Map idea wins Future Campus Challenge
The results are in! The winner of Future Campus Challenge, the competition for new ideas for KTH campus, is Gustaf Törner and KTH Maps, a solution that will make it easier to find a place to study on Campus.
Together with Akademiska Hus, KTH Innovation organized Future Campus Challenge, a competition to find new ideas that can make KTH's campus areas better for all of us after the pandemic.
From the 22 ideas submitted to the competition, a jury selected five finalists who went on to the final round where everyone could vote for their favorite idea. Over five hundred people took the chance to shape the future KTH. The idea with the most votes was KTH Maps by Gustaf Törner, who is currently a master student in Mathematics at KTH. Gustaf wins 50 000 SEK to develop his idea.
Congratulations Gustav! How does it feel to win Future Campus Challenge?
- I’m so happy and surprised. It's incredibly fun!
Why did you decide to join Future Campus Challenge?
- I started studying at KTH in 2018. About a week after I had started, I joined an event with KTH Innovation at Farmen. I thought it sounded cool, and that I would like to come up with an idea one day. When I found out about the competition, I thought that now was the perfect chance. On the final night of the challenge, I couldn’t sleep, so I submitted my idea.
How did you come up with the idea?
- During the pandemic, I spent a lot of time studying at KTH, and I was usually the one in my study group who was on site on campus first, already at seven o'clock in the morning. We had used the same room every day for months, but now people were starting to find it. There was almost a queue outside. One morning when it was raining, I started thinking "there are more places, why don't people go to them". I thought it should be easier to find a place to study at KTH. Especially when you are new as a student, it is very difficult. Everyone often ends up in the same place. That's when my idea started coming together.
What is your favorite place to study at KTH?
- My favorite place right now is OpenLab. It is close to the subway and Seven Eleven, there are microwaves, restrooms, and looks nice. But you have to be there early, at a quarter past seven it is already full.
Ulf Däversjö is Director for Innovation and Sustainable Development at Akademiska Hus. Why are initiatives like Future Campus Challenge important for Akademiska Hus?
- The pandemic has made us all adapt to new behaviors and has changed our view of a location’s importance for different organizations on campus. For us at Akademiska Hus, it’s important to understand how we can make our campus more attractive and relevant for the users, together with KTH and the users themselves. We hoped that this initiative would engage students and faculty on campus, and it really did. We got many interesting ideas and suggestions, not least the winning idea, KTH Maps, helping students get easier access to places where they can study.
Over five hundred people voted in the Future Campus Challenge. What do you think about the great commitment, Lisa Ericsson, head of KTH Innovation?
- It great! It also shows that there is great commitment to our campus areas. With the experience we have from the past years, we have realized how important our physical environments are. We hope that this initiative has made us all more aware that we can change things around us. We at KTH Innovation also want to encourage everyone to continue to be creative - we always want to hear about new ideas from KTH!
About KTH Maps
KTH Maps is an app where students can easily get an overview of available rooms on different campus areas at KTH. The aim is to help students find somewhere to study without the hassle of looking all over for free study spaces.