As part of S&T’s efforts to further the field of Public Interest Technology, we are hosting our first Rural Infrastructure Challenge Summit!
- WHEN: March 1st from 10am-2pm
- WHERE: Sky Room at the Phelps County Courthouse
- WHO: Faculty, students, industry professionals, and rural residents
- Students should register here
- External participants should register here
- WHAT: Participate in design exercises focused on problem definition for modernizing and expanding energy and broadband infrastructure in rural communities (focus on Phelps, Pulaski, Dent, and Texas counties)
For both energy and broadband, technological advancements and societal changes have shifted consumer demands for these technologies. For energy, there is a desire for low-cost, reliable electricity from carbon-free sources like solar and wind – which creates operational challenges to absorb intermittent resources. For broadband, many communities are paying high bills for unreliable access – if they can get internet access at all. Rural communities often have inadequate infrastructure due to concerns about low return on investment. To make matters worse, there are concerns about a “brain drain” limiting the workforce to find creative solutions to these infrastructure challenges. At Missouri S&T, 23% of undergraduate students grew up in rural communities and know firsthand the importance of solving these problems.
The Rural Infrastructure Challenge Summit is an in-person workshop to inspire the next-generation of solvers in rural communities. Involving students in real world challenges for rural communities is one step towards identifying new creative solutions – such as identifying new business models, simplifying regulatory processes, and designing new technology that meets the needs of rural communities. Join us as we take this step together.
We aim to grow this event into a semester-long engagement where students develop proposals and the top ideas are awarded cash prizes in Fall 2024. Long-term, we aim to make this an annual event and expand to additional types of infrastructure.
This development effort is being funded by New America, a think and action tank focused on complex public problems, via the Ford Foundation, Hewlett Foundation, Mastercard Impact Fund, and with support from the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, Schmidt Futures and The Siegel Family Endowment.