
Past Competitions
Past Student Simulation Competitions
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2023: WILDFIRE SIMULATION
NASPAA’s 2023 Student Simulation Competition featured the Wildfire Simulation, also known as the Group Communication and Decision-Making Simulation, which required students to think fast and compose a community-driven wildfire mitigation plan. This simulation was designed by University of Colorado Boulder and built by Forio.
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2021: PANDEMIC 2.0
The real-time simulation places students in leadership roles within a time-sensitive, fast-paced environment where they must work together to minimize the impact of a deadly infectious disease.
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2020: SUSTAINABLE CITIES
The simulation, backed by extensive real-world data, placed competing students in leadership roles within a fast-paced environment where they worked together to build sustainable public transit infrastructure in their city.
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2019: GLOBAL MIGRATION
Nearly 600 students from 147 universities in 27 countries took part in the NASPAA-Batten Student Simulation Competition. The simulation was built using real-world data and challenged students to work together to manage a migrant influx in a fast-paced environment.
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2018: GLOBAL PANDEMIC
Participants in the 2018 competition—the largest-ever student simulation competition in higher education--took on the Pandemic Simulation, in which players are confronted the spread of an infectious disease.
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2017: FOOD SECURITY
The 2017 NASPAA-Batten Student Simulation Competition was on the topic of Food Security and the world-wide effort to address UN Sustainable Development Goal 2.
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2016: GLOBAL WARMING
The second annual Student Simulation Competition focused on global warming. Students worked together, used the En-ROADS simulation model, built by Climate Interactive, and negotiated with each other to create a feasible policy package to limit global warming.
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2015: RETHINK HEALTH
NASPAA’s 2015 Inaugural Student Simulation Competition was held February 28, 2015. The competition featured the ReThink Health simulation, which required students to apply the skills they have learned in the classroom and implement systems thinking.