By Azman Zakaria and Khairul Anuar
SERDANG: A group of international students from Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) qualified for the challenge of presenting their business idea in the Hult Prize Accelerator Summer Program 2019 in Ashridge Castle, London for 5 weeks.
The group who is better known as ‘Banai’ is made up of four UPM students from Bangladesh, namely Tahzinul Islam, Akif Islam, Prokriti Wazed Sikder and Tahiya Islam and they presented their idea on ‘Makerspace Freelancing’ which equips youths with valuable skillsets from product design, multimedia, arts, music and dance and also cooking.
The leader of the group, Tahiya Islam said that they invented the database that requires students to fill up the various courses that they are interested in and also contact the persons responsible for those courses.
“Students equipped with these courses will then be able to seek job opportunities suitable to the skills that they possess,” she said.
Banai broke into the top 6 at the Hult Regionals Summit in Manila recently and was chosen as the winner of the ‘wildcard’ cycle.
In London, they will receive a mentorship scheme, counselling and strategic planning to develop a prototype and a business model.
The teams who excelled at the Hult Prize Accelerator in London will be invited to the 10th Annual Hult Prize Awards & Gala at the United Nations Headquarters in New York where the winning team will be awarded US$ 1,000,000 worth of funds for their start-up.
The Hult Prize Challenge 2019 focuses on entrepreneurs who aspire to build the foundations of a venture that will provide meaningful work for 10,000 youths within the next decade. This challenge was personally written and selected by Ahmad Ashkar, CEO and Founder of the Hult Prize, and Phillip Auerswald.-UPM
