Our Vision
"Empowering the Leaders of Tomorrow for the Future of the World's Water"
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The Water Initiative for the Future (WatIF): Graduate Student Conference is designed to empower graduate students to become strong, passionate leaders in future water-related endeavours. The backbone of WatIF is its emphasis on the future, where students will discuss the implications of their research to the future of world's water. This multidisciplinary conference will encourage collaboration and communication among students, and will provide students from across the globe an opportunity to take a leadership role among their peers and share their research at every stage from ideas to a finished product.
WatIF is working towards creating a global community of early water professionals who will become influential leaders in the future. By bringing together like-minded graduate students during the early stages of their careers, we hope to inspire them to value communication and collaboration across disciplines, empower them to make change, and give them the hope for a bright future. |
Our Mission
Community
This conference will bring together hundreds of graduate students from around the world who are linked by their aspirations for water-related futures in research, policy, governance, industry, etc. One aim of the conference is to foster long-lasting professional and personal relationships across disciplines and geographical locations. This union will result in more effective collaboration, communication and innovative problem solving as students take on water-related challenges around the globe. WatIF believes that by creating a community of early water leaders, graduate students will feel a sense of belonging and companionship as they embark on their journey.
Education
Education and innovation are primary focuses of the conference, and this will be achieved through peer-to-peer learning. Graduate students have a great understanding of their specific area of research, and by bringing hundreds of graduate students from across the globe to one location, a wealth of multidisciplinary knowledge can be bridged. This conference provides novel means of presenting research to promote alternate methods of communication and enhance learning. In addition to the classic oral and poster presentation format that other conferences often follow, presenters will be asked to discuss how their research is innovative and how they believe it fits in the "big-picture" of the future of world's water resources. The conference will provide an opportunity for students to share their own ideas and to discover new approaches to addressing similar problems thereby opening space for communication and collaboration. This will allow them to step outside of their academic silos, giving these future leaders a set of multidisciplinary tools to tackle future water related challenges.
Empowerment
Students attending the conference will have already demonstrated a vested interest in water (whether research/career related), but this conference will provide a unique opportunity to inspire a greater passion for water in students. Additionally, the conference will allow students to feel as though they are a part of a bigger pictures and that their research is positively contributing to the future of world’s water. Also, the conference will remove the feeling of isolation that (young) researchers often feel when they become specialized. Rather than feeling overwhelmed the water-related challenges that our current generation faces, students will gain confidence in their own abilities as well as the abilities of other future leaders (their peers) to responsibly, ethically and professionally guide water management and protection.
This conference will bring together hundreds of graduate students from around the world who are linked by their aspirations for water-related futures in research, policy, governance, industry, etc. One aim of the conference is to foster long-lasting professional and personal relationships across disciplines and geographical locations. This union will result in more effective collaboration, communication and innovative problem solving as students take on water-related challenges around the globe. WatIF believes that by creating a community of early water leaders, graduate students will feel a sense of belonging and companionship as they embark on their journey.
Education
Education and innovation are primary focuses of the conference, and this will be achieved through peer-to-peer learning. Graduate students have a great understanding of their specific area of research, and by bringing hundreds of graduate students from across the globe to one location, a wealth of multidisciplinary knowledge can be bridged. This conference provides novel means of presenting research to promote alternate methods of communication and enhance learning. In addition to the classic oral and poster presentation format that other conferences often follow, presenters will be asked to discuss how their research is innovative and how they believe it fits in the "big-picture" of the future of world's water resources. The conference will provide an opportunity for students to share their own ideas and to discover new approaches to addressing similar problems thereby opening space for communication and collaboration. This will allow them to step outside of their academic silos, giving these future leaders a set of multidisciplinary tools to tackle future water related challenges.
Empowerment
Students attending the conference will have already demonstrated a vested interest in water (whether research/career related), but this conference will provide a unique opportunity to inspire a greater passion for water in students. Additionally, the conference will allow students to feel as though they are a part of a bigger pictures and that their research is positively contributing to the future of world’s water. Also, the conference will remove the feeling of isolation that (young) researchers often feel when they become specialized. Rather than feeling overwhelmed the water-related challenges that our current generation faces, students will gain confidence in their own abilities as well as the abilities of other future leaders (their peers) to responsibly, ethically and professionally guide water management and protection.
