Future of housing: UCalgary students win prize for systems thinking

Three University of Calgary students have won a prize for the way they applied systems thinking to a question heavy on the minds of Canadian policymakers and residents, alike: What is the future of housing? 

Jonathan Mendez-Young, Sahiba Chaudhry and Ben Reamico, along with teammates Ankitha Raj Puthenpurakkal Ranjakumar from the University of Prince Edward Island and Yessica Kurock from Université de Sherbrooke, received the $5,000 award titled The Inquiry That Changed Us, All of Us — one of four honours presented at the Systems Innovation Challenge this past April. 

Reamico, who recently finished his first year in economics, says the team's approach stood out because they challenged their own conventional assumptions about housing. 

“The core of that challenge was to sort of pressure test a problem and understand, okay, how can we look at it differently?” says the Faculty of Arts student. 

The national competition is put on by Innovation North, a systems-thinking community of researchers powered by Ivey Business School at Western University in London, Ontario. This year's challenge attracted 245 participants, with 35 students advancing to the final, in-person stage at the Donald K. Johnson Centre in Toronto. 

Rethinking the housing conversation 

When collaborating to present on their ideas, Mendez-Young says they examined the relationship between shrinking household sizes and growing home sizes in Canada, instead of focusing solely on increasing housing supply. 

"We sort of challenged the status quo, the psychology of the way we think about housing," says Reamico. 

The group explored how ideas of success, home ownership and space influence housing demand. Their final inquiry asked a simple, but consequential question: How much space does a person really need? 

"We initially approached the question as everybody would, with density, right? Let's build more houses," says Chaudhry, a third-year biological sciences student in the Faculty of Science. "Then we started understanding that housing really depends on people's mindsets." 

That shift in perspective aligned closely with the competition's systems-thinking framework, which encourages participants to explore relationships and root causes, rather than a search for a single solution. 

A team built across Canada 

The award-winning team was unusual in another way — its members came from three universities in three different provinces and did not meet in person until the Toronto finals. 

Mendez-Young, a third-year economics and finance student, was the one who initially connected the team through an online networking board created for challenge participants. 

"For the first stage submitting a paper, I just reached out to two people from different schools and said, 'Hey, do you want to form a team?'" says Mendez-Young, who is with the Faculty of Arts and Haskayne School of Business.  

Reamico and Chaudhry joined the team in the second stage. 

Working across time zones created challenges, but it also brought together diverse perspectives and experiences. 

"When we came together, that clashing of ideas and that willingness to learn and to grow and to innovate was what led us to the inquiry that changed us all," says Reamico. 

Getting involved 

The students encourage others to keep an eye on University of Calgary institutional and faculty newsletters to find opportunities like the Systems Innovation Challenge. 

"It really is important in your 20s to broaden your horizons, get to know people, network as much as possible and just put yourself out there," says Chaudhry. "You don't know what you don't know." 

For Mendez-Young, the experience demonstrated the value of stepping outside the classroom. 

"It would have been a shame if I didn't go," he says. "I'm very happy that I put all the effort in because it was an incredible experience." 

Students interested in future Systems Innovation Challenges can follow Innovation North on Instagram and LinkedIn to stay informed about the 2026–2027 Student Challenge, including the announcement of the challenge topic and registration dates. The annual competition brings together students from diverse disciplines and institutions across Canada to explore complex societal challenges through systems thinking. Learn more at innovationnorth.ca.