The Graduate School is pleased to announce the Transdisciplinary Team Grand Challenge: Communication for graduate students at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA).

A common goal of communication is the sharing of information. When communication is effective, the message sender and recipient can have a shared understanding. When communication is not effective, both the sender and recipient may be frustrated, and their relationship may be impacted. Considerable research has been conducted on how we communicate, our goals in communicating, and outcomes of effective and ineffective communication. Our challenge to UTSA’s graduate students is to work together across disciplines to propose conceptual projects to address any aspect of communication.

Teams should be formed in groups of 3-5 students from at least two different programs in two different colleges. Student groups will work together on a transdisciplinary proposal to address an issue associated with water.

For a full list of rules, guidelines, and deadlines please click here. All students who are part of a team that submits a proposal will earn a badge reflecting their experience working in a transdisciplinary team. For more information, click here.

Interested in hearing from previous participants?

Watch the video below to learn about the benefits and impact of participation.

Awards:

It is anticipated that three teams will be awarded, subject to available resources.

  • Each student in the top three teams will receive a $2,000 scholarship to be awarded by the Spring 2025 semester.

If you are interested in competing in the challenge , please make sure you are eligible and understand the guidelines and deadlines:

Eligibility

  • Applicants must be full-time graduate (master's or doctoral) students enrolled in 6 hours of graduate courses at the time of application and award.
  • An applicant may not participate on more than one proposal to this program.
  • Proposals must demonstrate collaboration among 3-5 graduate students from at least two different programs within at least two colleges at UTSA. Projects should, whenever possible, include a community partner.

Team Formation

Looking for teammates? The Graduate School has created a Slack channel to help interested students find teammates for the Grand Challenge. Use your @utsa.edu email to join and log into Slack here . Post your introduction on the #communication channel.

We will also be hosting workshops on transdisciplinary team formation and functioning. Sign up to be notified about registration for workshops here.

For more information, including registration for workshops, click here.

Participant Deadlines

DATE: October 4, 2024
ACTION ITEM: Notice of Intent due. For guidelines and submission information, click here .

DATE: November 15, 2024
ACTION ITEM: Proposals due. For information regarding required deliverables, click here .

Announcement Dates

DATE: December 15, 2024
INFORMATION: Awards announced. View the full list of 2024 winners here.

DATE: January 15, 2025
INFORMATION: Funds awarded. 

If you have further questions about this opportunity, please contact Dr. Rebecca Weston at Rebecca.Weston@utsa.edu.