Over the last weekend, October 31 - November 1, DC Lab (NURIS) in the framework of partnership with British Council and Loughborough University organized Creative Spark Case Competition online.

2020 - the year, which brought us unexpected surprise. Do you remember its beginning? We enjoyed life and achieved our goals. Suddenly, the pandemic of coronavirus set our lives on pause. We have adapted to a new way of life. All the people around the world started to feel confusion, anxiety, lack of confidence in the future more often. And students are no exception.

According to the NU Institutional Research and Analytics «Fall 2020 Remote Learning Survey Report», over 70% of students feel fear and anxiety, and about 40% have experienced various degrees of depression. This is evidenced by world statistics: mental health in world universities is deteriorating from year to year. For 5 years, the number of mental illnesses has increased 3 times.

In this regard, the theme of the event was chosen by the organizers not by chance. Within 24 hours, the participants had to develop measures to develop a culture of caring for the physical and mental health of NU students.

The ideas of creative crews were evaluated by honorable members of jury:

• Rakhimov Bakhtiyar - General Manager of DSA
• Anarbek Utegulov - Director of Business Incubator
• Yerden Nurtayev - Senior psychologist of PCC
• Rufiya Omarova - Psychologist of PCC
• Olga Zhuravleva - Psychologist of PCC

An important clause: the teams had to be composed of 2 students of humanitarian majors and 2 students from technical specialties. A total of 27 teams participated in the competition.

To gain knowledge in the field of psychology and solve the case even better, the teams took part in a training workshop from an experienced psychologist Aislu Gabdulgafarova, a graduate of The University of Edinburgh and Johns Hopkins University.

We received many interesting presentations, which was difficult to choose the best ones. After long discussions, the jury selected as the winners SHOP TEAM.

Members: Jabrail Chumakov(SEDS), Sandi Seiitzhan(SEDS), Dairkhan Kokush(SSH) and Madi Nurmanov(SSH). The creativity, an attractive visual component and ability to translate into reality of their solution surprised everyone.

For their idea of a platform that includes all the necessary measures to improve mental health of NU students and can be useful in both online and offline semesters, winners received £1000 from the British Council.

Тhe organizers also noted Dala team for their creative approach. Mukhamejan Omar (SEDS), Zhansultan Keneskhan (SEDS), Temirlan Zholaman (SSH) and Miras Bakhytbek (SSH) won special prize - 1 year membership to DC Lab coworking zone.

While the jury members were deliberating, DC Lab conducted an entertaining quiz so that team members get a little stress relief and have an opportunity to win a certificate of participation in one of the DC Lab courses (based on winner's choice). Abylay Abdrakhmanov (SSH) was the fastest among the quiz participants and won the prize.

We, in turn, thank all the teams for their participation. We wish you achievement of new goals, strong mental and physical health!