework, students on the course join global virtual teams to address real-world problems presented by partner companies.

Leading with cultural sensitivity is a focus on the Future17 course, along with enhancing skills such as creativity, innovation and problem solving, to prepare students for the complexities of the global workforce.

“Future17 can be summarised as real problems, real solutions, real companies and real impact,” says Dr Hanoku Bathula, from the Business School, who has been mentoring Future17 student teams since the course was first offered at the University of Auckland.

“It’s an authentic experience and an interdisciplinary project. Students from any discipline can join. They bring in different perspectives to solve problems related to sustainability.

"Students will learn to perceive that value is not always in terms of money or in terms of profit,” adds Hanoku. “There are other non-monetary outcomes that are equally valuable. Society is important; the environment is important, and in order to become sustainability leaders, they will need to juggle these priorities based on the project and the time that they've got.”

By engaging with the SDGs, students not only develop critical skills but also contribute to creating a better society, aligning with the university’s broader sustainability goals.

The University of Auckland was ranked first in Oceania and fifth in the world (against 1,403 tertiary institutions) for sustainability in the 2024 QS World University Sustainability Rankings.

"Students today are very aware of pressing global challenges, particularly those relating to sustainability,” says Andrew Patterson, Deputy Dean in the Faculty of Business and Economics, and the University’s academic lead for Future17. “In short, they are increasingly demanding change. It's inspiring."

Future17 is offered as a Stage 3 course in both Semester One and Semester Two and is open to students from all Faculties and programmes of study. Applications are now open for participation in Semester 1, 2025. The deadline for expressions of interest is 12pm on November 22, 2024. Visit the Future17 page for more information and to submit an expression of interest.