KnightNews.com has obtained emails showing the University of South Florida and Florida Gov. Rick Scott may issue a challenge to the University of Texas and Gov. Rick Perry related to STEM fields — science, technology, engineering or mathematics.
Scott has been a vocal advocate that Florida universities focus on turning out STEM degrees, as part of Scott’s effort to create jobs.
USF President Judy Genshaft sent Scott an email on Wednesday thanking Scott for the opportunity to brainstorm about some potential challenges Scott could issue to Perry related to STEM.
“We focused on challenges that could yield relatively quick results in producing new products, jobs, innovations and/or graduates in STEM fields,” Genshaft wrote.
One of the potential prizes includes: having the losing Governor host and pay for a steak cookout with his state’s beef on the other school’s campus, for the winning school’s students to enjoy.
Based on the emails KnightNews.com obtained, the challenges are still in a draft phase and it doesn’t appear any formal challenges have been issued. Genshaft copied Scott’s Chief of Staff, Steve MacNamara, who forwarded the ideas on to other people to further discuss.
It’s unclear if any other universities besides USF are giving Scott ideas for potential challenges. KnightNews.com will work to find out if UCF is also being considered for potential competitions and challenges with Texas. Check back to KnightNews.com to see if any of the ideas become official challenges.
Below are the draft ideas Genshaft submitted to Scott:
Ideas for a University of South Florida vs. University of Texas STEM Challenge
1) USF Bulls vs. UT Longhorns New STEM Business Challenge
Challenge Summary: Students at USF and UT would compete to start a new STEM business or launch a new STEM product. Individual or groups of students at each school would be expected to develop a new business or product idea in the STEM field. Each school would locally choose its best three ideas and those students would be expected to present their new company or product idea to a panel of Fortune 500 and/or Venture Capitalists chosen by Governor Scott and Governor Perry. The panel would determine the winner based on its likelihood of being commercialized and creating jobs. All viable contest entries would be expected to be patented and put into production or launched as new companies.
Possible Prize/Bet: In the spirit of promoting the “Bulls vs. Longhorns” and promoting Florida and Texas agriculture, the losing Governor would host and pay for a steak cookout with their state’s beef on the other school’s campus for the winning school’s students to enjoy.
2) Promoting STEM-M Challenge (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math and Medicine)
Challenge Summary: To promote the ever-increasing need to marry STEM with healthcare/medicine, USF and UT undergraduate students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math fields would compete to develop an innovation or idea that would solve a healthcare problem. A panel of medical experts equally divided among the two universities would judge the quality of the idea based on impact, practicality and cost, and then the top five entries would present and compete in person. The presentation/competition would occur in Texas or Florida based on whichever school had the most students enter the competition.
Possible Prize/Bet: The contest winner would get to meet both Governors and the losing Governor would spend a day wearing the shirt of the winning school. That photograph would be sent to the winning school to display with their other trophies.
3) Increasing the STEM Workforce Challenge
Challenge Summary: USF and UT would compete to develop a method to deliver STEM courses and degree programs for people not currently enrolled in the university, such as people already in the workforce without bachelor’s degrees or people who already have bachelor’s degrees but in non-STEM fields. The contest would be to develop easy and affordable ways of presenting the material, including online and/or evenings with the goal of increasing enrollment and degree production in STEM fields. The winner would be determined based on how many new people are enrolled in those courses over a set period of time.
Possible Prize/Bet: The winning university would have a group of representative faculty and students treated to a dinner at the other state’s Governor’s Mansion.
See the full email from Genshaft to Scott by clicking next page, below.
