THE RE-FRESH PROJECT
ICON - IDEAS CONGRESS
First proposed by Dr. Shoshanah Jacobs and Dr. Daniel Gillis in early 2014, ICON aims to bring together senior undergraduate students from across the University of Guelph campus to work in teams on real-world challenges.
ICON harnesses the power of collaboration and knowledge sharing in a problem-solving and project-based learning environment. Through workshops, team building activities, and fostering of knowledge translation and transfer, ICON aims to teach students valuable interpersonal, team, and communication skills, while fostering innovative ideas for today’s most pressing challenges.
ICON partners students and faculty at the University of Guelph, with a community group or business. The partnership introduces students to broad real-world challenges (e.g. food insecurity, green design, etc.), and provides students with access to expertise from across campus and from the community.
In the winter semester of 2018, the focus of the ICON class was to develop a method by which farmers with damaged or imperfect fruit (called "seconds") could connect with craft breweries who have an interest in producing fruit-based alcoholic beverages. The aim of the class was to reduce food waste and support local businesses in a way that would benefit both farmers and brewers.
For more information on the ICON program at Guelph, please visit ideascongress.wordpress.com or click the links below.