The Hult Prize is a global Competition held once a year for the launch of social startups emerging from universities campuses across 100 plus countries. It awards millions of dollars in seed capital to young budding entrepreneurs, including a grand prize of USD1Million.
It all began on the day when we saw the notifications about HULT Prize in the campus. All of us were fascinated with the Competition because of its international repute and the opportunity it provided to work for a social cause.
Another appealing thing was this year’s theme “Harnessing the power of energy to transform life of 10 million people”. We decided to make a team and participate in the Competition. Thereupon began long brainstorming sessions and late evening discussions over dozens of cups of coffee, struggling to find the smartest workable ideas. Nevertheless, our collective toil bore fruit on December 9, 2017, when we won the first prize in Hult Prize at Hokkaido University competition.
Our team was qualified for the regional level semifinals at San Francisco in March 2018.
Now, began preparations for San Francisco Semifinals: literally with a series of start-up seminars and workshops. We got abound support in terms of Corporate, University aid and industry expert mentorship to help shape our business model.
From 9th-11th March 2018, we participated among 42 teams from all over the world at the Regional Semifinals held at Hult Business School and Commonwealth Club, San Francisco, California. We felt nervous and excited at the same time, to present in front of esteemed judges. The winner of the Hult Prize San Francisco regional final was Batterease from Rollins College. Later in the evening, we enjoyed walking around San Francisco’s famous tourist places and a grand after party. It has been a magnificent experience filled with umpteen emotions, thoughts, lessons, and what not, for all of us.
The team idea: Our startup (Green leaf Energy solution) aims to bring smart grid energy management direct to slum areas, which in turn solves the problems of unreliable electricity supply using energy efficient devices. We think The Green Solution is the next out-of-the-box idea, which if developed well, can play a big role in Energy – data management to lead the society towards a Greener future.
Afterwards, we had another chance to share our ideas in the Japan National Finals in Osaka on May 19th, 20th. The winning team from Kyushu University presented a project on eco-friendly refrigeration.
In the course of the competition we’ve learned that it's important to start field work at the earliest and to secure support from industry and government organizations, not only to win the contest but also in order to bring your creative idea to life.
Definitely, I would recommend to all my friends and colleagues to participate in Hult Prize, for the extraordinary experiences and opportunities it provides, and, who knows, may be the next million dollar Prize goes to Hokkaido University!
Let’s make the world Greener, brighter and Happier.
by Ms Rakshita Bagherwal, M2, Division of Mechanical and Space Engineering
Computational Fluid Mechanics Laboratory
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