HOW CAN WE INCREASE GENERAL AWARENESS OF CHEMISTRY'S ROLE IN TACKLING CLIMATE CHANGE?

In April 2019, I participated in my fifth hackathon - the northern-most design hackathon in the world, Dash Lapland. Our team was set up by the organizers and could not be more diverse: we were from four different nationalities and different backgrounds (engineering, business, design, psychology). Our challenge giver was the biggest chemistry company in Finland, Kemira. The idea of our team was to raise awareness and create demand for sustainable solutions by visualizing water and energy use data created by water treatment facilities. Utilizing informative visualizations can make end users more aware of their consumption and inspire change in behavior.

Through working on this challenge, I learned a lot more about the role of chemistry in everyday life and also, had the opportunity to work with five other individuals, which I haven't met before. Our team was unusually big but we quickly started cooperating and learning from each other. Our skills complemented each other excellently.