PITCH 2023
PITCH 2023
Monash PITCH (PhD Interdisciplinary Team CHallenge) ran for the first time in 2023 at Monash Prato. This initiative emerged as part of the Monash commitment to foster collaboration with our campus communities and enhance interdisciplinary graduate global mobility by bringing together a cohort of high performing HDR students from across the Monash campus network.
Drawn from both STEM and HASS fields and from all our Monash campuses, the graduate researchers worked on challenges identified as critical to the Comune di Prato (e.g. net zero, industrial heritage tourism, social cohesion, health, aging) and proposed innovative interventions for positive social change.
Input by local community leaders and support from Council and the Prato Centre was critical to the success of the initiative. Details of the outcomes will be shared with all key stakeholders before the end of November and the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research Training) expressed her thanks, as did all participants for the generous and collegial support offered by the Comune di Prato and the Prato community.
Presentations
Group 1
Challenge: Consider an intervention or opportunity focused around successful, sustainable aging for the Prato community.
Researchers: Parisa Biniaz, Elly Kalenjuk, Kaflina Kamalul, Mengxing Li, Yit Liew, Asfal Najeeb & Arash Pourghorban
Group 2
Challenge: Consider an intervention or opportunity that extends, amplifies or exports Prato’s history and heritage of textile regeneration practices at a local, national and global level.
Researchers: Nur Atika Nikma Dahlan, Mayuran Jayatharan, Lihuan Li, Ali Esfandiary, Michelle Croughan, Daniel Clayton-Chubb, Neville Fields & Nikita Chitre
Group 3
Challenge: Consider an intervention or opportunity focused around sustainable energy transitions for the Prato community.
Researchers: Jiyoon Lee, Ruchi Sembey, Chuhui Huang, Gaurav Kapse, Niamh White & Berto Wibawa
Group 4
Challenge: Consider an intervention or opportunity for the Prato community focused around sustainable or transformational tourism that engages with the city’s rich history of industrial heritage.
Researchers: Maria Graetsch, Vaibhav Trivedi, Alexander Nordt, Josh Thorburn, Mohaimeen Islam, Geetha Maniam, Hongzhe He & Jack McLaughlin
Group 5
Challenge: Consider an intervention or opportunity that supports/enhances migrant youth engagement and participation in the social, cultural and economic decision-making processes in the City of Prato.
Researchers: Lea Combres, Eva Jenkins, Sophia Avice, Saliha Saher, Christine Law, May Alhajri, Saeed Askari & Orion Zymaris
Group 6
Challenge: Consider an intervention or opportunity where Prato draws on the experience of the Covid-19 pandemic to strengthen its response to future health challenges.
Researchers: Jacinta Walsh, Md Adee, Michelle Gooey, Carol Ba, Ralph Saubern, Jonno Graffam, Belinda Davis & Laura Gutierrez Bucheli