RHU high-spirited teams competed in the RHU Hult Prize Final Event under the 2018 Hult Prize Challenge of "Harnessing the Power of Energy" on Saturday, January 13, 2018 between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. at RHU campus. Three accomplished non-RHU jury members selected the three best teams to represent RHU in the national finals and the one best team for the regional finals. The event hosted a handful of faculty members, students, and guests.
The 1st place winner was the team Energy Saving Mode, the 2nd place winner was team RHU MAG and the 3rd place winner was team Invictus. All three teams received the winner certificates from RHU Hult Prize Campus Director Mr. Khalid Zaatari, signed by Hult Prize Founder Mr. Ahmad Al Ashkar and former US President Mr. Bill Clinton.
Event judges included Mr. Abd Al-Wadoud Nakouzi, a judge in WRO (World Robotics Olympics) and SUMO Robotics, Mr. Jad Al-Haj, Support and Maintenance at SAB and a Microsoft Imagine Cup Organizer, and Ms. Douaa Al Assaad holder of a Master’s Degree in Energy from Jean Monnet University, France and a PhD affiliation in the Mechanical Engineering Department at AUB.
Following the Lebanese national anthem, the event launched with an opening ceremony from 10:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. RHU Hult Prize Coordinator, Ms. Mariam Chehade, delivered a welcome note thanking the Hult Prize organization, RHU Hult Prize Campus Director Mr. Khaled Zaatari, the judges, the faculty members, the students, and the Hult Prize sponsors, BLOM BANK, Banque du Liban - The Central Bank of Lebanon, and 24iproduction. Mr. Khaled Al Zaatari then delivered a word explaining the Hult Prize team presentation rules, introduced the jury members, and thanked the Hult Prize sponsors and the participating students.
Miss Dima El Halabi, Hult prize Campus Director, delivered a short note thanking RHU for their collaboration with Hult Prize Lebanon, and admired the students’ and faculty members’ teamwork. The role they play, she indicated, is in inspires other students around the globe to propel positive change and be part of the social enterprise under the title “Power for Good. Hult Prize Lebanon, she added, is leading through a wave of entrepreneurs, working on making an impact in Lebanon and all over the world.
The teams Invictus, Smart drone, Autonomous savers, Energy Saving Mode ON, Life savers, Agrotonics, and RHU MAG then presented their ideas in front of the audience and jury members.
Following the team presentation, the jury members deliberated and Ms. Douaa Al Assaad summarized the student’s projects and her comments on them and announced the winning teams. Group photos were taken on stage with the Vice President for Development, Mr. Hisham Kobrsoli who thanked everyone who supported the teams and contributed to this event.
In summary HULT Prize was initiated in 2009 by an enterprising MBA student at Hult International Business School named Ahmad Ashkar who had a compelling idea that of leveraging the crowd to generate startup ideas from young people to sustainably solve the world’s most critical social challenges. Through the help of Hult, he acted on it. Today, the Hult Prize is the world’s biggest engine for the launch of for-good, for-profit startups emerging from university with over 2500 staff and volunteers around the world. In nearly a decade, the movement has deployed more than $50M of capital into the sector and mobilized more than one million young people to re-think the future of business as it continues to breed disruptive innovation on college and university campuses across 100 plus countries. The Hult Prize Foundation has been called the ”Nobel Prize for Students” and has been featured in a TIME Magazine Cover Story highlighting the “Top 5 Ideas Changing the World.”