On December 7, 2014, the inaugural Sila Connection Shanghai Conference announced its winning teams after a two-day rivalry. The judges, consisting of NYU Shanghai Dean of Students Charlene Visconti, Professor Jiong Shu, Chief Engineer Qingyan Fu, and affiliates from Dentons Law Firm and WWF, agreed that ideas from two groups were so evenly matched in creativity that Sila Connection experienced an unprecedented tie for first place since the organization's founding.
The first winning team, consisting of delegates from NYU Shanghai, ECNU, and Wenzhou University, tackled the unheeded air pollution problem in Shanghai’s subway stations. Their goal was to raise governmental and public awareness of air pollution severity by establishing a website and an APP displaying real-time pm2.5 data in every Shanghai metro station.
The second winning team, consisting of delegates from NYU Shanghai, ECNU, and SISU, focused on the increasingly serious heat island effect, where modified land surfaces and waste heat generated by energy consumption are contributing to rising temperatures in urban environments. After a series of field trips and careful calculations, they successfully carried out “Garden In The Air” on the NYU Shanghai academic building rooftop and nearby architectures, in hopes of spreading ecological awareness throughout the city.
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Article content courtesy of Sila Connection Shanghai