Discover HKBU
Carnival showcases students’ social innovation ideas
29 Feb 2024
“A hundred years later, the survivors re-emerged from the underground city to a dystopian world. Far beyond the dark clouds was a city built by mutant wild boars, where humans and boars co-existed in harmony…”
This is the backdrop of a live action role-play game created by an HKBU student-led social innovation team. Integrating creative gaming experiences with outdoor activities, the team hopes to raise environmental awareness and promote the importance of conservation.
The team, called Bio-Leisure, is led by Zhou Yubo, a Year 3 student studying Business Computing and Data Analytics, and Vicky Liu, a Year 3 student majoring in Finance. Yubo says: “Our team enjoys hiking and camping, but we noticed that some people using the country parks may cause harm to the wildlife by leaving their trash on the trails or feeding the wild animals. We hope to enhance the public’s understanding of human-wildlife interactions through an engaging and meaningful experience.”
Bio-Leisure’s innovative idea won them the championship in HKBU’s annual Social Innovation Makers Programme last year. They then hosted a hiking event combined with a puzzle game about the habitat of wild boars. Encouraged by its success, the team developed a script-based game to maximise their impact to the community.
The team participated in the “Social Innovation Togetherness” Market Carnival recently held on campus. The two-day event gathered 24 social innovation groups to share solutions that make a difference in the community.
Organised by TriAngle, an on-campus co-working space managed by the Centre for Innovative Service-Learning (CISL), the Carnival was the first-of-its-kind event at HKBU. “The Carnival provided a platform for social enterprises and student-led social innovation teams to showcase their ideas and products to the University community, affording them the opportunity to pitch their ideas to the market,” says Mr Nicholas Ooi, Innovation Lead at CISL, who organised the event.
Promoting sustainability was one of the key focuses of the Carnival. In addition to Bio-Leisure, Yubo is involved with the innovative project “JOI”. Utilising artificial intelligence technology, Yubo and his team developed a smart sensor that detects and analyses plant growth needs to help foster green living space, while enabling the users to relieve their emotions at the same time.
A team of Year 1 students from the Bachelor of Arts and Science (Hons) in Arts and Technology programme formed the group Greenwashing VS Sustainable Brand, and launched their creative card game at the Carnival.
Their project started out as an assignment for the course “Global Challenges”, where students learn about important global issues such as sustainable development and devise novel solutions using a transdisciplinary approach. “Through the course, we found that some organisations may employ ‘greenwashing’ tactics, which involve using deceptive marketing strategies to mislead people into thinking their products are environmentally friendly. Therefore, we created this card game to help people distinguish between greenwashing and sustainable clothing brands by looking at the production process,” says Kirsten Law, one of the team members.
The Carnival served as a platform for the social innovation groups to reach a wider audience and receive feedback to further fine-tune their projects. The event also featured music performances and hands-on activities such as arts and crafts workshops, inspiring the University community with the spirit of entrepreneurship and social innovation.
