Yijia Chen, MSRE Class of 2023 shares her recent experience traveling to Singapore to compete in the CoreNet Global Academic Challenge 13
A team of four graduate students in a Master of Science in Real Estate program advanced to the final round of CoreNet Global Academic Challenge 13 (AC13) in Singapore competing against more than 30 student teams from universities around the world. The team was asked to play the role of an internal corporate real estate professional for a global home appliance manufacturer in the challenge and to develop future workplace strategies given the rise of the metaverse. Ultimately, the team decided to adopt the strategy of designing for a hybrid workplace where VR and AR technologies can be applied to deal with the current and anticipated challenges of a hybrid workplace faced by both manufacturing center workers and office workers.
The UW team competed with the New York University and the University of Malaya, Malaysia in the AC13 Competition. Even though the UW did not win the cup, the Singapore experience is invaluable. The team attended a variety of exhibits, networking luncheons, and informational events during the three days of the summit. The team also met corporate real estate professionals from across the globe – Australia, India, Malaysia, London, Philippines, and Japan, just to name a few. The opportunity to exchange ideas and learn from their experiences provides an excellent opportunity to broaden the team member’s horizons and allow them to bring fresh perspectives into the Spring quarter classrooms.
A sincere thank you to Sofia, Skylar, Sakriti, Josh and other professionals from the CoreNet Washington Chapter for all of your support and guidance.