BRAC University has amassed in a stream of exceptionally brilliant minds who have come up with ideas envisioning a better future. The university recently organized three incubation programs and a briefing session for HULT Prize 2018, to give the participants an idea of how to tackle the future challenges that lay ahead. The incubation sessions took place consecutively on both the Mohakhali and Savar campus of the university on the 8th, 15th and 16th of November 2017 whereas the briefing session was held on the 14th of November.
This year, the HULT Prize 2018 revolves around the theme ‘Harnessing the Power of Energy to Transform the Lives of 10 Million People’
The incubation programs intended to give the participants a view of their work from a real-life perspective. The first incubation consisted of speakers namely Md. Adnan Hossain, Director, and Founder of its Humanity Foundation, Tasneem Omar Ava, the Campus Director of HULT Prize at BRAC University, and Mirza Tanzim Sami, global finalist, HULT Prize 2016. The speakers explained the ideology behind the social business model and helped the participants to understand what different approaches should they have while planning. They also talked about various aspects like the importance of identifying the true potential of a case to come up with an impactful solution in the form of a business plan and also the feasibility of the plan itself. Furthermore, the impact and the far fetching effect on the initiators as well as the beneficiaries.of HULT Prize was also discussed in the event and suggestions were given on how participants can face the probable problems that may arise as they proceed.
The second session of incubation program gave participants an opportunity to directly communicate with their target beneficiaries in the BRAC University campus. Four potential beneficiaries from two slums of Dhaka were invited to the session and helped participants closely relate to the challenges faced by their beneficiaries. The participants received insights on the basic revenue generation, expenditure and other, day to day problems in the lives of the beneficiaries through this and aided them to have a better understanding of their target.
The last incubation session was held at the Savar campus for the students attending Residential Semester to inform them about the ins and outs of the HULT Prize. Tasneem Omar Ava connected with 950 students to increase their enthusiasm about the competition. The incubations led to a successful registration of 65 teams amongst which 1team which will represent Bangladesh in the regional finale
The Briefing session consisted of an opening speech given by Tasneem Omar Ava and Mahreen Mamoon, HULT Prize Coordinator and keynote sessions by Sajid Iqbal, recipient of the Queen’s Young Leader Award 2017 and Stawb Peter Halder, a BRAC Alumnus. The purpose of the briefing session was to ensure that this year’s participants are well-prepared about the challenging theme. The keynote sessions gave an overview on the role of private sectors concerning innovation in the sustainable energy market and drawing inspiration from the surrounding. The speakers also encouraged the students to follow their passion and use the principle of 3 I’s – Immense, Innovative, Inspirational.
Later, the session was taken forward by former HULT Prize Campus Director and HULT Prize 2014 Regional Finalist, Asif Chowdhury, who shared the lessons he had learned from the HULT journey emphasizing more on the significance of familiarizing oneself with the various issues faced by the slum dwellers to be able to initiate change in a better way.
The concluding part of the event consisted of the crest giving ceremony to the previous regional winners who shared their experiences about the competition. A video featuring the accelerator program of HULT Prize 2016 Global Finalists that included Team Synergy from BRAC University was also displayed. Later in this, Mirza Tanzim Sami, Co-Founder of Synergy conducted a thoroughly informative session, by answering queries and providing ideas on HULT Prize marking criteria. Finally, the session ended with the unveiling of the HULT Prize at BRACU app for the very first time in this year’s session of the competition at BRAC University.
