Relevant competency 

Students from all academic disciplines who are interested in answering questions about contemporary challenges in health in a focused project can apply.  
 

About the village

This village will involve diverse academic disciplines – (a synergy of health sciences, engineering, technology, architecture, arts etc.) to plan, (re)design and deliver solutions that seek to improve health and well-being outcomes, reduce health inequalities, and reduce the cost of healthcare for populations, communities, groups, families and individuals across the lifespan. 

Student teams develop their own project within the broader framework of health – encompassing: 

1. Health promotion strategies that focus on proactive ways to promote and strengthen internal and external protective resources of well-functioning populations, communities, groups, families and individuals in an everyday setting.  

a. For example, physical inactivity accelerates ageing and can dramatically increase health risks. Some researchers have shown that low cardiovascular fitness is estimated to cause more mortality than the combined deaths due to obesity, diabetes and smoking. 

As a team, you may be interested in ways to encourage and motivate people (by use of arts/technology/architecture/engineering etc.) to take on health promoting activities/strategies in schools including universities, the city square, workplace offices, prisons and homes among other settings. 
 

2. Preventive strategies against diseases, infections, unintentional injuries of at risk populations in everyday settings. 

a. The occurrence or severity of occupational harm, infection, disease or injury is related to exposure to factors on the job or in the work environment. They may include, but not limited to physical (e.g. heat, noise, radiation), chemical (e.g. solvents, pesticides, dusts), biological (e.g. TB, HIV and other viruses), ergonomic (e.g. improperly designed tools or work areas, repetitive motions), psychosocial stressors (e.g. lack of control over work, inadequate personal support). 

As a team, you can focus on factory and industrial workers and other organization employees who are exposed to risk factors for injury or infections and (re)design a workspace –architecture/engineering/technology – to prevent incidence of injury, harm or infection. 
 

3. Modifying unhealthy behavioral patterns that include reactive strategies to prevent deterioration of populations that require specialized intervention and care in an everyday setting.

a. Changing the incentive structure associated with, and persuading people to change from health-impairing behaviors have not always been successful because people tend to estimate their own risk of deterioration as lower than that of other people and also people are motivated by benefits from health-enhancing behaviors and not vulnerability to deterioration. For example, the perceived threat of unsafe sex has not been a good predictor of condom use. 

As a team, you can focus on people already engaged in a potentially problematic behavior such as smokers and sex workers to find ways through (technology/ engineering/architecture/arts etc.) to ameliorate or prevent deterioration by (re)designing solutions for their everyday settings.