AlmaU in collaboration with Lehigh University (USA) held the Summit “Collaborations for Social Innovation and Sustainable Development”

AlmaU in collaboration with Lehigh University (USA) held the Summit “Collaborations for Social Innovation and Sustainable Development” on October 07, 2021 in hybrid format. 
AlmaU Leadership and Lehigh Representatives opened Welcome Session and Panel Discussion at the Main Hall of AlmaU Campus.
Summit Participantes shared their Breakouts by Theme:
- Research Partnerships and Capacity Building 
- Language Acquisition and Intercultural Communication 
- Health, Sustainability, and Social Enterprise .
The Summit brought together over 80 academicians, researchers, changemakers, educational innovators, thought leaders, and experts for a day of conversation and inspiration. Summit program opened opportunities to expand partnerships, joint programs and projects, as well as to run open dialog on sustainable development, capacity building and intercultural communications between academia, government, non-profits, and industry.

In January 2020 Almaty Management University, AlmaU and Lehigh University started a fruitful collaboration, with the participation of students and teachers of both institutions. In the frame of the Global Social Impact Fellowship, supported by the U.S. Embassy in Kazakhstan and funded by UniCEN - Central Asia University Partnerships Program which is implemented by the American Councils for International Education Kazakhstan, more than 20 students and several faculty members of the two Universities have worked together to implement sustainable development education projects. First project refers to the theme of sustainable education for school students (Save Tuba) where participants aim to create a smart phone app for school children, educating them about the sustainability issues and targeting the change of mindset. Second project targets air pollution in Almaty where participants do research on this issue and propose solutions. Here smart city project innovations are being introduced throughout Kazakhstan, particularly in the country’s largest city, Almaty. These innovations are happening in the areas of health care, education, and safety/security, among many others. As Almaty continues to grow and develop into a major world capital, the need for it to be on the leading edge of the “smart cities” movement will only increase. This project will work with community organizations and leading universities in Kazakhstan, as well as students from Lingnan University in Hong Kong, to design and develop the next generation of smart city urban design innovations, and find ways to work with governmental and NGO entities to implement those solutions into the Kazakh capital.*

*Taken from the official website of Lehigh University: https://creativeinquiry.lehigh.edu/mou.../air-quality-almaty