Team Mhaerofilter wins business competition

With a dream of processing wastewater from batik production houses and promoting clean water supply through eco-friendly recycling, Team Mhaerofilter won the OnCampus Finals and would be heading to the Regionals in Spring 2020.

The students, Nur Rahmawati Ayukaryana, Aryanis Mutia Zahra, Hua Yajun and Miki Tatsuma participated in Hult Prize, the world’s largest student competition and movement for social good. Founded by Ahmad Ashkar, a graduate of Hult International Business School, the Hult Prize Foundation is supported by United Nations and many influential people, including former US President Bill Clinton and Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus.

Based on an SGDs (Sustainable Development Goals)-related theme determined each year by former President Bill Clinton, the United Nations, and Hult International Business School, more than 1,000 universities around the world will hold their on-campus competition. Then, one team that won each university's title will advance to the Regional Summit, which will be held across 27 countries. The team that won each summit would then proceed to the Accelerator Program in Boston in the summer, and the final six teams would be selected to pitch in New York for the chance of winning $1 million to launch their start-up business.

On December 8, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology has held their OnCampus Finals hosted by the Hult Prize Campus Director, Kesevan Veloo. 20 teams competed for the spot to represent the local university at the Regional Summit in Spring 2020. The theme for this year is “Building Startups That Have A Positive Impact On Our Planet with Every Dollar Earned”. University students ranging undergraduates to postdoctoral researchers had to come up with ideas to build bold businesses that have a positive net impact on our planet with every sale completed, dollar earned, and decision made.

In the preliminary rounds, the initial 20 teams had been narrowed down to 6 teams by 11 prominent judges to progress to the final round. The teams advanced are: Team Rany, Team Mhaerofilter, Team Drama Club, Team Doa Ibu, Team Optimizers, and Team Stercus. The finalists presented a variety of ideas, including farming innovations using Internet of Things (IoT), ways to tackle food loss and apps to reduce the usage of electricity. Teams were required to pitch the practicality of their idea, provide information on how to sustain themselves, bring a good impact on the environment and also strategies to expand their ideas to 1 million consumers in a span of 10 years.

After some tough deliberations, the judges chose Team Mhaerofilter as the winner, followed by Team Optimizers and Team Stercus as runners-ups. When asked about how the winning team felt, Nur Rahmawati Ayukaryana responded, “We vividly remember how we strived for one idea to another idea. We are all engineering-based students and have a little knowledge of the business. We are only a group of students who want to make a meaningful time with positive things. We didn't expect to win, we were all speechless and trembling when being elected as a winner. With the trust given, we will make the best of our efforts to realize an impactful idea for the future. To save water, save heritage, and save future”.

There are still opportunities for teams that have lost at the OnCampus Finals. Teams could submit a Global Application for Regionals which is currently available online https://hultprizefoundation.wufoo.com/forms/zix55a6098mrqp/

Thank you for reading this to the end!
Kesevan Veloo

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