(newsfeed courtesy of fcee.utm.my)
KUALA LUMPUR, 18th September 2017 – Swiss Innovation Challenge (SIC) Grand Finale was held on the 15th and 16th September 2017 at Dewan Azman Hashim, UTM Kuala Lumpur. A team from FKT under FOBERG which was led by Dr. Dayang Norulfairuz Abang Zaidel was one of the 25 finalists. Dr. Dayang said, “More than 50% of the participants are from industry, rather from university. Only 25 teams go to grand finale from around 170 teams at the initial stage.” According to Dr. Dayang, another challenge was they have to go through three pitches to become a winner. Most probably, only three innovative projects from UTM participated at the final pitch.
Dr. Dayang and members proposed an RTE and emergency food, Meal-2-Heal. The innovative project has won gold medal in INATEX 2016, semi-finalist at national level for TERAJU Grant Award, own patent for Meal-2-Heal processing method, and recognized by international humanitarian NGOs, MyCare and Red Cross besides having early relationship with World Food Program (WFP) and Islamic Crowdfunding.
Last year in Thailand, one the team members, Dr. Zulkifli Khair from Faculty of Management was an invited speaker to present a conceptual framework on universal emergency food through a paper entitled, ‘Food Relief in Emergency Context: A Review’. The paper has been received positive response from researchers particularly from Philippines. Other team members are Prof. Dr. Ida Idayu Muhamad from FKT and Mr. Salahuddin Ahmad bin Ayob from UTM International Business School.
The Swiss Innovation Challenge Malaysia, which started in January 2017, was divided into three phases, each followed by a selection process based on pitches. Participants who reach the final phase have the opportunity to win prize money amounting to 23,000 USD. The cash award for the 1st prize is 15,000 USD, for the 2nd and 3rd prize it is 5,000 USD and 3,000 USD, respectively. In addition, the participant can win the special prize ‘internationalization’ worth 5,000 USD which will be awarded to the one project across Asia with the most convincing internationalization strategy. During the closing ceremony on the 18th September 2017 the champion has been announced for the innovation track which was Zymeratics, a boutique enzyme manufacturer while Blockchains.my won the internationalization track. They will be pitching in Switzerland with other SIC Asia champions in October 2017.
Other than coaching and mentoring, SIC also provides classes on intellectual properties, marketing strategy, sharing session with successful entrepreneurs and many more. Participants also learn to write a good business proposal. “We would like to acknowledge our coach Dr. Rahayu who has been helping our team along this journey as well as Dr. Mohamad Shah Kassim”, said Dr. Dayang.
