2040 Essay Contest
OPEN CALL: Deadline: 1 May 2022
"Hybrid"
The pandemic turned most of our daily routines upside down. Uncertainty and ambiguity become part of our everyday lives for a little more than two years. Flexibility is expected now, more than ever.
Some trends that were already on the horizon before the pandemic (working at home, web conferencing, relocalization of supply chains) were accelerated, tested and have entered our everyday lives with relatively little resistance. Many of the existing paradigms simply disappeared. The new patterns become ‘normal’ because our context totally shifted.
Think about which of your everyday taken-for-granted things have changed in the last two years. Which ones are positive and you wish to maintain? Which are negative and you wish to end? Which aspects aspects make you think: „why did we not do it this way before?” and which make you think “when will this pandemic finally end?”
We are now stepping
into a time machine
that catapults us straight
into the year 2040.
Imagine a day at a University of the Future
and describe it
You are free to choose your perspective:
You can be a student, an employee, a professor, a president,
or a function that doesn‘t even exist today.
With whom and how do you interact? Where is the university? Where are you? How does the university bridge the gap between digital and analog? Is there a digital campus? Does an AI help you to take everyday decisions and shows you personalized information? What kind of research is being done? What are you learning? Why are you learning?
Why are you there at all?
Share your vision of a Hybrid University!
Describe your day in 2040 in an essay:
Who are you? What is your daily routine? What sort of spaces do you spend your time in?
What excites you? What bores you? Where and what do you eat? What part of the day do you love? What part do you not?
Formal requirements:
- You belong to the ETH community (students, employees, professors, alumni, ...)
- The text shall not exceed 4‘000 characters (including spaces, German or English)
- Deadline for submission is 1 May 2022 at midnight.
What next?
The Strategic Foresight Hub (SFH) team will select up to 5 essays. These will be published on the SFH website (anonymously) and will then be judged by the ETH community. There will be an audience award and an SFH team award. These essays will be further edited with the author(s) and published in the form of a booklet.
Send your text and/or questions to: