We have formed the Fourcast Lab that includes representatives from over 20 departments and Centers at the University of Chicago. The Fourcasters come from departments and programs across the College including Anthropology, Cinema & Media Studies, English, Classics, Computer Sciences, Conceptual and Historical Studies of Science, Ecology and Evolution, Environmental Ethics, Environmental & Urban Studies, Geophysical Sciences, Germanic Studies, History, Law, Media Arts and Design, Medicine, Social Service Administration, Sociology, South Asian Languages and Civilizations, and Theater & Performance Studies. We also represent Centers and initiatives including the Arts, Science, and Culture Initiative; the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality; the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture; the Franke Institute for the Humanities; the Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry; the Media Arts, Data, and Design Center; the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program; the Oriental Institute; the Smart Museum of Art; and the Weston Game Lab.

This is not just a call to scientists. Interdisciplinary problems require interdisciplinary solutions. The design itself could take the form of a device, experiment, program, policy, narrative, performance, curriculum, or game. Any and all approaches drawn from the humanities, arts, social sciences, biological sciences, physical sciences, and emerging interdisciplinary fields are all welcome. You are only as limited as your imagination!  

The challenge will look for projects that respond to one or more of the following areas: 

• Energy and Science: Explores the human impact on climate through the geophysical, biological, and computational sciences. Explores and expands key scientific findings. 

• Narrative and Art: Recasts environmental and geophysical sciences through narrative as it unfolds in literature and media art practices. Opens up possibilities not envisioned within empirical disciplines by speculating about adaptation, endurance, and innovation. 

• History and Archeology: Uncovers historical approaches to environmental studies and climate change. Explores varied histories of climate and their relationship to the geophysical sciences, connecting the past, present, and future through human experience.

• Society and Policy: Analyzes the relationship between human beings and environments as it unfolds in the social sciences. Explores issues of economics, environmental sustainability, politics, and/or social justice.

Teams should be comprised of 3 to 5 students. Team diversity can result in greater innovation, creativity, and productivity. As you form a team, we encourage you to think through diversity in a broad array of areas including but not limited to gender, race, religion, disability, personality, skills and experience, and work styles. 

To be eligible for the FDC, entrants must be registered students at the University of Chicago and belong to the graduating class of 2023. Upper-level undergraduate, graduate, and employees of the University of Chicago, and other non-university affiliated individuals are ineligible to participate in this challenge. 

TEAM FORMATION DEADLINE EXTENDED TO SEPTEMBER 24, 2019. Email design@fourcastlab.com to join!

Over the summer, we will provide numerous optional opportunities to prepare for the FDC. These will fall into two categories:

Preparation and Brainstorming: Fourcasters will provide online challenges designed to introduce teams to different aspects of climate change and ways that researchers, from geophysical scientists to literary scholars, think about this issue. These challenges will help teams brainstorm key areas and issues within the broader rubric of climate change.

Design and Iteration: During Orientation week, students will also have hands-on, in-person opportunities to share their ideas with Fourcasters and iterate on their proposal. These coaching sessions will include workshops on topics such as: 

• • • Content Feedback
    • Rapid Prototyping Advice
    • User Research Basics
    • Public Speaking Techniques 
    • PowerPoint Presentation Skills

Our O-Week schedule of events can be found here: https://terrarium.fourcastlab.com/futures-design-challenge/o-week-schedule/

The challenge will be a day-long, face-to-face competition that takes place Friday, September 27th at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, involving multiple rounds.

In the preliminary round, teams will be assigned to small clusters. Each team will present their design to two Fourcaster judges. Judges will provide feedback and teams will have an opportunity to make adjustments to their presentations in preparation for the final round of the Futures Design Challenge. 

In the final round, teams will present their designs to all FDC Judges and participants. Teams will have 5-7 minutes to present. All teams will use PowerPoint presentations that should be ready and uploaded prior to the start of the final round.

Tentative Challenge Day Schedule:

• 12:00 pm: Team sign in + lunch, Gidwitz Lobby
• 12:30 pm: Welcome and Orientation
• 12:45 pm: Disperse to Preliminary Round rooms
• 1:00 pm: Preliminary Rounds
• 2:45 pm: All scores tabulated
• 3:00 pm: Finalists announced
• 3:30 pm: Final Round, Performance Hall
• 5:00 pm: Awards distributed

Fourcaster judges will adjudicate concepts on organization, persuasiveness of pitch, feasibility, originality and creativity, and possible impact. 

• Organization (1 to 5): How well organized is the idea and the pitch? Was the frame clear? Were the details effectively organized in the presentation deck?

• Persuasiveness of Pitch (1 to 5): How effectively presented was the pitch? Were the presenters effective speakers? Is it evident that they practiced? Was the presentation engaging or entertaining?

• Feasibility (1 to 5): How feasible is the idea itself, even as a concept that could be turned into an eventual pilot or experiment?

• Originality and Creativity (1 to 5): How original is the idea? Is it imaginative? Regardless of feasibility, was the idea surprising?

• Possible Impact (1 to 5): Regardless of feasibility, what would is the potential impact of this idea? If the idea was built upon and implemented, how much could it alter the status quo.

We will award the top four teams based on the following 5 categories:

• The Smarty Pants Award: Award for a presentation that has been thought through in a detailed fashion and has a high probability of addressing climate change in a generative fashion.

• The MADD Scientist Award: Award for best speculative design that best imagines probable, plausible, possible, or preferable futures of climate change.

• The Most Likely to Go Viral Award: Award for a concept that uses rhetoric or a media strategy to influence a mass response to climate change.

• The Hail Mary Award: Award for an idea that has low probability but potentially high impact in addressing climate change. 

• The Seat in the Lab Award: Award for the team that demonstrates the highest level of Fourcast Lab-worthy commitment through the highest number of Climate Quest completed and cumulative points.

The Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Chicago has joined as a sponsor for the Futures Design Challenge! The teams with the four winning pitches will now receive a customer discovery and next steps workshop followed by three sessions of idea validation coaching.