 Okay, everybody. This is information session for the 2022 2023 cycle of the incubator prize. Thank you so much for coming. As you know, it is a prize dedicated to alumni led initiatives from recent alumni that advance the that critically redefine community engagement and participation and support new forms of anti-racist professional practice. To read more about the work that GCEV has been doing. Sorry, let me just let people in. There are 10 prizes. There are 10 prizes of $10,000 each. I think you can find all of this information online. And I will drop the link here so that you can refer to it during the presentation or later on. But I think for now, what I'm going to do is go through the eligibility requirements and the application. And I'm going to stop every now and then to see if anyone has questions, including now if you want to ask any questions. I have been receiving some since the application opened. So I'll bring those up later on as well, just in case others have the same question. Then let me share my screen. Can people see anything? Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Sorry, it's been a whirlwind of a morning already. So I'm going to go through this. This is all online, but I know that sometimes people, you know, maybe we haven't been clear or people have some more nuanced situations of their own. So please, please just I'm going to stop at the end and then you can raise your hand and ask your questions. So this is for recent alumni. These are so graduates of the last 15 years. Pretty straightforward. It can be a master's or a doctorate degree. Your proposal requests support for a new initiative or new stage of an existing initiative that you have ownership over. I'll give you some examples of that later on. But if you have any questions about your own project, please also feel free to ask. Your proposal must demonstrate relevant community partnerships. The proposal has a measurable impact on the advancement of diversity, equity, inclusion in the community through innovative implementation of the disciplines and practices central to the built environment. I think, you know, you know, more than most what is missing or what could be changed. So just be very specific and concrete about those. There will be, you know, theory, but I think for the prize as a monetary support, we want to be able to be in a position to move those theories into practice. Individuals or teams of two may apply under a single proposal. In the past, people have had partners that are not GSAP alum or maybe they're GSAP alum, but they have graduated earlier and that's okay. But we need the primary applicant and there can only be one primary applicant to be, to have graduated from GSAP in the last 15 years. And then very pragmatic in order to receive the prize money, you will have to be able to fill out like number nine. There are some forms that I think if you have already been at GSAP and you've been like a TA or something like that, this is not a big deal. Okay, this, so, but we can get to that later. At this time, are there any specific questions? So next, I'm going to go through, if you have applied in the past, the application has changed slightly this year. And that is just for the purpose of bringing more clarity to the selection process and also the intent of the prize, which is to really activate, put into action what your initiatives are. So the application itself is almost like a process to get you thinking in the right direction, making sure that you have the right ingredients in place to move forward as soon as you are a recipient or not. In the past, we found that while everybody here is capable of, you know, all alumni know how to engage with communities and know how to design and think about these issues, a lot of times people are either busy or they're starting to engage with the communities on behalf of the project once they receive the project. So even if you haven't, we just want to make sure that you're already prepared to move forward with it. So the first question just asks you to very briefly say in one sentence describe how the project aims to advance racial equity in the built environment. So that's just a synopsis, okay? So this is an example from this year's cohort. Community equity investigators aim to examine the viability of novel shared ownership and community equity models at the pre-development stage to promote increased affordability, shared equity, and generational wealth. So we just want to be able to have a one line that describes your project in, you know, in talking to each other about it when we're discussing the applications, but also just like moving forward as soon as we're ready to make an announcement or start thinking about sort of partnerships that might help uphold the projects or advance them, we can be able to speak about them very easily. And of course, you should be able to speak about it very easily. The second question is to ask that you provide the context for the project. So that just means like there are so many issues in the built environment that and what's really exciting about the incubator prize is that every year the cohorts that are selected are tackling wildly different issues. So the jurors will want some context and to hear maybe some new research that you have come across. And so just give that context. Is it housing affordability? Is it in this case, Adam Susnick is talking about the creation of the interstate and how that has contributed to a breakdown of primarily black communities. So that's the example. Does anyone have a question right now? Can people buy a show of hands? Tell me if they have a project idea in mind. Great. And I definitely encourage you guys to think, you know, you can reach out to me afterwards. But I think if you have questions now, it would benefit everybody. Are there people who are thinking about it, but they want to understand better the application process to know which idea to move forward. Is there anyone here who wants to understand the application process so that they can encourage other people that, you know, to to apply. So next question. Tell us about your project specific to to this project. So so far we we saw the synopsis and introduction, and then we have the context for the problem that you're trying to solve. And and now this is where you really go more in depth about what kind of project it is. What is the solution? And how do you picture implementation? Oops, this is not right. Copy and paste it differently. So sorry, this should have been about, you know, Wi-Fi, but I think this is, I think you get the sense of what this section is asking for. It's really your project plan. Here we're asking, are you uniquely prepared to work on this project? How are you uniquely prepared to work on this project? Reference your own preliminary research or community engagement efforts that have helped shape this proposal, if applicable. So in this case, and these projects, by the way, are all online. All of these are are listed in the incubator prize section for this year's cohort. In this case, Cheryl had had already done her project, but for a Chinatown in Calgary. So this proposal for the incubator prize was asking for support to map the New York City Chinatown. So in that way, she is obviously uniquely positioned to carry forth this project. And at the same time, it is a new iteration of existing ongoing work. Similarly with Adam Sussnick's project, he has a blog as well as a Twitter feed that he continues to run even before the project. And the prize is being used to pay for licensing fees of high resolution images. So I'm just giving you examples of how people are structuring their proposals and how they use the prize money to advance ongoing work. Then this is anticipated project outcome. This is a very concrete example of what do you expect done at the end of the one-year cycle. For Uning Wi-Fi, they are actually, it's a very cool, they're all very cool projects. But for Brizio and his partner, who is not a G-SAP graduate, they are working to build Wi-Fi, freestanding Wi-Fi nodes in Harlem, so that communities can have high quality Wi-Fi. So that's a concrete example. I'm going to stop here. Sorry, because I can't see you, I don't really know what's resonating, what's confusing. I know there's been some hiccups, so I apologize for that. But this is for you, and I really want to be a resource for you. So those were some examples. Hi, Swan. Will the slide show be shared? No, because I did tweak some of these responses based on their application from last year, but that's not actually how they crafted the response themselves. I just wanted to give examples for you guys, and I don't want you to feel beholden to them, but I just wanted to kind of explain and what each of the questions was intended to gather, what kind of information, but it's really dependent on your own projects. So that's why it'd be great if people wanted to share any questions. Okay, Ali, just to make sure, if two GSAP alumni apply for it, only one fills out the application, you can fill it up together. The first section will be asking basic information about the primary applicant, and then the second page is if you have a partner to fill out the partner information. So this year, there were two teams of two. One team had a GSAP alum and a partner that was not affiliated with GSAP, and another project team had two recent GSAP alum. And the process is the same, and that's really just for legality issues and to make the payment to one person. It's like extremely just like logistics. Both of you are accredited, both of you are in our system as having as a prize recipients. The definitive timeline, the implementation question is an exercise for the applicants to think through like what is the feasibility? You know, I think we want people to be ambitious, but we also want you to be very practical and realistic about what can be done in one year. So for example, the UNF Wi-Fi proposal, they had not yet, I believe at the time, they had not yet started engaging with the community, but they had already identified one, the community that they wanted to work on and exactly what the implementation would, what the outcome would be. So their challenge was to kind of come up with implementation plan, but what, I mean, they've made incredible progress. They've been going to community board meetings. I'm sorry, I think they did start going to community board meetings before they submitted the application, but they've continued to go. So now they've actually secured a number of sites to install these Wi-Fi nodes. And a lot of momentum is being built. Different community boards are now reaching out to them to integrate their Wi-Fi node into like planning for future renovations of public parks and things like that. So the application is to get the teams ready to implement as soon as they are selected, but there's a lot of flexibility. Once you're part of the cohort, there's a lot of flexibility and understanding that things will change. For example, the class of 20, the cohort from 2020, I mean, there were a lot of challenges trying to research, even getting access to libraries. So we're very flexible, but just having an outline is helpful, I think, just to also get realistic about the scope of what you can get done in one year. I hope that was helpful. Let's see. Do we need to submit an itemized budget? That's a great question, Adriana. No. So don't worry about that. But just coming back to the budget question, we do not request an itemized budget. We do at any point, not during the application, not afterwards. And we ask for no financial records. During the process, though, oftentimes, depending on the project and the nature of the work being done, you might need more than $10,000. That is just a very practical consideration. And some have asked if you're allowed to seek funding outside of the prize, and that is absolutely allowed. So for example, Cheryl's mapping urbanisms, she had the way that she did it was she split up her project so that the digital renderings that she wanted done for her project was funded through the prize, but the community engagement, the activations she did in Chinatown to interview and capture the narratives was actually part of her fellowship at the Laundromat project. So that's how she, in particular, structured her project, but there are many other forms of funding that don't preclude additional funding. So that's not, I just, nobody's asked that yet, but I wanted to make that clear. And in fact, I encourage you and I encourage you to look for funding outside of GCEP within the Columbia University community. There's the Tamer Fund that has $25,000 towards a social enterprise, and it all depends. And I'm happy to help. I'll be working with the cohort that is selected, and I'm happy to help connect with other corners of the university. Again, depending on your project needs. That's a great question about Harlem. It is not required for the proposals to focus on Harlem. In fact, one of the great benefits of this, of the incubator being a prize instead of a physical space, is that now we can include our alumni that are scattered across 100 different countries. And we really want to bring in that global perspective and take advantage of the fact that the projects aren't tethered to a physical space. However, because we are situated in Harlem, we do show a special preference to special consideration to projects that are centered in Harlem. That being said, the majority of the applications that came in last year were not based in Harlem. Our alumni did not stay in Harlem after graduation always, so that makes a lot of sense. So I don't want that to be a deterrent, but there is special consideration given to projects that seek to work with the Harlem community since we are situated in Harlem. Hilary asks, expected timeline of projects, can projects be ongoing in our final products and results expected at a particular time? This is up to you. I think the outcome is something that we'd like to see concrete, but that could be something like documenting a process of community engagement that is unique to that community or that you wanted to experiment with. So the outcome could be documentation. In terms of the finalization, we love supporting projects that are ongoing as well as something that is discreet. But the only thing is, and it is voluntary, that there is presentations at the end of the cohort of the cycle, excuse me. So for the current cohort, we will be doing presentations in September. And so the way that we've thought about it is really doing the work for the first nine months. And this is a loose timeline, actively engaging with the work for nine months. And then at three months before the end of the cycle, I've been like right now, I've been reaching out to each of the teams just to like check in with them and see how they are so that they can start thinking about like, what did they want to present? What will they be ready to present in the fall? So that's the only timeline consideration really, but that shouldn't keep you from continuing the work or if it is a discreet project wrapping up early. And there's always, there's always, there is that flexibility. There is not, does not preclude you from being eligible. Marwa, I think I answered this in the context of other questions, but can the project be location be international? Yes. I would say that it's a stronger, stronger application if the alumni leading the project is also international, or at least situated near or within that community. So that implementation is more feasible and so that you can indicate that you are, you have an existing relationship with that community, for example, you have existing partnerships that you're ready to activate. So that's the consideration, but we'd love to see more international projects. Cheng, great question. To what depth should the project be? Are we hoping to envision it in a way for it to be built eventually or concept ideas? I would say that we are open to both. If it is a research project that you are seeking, I could see it. I mean, you still want, even if it's research, or designing some sort of experiment to engage with communities. In your application, you should talk about like, what are those, what does that look like? Like I said earlier, maybe it's like documentation of the process. So what is the, you'd still want to talk about the concrete outcomes and that could take many forms. It could be a blog. It could be a printed chat book. It could be it could be a actively curated Instagram account. So I think it does make, it wouldn't make sense. I could see it making sense if you wanted this year, for example, to be dedicated to some research. And then the following year could be, depending on the research outcome, could be an application for realizing the physical form of that project. I don't exactly know what your project is. But for example, you know, Wi-Fi, they specifically said in this inaugural year, we want to just get one prototype done. And I think that was really smart of them because they're going to apply, I think they plan to apply for another cycle. So they are getting funded for one stage at a time. And similarly, another project from the cycle is segregation is killing us by territorial empathy. And Zareth, who is an AUD alum, she is building upon work that she had done prior to receiving the prize. So independently of the prize. And my background actually is Adam Susnicks, some visuals that he has posted from segregation by design. That is also a pre-existing project that he's using the prize money to advance. Okay, Ambrionna, I just answered your question. Yes, you are eligible. As long as you meet the other eligibility requirements, you're eligible to apply for the prize in subsequent years. Oh, Shuang, great question. For the online form, it is, these are all the questions that I just reviewed quickly with you, but there is also an optional, because not everyone has an architecture or design background. We have urban planners, preservationists and everything. So optionally is to submit either some sort of visual representation of your project, but in any media. So if it's interviews with a community member, that's just audio. If it is a portfolio of work that is related to what you want to do for the prize, that is also, you know, whatever you find is relevant that will strengthen your proposal. There's a link to upload those files. Okay, so there's a pause in the questions right now. I'm just going to look in my email to see what other questions I had received. Oh, someone asked to define community partnerships. Very fair question. So Lutiana is based in Chile and her community partnership is really like government based. She wants to work with indigenous, she's been working with indigenous population along the coast. And now I'm so sorry. I'm not sure if it's Chile. It might be Brazil, but in the global south. And she has been working with nonprofit organizations that are either representing those communities, or have already been working with those communities. Other applications that receive the prize spoke about exist. There was there's one that started a an architecture program for high school students. And this was an applicant, Mustafa, who has already been working with the high school has and he is teaching at the University of Buffalo nearby so there is already like sort of that relationship. So those are the community partnership is very dependent on on the project itself. So, I mean, it's a very broad definition. We just want to make sure that you are already thinking about who you want to have those either those first conversations with or who you're going to be collaborating with that you've already identified. Just looking to see if I covered any other questions. Someone asked I don't know if anyone here it's someone asked about international projects. And then by email someone had asked about a visa process there is no visa process. And I just want to clarify that the incubator had been a physical space in the past. And it was essentially a co-working space with weekly programming. And, and that is no longer the case for the last three years, it has been a prize. So that allows every every project to be truly independent independent and a reflection of the alumni themselves and their own networks and resources. So there is no travel that is sponsored by GSAP at least. So there's no visa issue. I'm trying to think of other questions related to that. The community aspect of the co-working space is something that we are still trying to work on. So if you are part of the cohort, you can start thinking about how you want to build community with the cohort. We've been experimenting with a few things this year, including a shared mirror board, WhatsApp chat, so that people can be asking each other questions and connecting on an ongoing basis that way. And so if you know that's just something that we're going to continue to refine in the next year. Okay, I don't see any more questions. Okay, thank you, Chen. Is is the selection process entirely online or is there some sort of presentation that the applicants need to prepare? Great question. It is only the application and maybe I'll take a moment to explain the selection process. There are two jurors, two juries, excuse me, so there's two rounds of review. And we are finalizing one last juror before posting online, but the juror, there's two selection juries. One is a faculty and last year it was, oh my goodness, I'm going to have to get back to you guys on that, but it's published. Last year was two faculty members and then who reviews all the applications in the first round and so do I. And then the second round is reviewed by alumni jury members. And last year there were three. So they use the same rubric. It is very closely reflects the intent and purpose of the prize, which is reflected in the questions that are being asked in the application. We hope that this is a very clear process that that's not very like nothing to like there's no tricky navigation intended. It is pretty clear cut and like straightforward, we hope, while having enough flexibility for individualized projects to be selected and move forward. Everything is done remotely so that we can have jurors from different geographies and also of course our faculty often travel and do research outside of New York so we that is that is the design of the selection process. And then I don't want to mispronounce your name but Mr. Fernandez asked if the how interdisciplinary the proposal can be. You know, Gisa, we love interdisciplinary and you'll see that often the projects the projects for this particular cycle at least did not they cross a lot of I mean it's interdisciplinary so like for example Cheryl is an MR but she's she's been doing a lot of community engagement with the the community members and shop owners and yes she has this building rendering component to it but a lot of it is like digging into the archives you know she's looking at building permits she's working with the Museum of Chinese Americas to look at their photos you know so it's also a lot of historic preservation work that she's doing similarly with Adam who is an MR but a lot of his work his research is really rooted in urban planning and historic preservation as well not historic preservation I mean he's going into the archives but urban planning and in fact his work is being used by community boards across the country where the communities are being presented with proposals for new highway expansions and they're using Adam's research to actually protest highways so it's very cool it's not it's not from a you know it's not rooted just in architecture so and that's that's kind of how our disciplines are are practiced in your life you know um are there any other questions I'm here for another 15 minutes um if anyone has more questions I'm trying to think of what might be helpful okay good I'm glad it's helpful I mean if you want me to give you examples of anything else um I haven't prepared anything else but I certainly know the project so can we partner with people outside Colombia? Yes Andrea you can your project partner can definitely be another a non-columbia person so Fabrizio who did Union Blythe his partner they have a design practice of their own and she is not a GSAP alum and that's happened in the past as well uh the 2021 sorry the 2020 to 2021 cohort there was a team of three you know but for the application and that doesn't mean you can also just apply as a single person um but still have project partners you know this is just like whoever is the prize recipient so you could receive the the prize on behalf of your team you know especially if it's um a design uh collective for example um their portfolio or selected works required considered in the application it will be considered if you find it relevant so um because the proposals are are intended to welcome interdisciplinary practices and not just design oriented projects we made that portion optional this year certainly visuals are helpful um if it's appropriate so if you find that your portfolio has work that is relevant and related to um the project that you are proposing certainly explain why and and include it um so that's definitely relevant that would definitely be relevant um and again you can you can upload video you can upload audio um any kind of media that that makes sense for your project then um can eligible alumni partner with a current student that's a good question we haven't had that but there's no there's no rule against it so um yeah that works these are really really great questions by the way um I hope that I answered them um in a helpful way if you do think of other questions you have my email please feel free to email me the application deadline again that is July 15th so hopefully you have a couple weekends to work on this also we recognize that a lot of the majority of these projects are being done in between you know while people are holding down full-time jobs or appointments at different institutions so um that is also part of the purpose of implementation um um question because just think through what your what you find so hard to think what your life looks like next week never mind for the whole entire next year but be mindful of your other obligations um we're we're very realistic about that too and but we need your help and in expressing to us what your what your scope can be okay um sorry relates to what you just talked about um I'm I'm thinking about like I have an expected goal for my proposal but because of like the covid condition and you know the unpredictable changes uh I think it may happen if I could not reach like my proposed goal so can can I like in my proposal list like a plan B and plan C for you know the final result and say if I could not because I'm thinking about an exhibition but if I could not like have that exhibition next year can I you know like maybe make it to stage two and then for the next year I reapply for that thank you for your question Lucy I think that is not required but I think that's super smart um just for your own planning too because I think um what is important is for applicants to set their own expectations you know I think I don't we don't want this to be situation where you're burnt out because of this and this is so setting your own expectations is also a helpful exercise when filling out this the application but I think that having a stretch goal is great um and then the your backup plans um again I I think you know I just want people to understand that we are we are flexible with changes you know who knows what if anything we've learned in the last two years we cannot really count on things saying the saddest quote but to the best of your ability you know what what what does the scope of your project look like for the next year sure thank you so much yeah these are really great questions this um oh let's see um how do the funds get distributed is it a refund program great question no it is paid um I think if you're in the US uh simply a check is issued um it if anyone has been a TA at Chesape or done any student work you will know that sometimes we takes way longer than you think it is going to take um but regardless of the the actual out-of-pocket costs of the of the project implementation you will receive the the recipients receive $10,000 um there is a question of taxes this is on the website but this was a question that um a couple of that we kind of get every year is that yes this prize money is subject to taxes so whatever your income tax is um this would be added to it that would be considered income taxable income excuse me um for receiving payment um that is through the finance department and I think that you have the option to receive it like if you're overseas you can receive it by wire transfer into your overseas account um and if you're here I think people usually just opt for receiving the check but there's no I mean once you're selected that's that's all that um that triggers this process of um of getting you into the system getting paid Andrea the um the number of the word count is all inside the the application so um I think the implementation section let me see here um besides the very first question which is in one sentence describe the project aim um how the project aims to advance racial equity in the build environment there's a very specific word count for every other question so you will the total is I think no more than 650 let me see 500 yeah the total word count is 625 plus the one sentence um so if you wanted to get a sense of how long you're going to be how much how much copy so that's a maximum um and the longest is 350 words dedicated to the project implementation anything else I love these questions I'm here we want we want to see a diversity of projects we want to make you feel like you're you're you feel good about the application um and that you're prepared to implement um obviously it's preliminary planning for um if you receive the prize so don't feel like don't feel overwhelmed by like needing to prepare loads but I think it is helpful um to just like get a little bit of a head start um if you are part of the cohort in the following year so I think I think we're set should I wait for I think we can close up now but I'll stay on until one if people want to hang back and like ask other questions but I think I'm going to stop the recording here and just invite people to email me um as you're working through the application if you have other questions um I can I can address them okay thanks everybody I'm gonna just stop recording now but I'll stay on