BU’s Dream Lab challenge to Chinese students

15 June 2009

BU has joined four UK leading educational, cultural and scientific institutions to offer a unique challenge for students in China.

The Dream Lab challenge invites students from institutions across China to use their creative skills to communicate the science of sleeping and dreaming.

The challenge is led by design and science professionals from BU, Kingston University, the Science Museum, the Design Museum and the Wellcome Trust in conjunction with the Education UK Marketing team in the British Council.

PhD students from BU’s School of Design, Engineering and Computing will also be amongst those helping their Chinese colleagues via the internet with science and design aspects of the project.

All institutions reaching the final in November will be eligible to nominate a student for one of five specially-developed Dream Lab Scholarships, enabling students to come to the UK to study full-time. A package of scholarships worth £40,000 has been offered by BU and Kingston to be divided among five talented students for the 2010 academic year.

Professor Nick Petford, BU’s Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Enterprise and one of the project’s five expert judges said: “BU is excited to be involved in this ground-breaking project that will help bring design and science closer together."

Dream Lab has been designed to complement the students’ existing studies in design and related fields. The competition asks participants to practise and demonstrate many of the attributes and skills required by employers in the 21st century, including teamwork, using ideas from different disciplines to bring about innovation, creative thinking, communications and marketing skills.

The Dream Lab web site provides further information about the challenge, profiles the UK experts involved in developing it and their institutions, and will provide news and updates on teams and results.

Dream Lab is one of a number of campaigns developed in support of the Prime Minister’s Initiative for International Education, a five-year strategy to support the UK’s position in the international education market.