Hult Prize is the world’s largest student competition and a movement for the creation of new social enterprises. University students from around the world compete to solve a pressing social issue faced by millions of people via start-up enterprise. This year’s Hult Prize Challenge theme is “Youth Unemployment”. Winner of Hult Prize can win a prize of US$ 1Million Dollar award from Hult Prize Foundation USA by developing the most radical and breakthrough idea to solve one of our world’s toughest social challenges. The Hult Prize is a wonderful example of the creative cooperation needed to build a world with shared opportunity, shared responsibility, and shared prosperity.
On campus local Hult Prize Challenges are being held from Sep - Dec 2018 around the world. The winner of the local on campus event will advance to compete in one of the fifteen regional finals to be held in March 2019. One of the winning team from each host city of regional finals will then move onto a summer business accelerator in UK, where participants will receive mentorship, advisory and strategic planning as they create prototypes and set-up to launch their new social business. The final round of competition will be held in Sep 2019 in New York USA, where the winning team to be awarded the US$1 Million prize.
The Institute of Space Technology (IST) has organized the local edition of Hult Prize in Islamabad from 30th November to 2 December 2018. Organizing team of IST, headed by Mr. Ahmer Rafi Head IST Business Incubation Centre and Mr. Aashir Malik Campus Director Hult Prize, was instrumental in implementing IST Hult Prize Challenge.
For IST Hult Prize Challenge, massive on campus and social media marketing campaign was launched by the IST Hult Prize Organizing team. In total 64 teams of IST students got registered for the competition through a portal. Opening ceremony of the event and preliminary evaluation of ideas was held on Nov 30. Mr. Salman Arain, Managing Director Funadiq was the Chief Guest on the eve of the opening ceremony. Dr. Zaffar M Khan gave the opening remarks and encouraged the participating teams and thanked the Chief Guests, Panelist, Mentors and Judges for sparing their valuable time for the cause of the event. On the eve, a panel discussion was also held on the theme of the challenge “Youth Unemployment”. Panelists for the discussion were – Ms. Samia Khan, Mr. Zeeshan Riaz, Ms. Amna Masood, Mr. Muazzam Bhattii, Ms. Farhat Bashir and Mr. Tahir Nihad Bajwa. Panel discussion was very useful to encourage the students to opt entrepreneurship as a career option and panelists answered many of the questions of the students regarding entrepreneurship as a career options and future employability. After preliminary evaluation, out of 64 teams, 23 teams were selected for next round of mentoring. Mentoring session was held on 1st Dec. During the session, mentors guided the teams to refine their ideas for creation of new social enterprise and their business pitches.
Final judging of the local IST Hult Prize Challenge was held on 2nd Dec. Ideas and business pitches were evaluated by a panel of judges comprising – Dr. Khurram Iqbal, Ms. Afreen Siddiqui, Mr. Tahir Nihad Bajwa, Mr. Farrukh Mahmood and Mr. Ahmer Rafi. After rigorous and thorough evaluation, judges announced the Team Boffins (Waste to Energy) as the winner of IST Hult Prize local challenge.
Team Boffins will proceed to Dubai to participate in the regional Finals to be held in March, 2019. IST Business Incubation Centre will also help the winning team and runner up teams in their pursuit to launch their own social enterprises.
Website: http://www.hultprizeat.com/ii