Women to Women Empowerment Challenge Through Humanitarian Technology Based Social Entrepreneurship

January 8, 2020 | Lamia Iftekhar

Organizer: IEEE Bangladesh Section

WIE AG, IEEE BDS

Venue: FARS Hotel, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Date: November 30, 2019

Total Participants: 25

Female Participants: 13

IEEE Members: 25

IEEE Non-members: 20

Also engaged: 3 mentors, 5 speakers and 6 judges

IEEE Bangladesh Section (IEEE BDS) and IEEE Women in Engineering Affinity Group IEEE Bangladesh Section (WIE AG BDS) organized a day-long event designed to engage students and young professionals in the rigorous research, design, testing, and launch of technology-based social enterprises. The objective was to encourage participants to think of sustainable solutions to already existing humanitarian problems and introduce them to the process of turning the solution idea into a product, with the help of established entrepreneurs.

Participants with the mentors, speakers, judges and other guests

Participants with the mentors, speakers, judges and other guests

Participants formed groups of two to six members, submitted their problem statement and a basic solution idea. Groups with selected ideas were invited to participate in a daylong training and competition. Eight teams were selected for the day-long event and they came from different parts of Bangladesh. They brought in a pre-made poster and PowerPoint presentation with their initial pitch. In the morning, the groups presented their initial pitch idea to the audience. They improved their product throughout the day through the feedback of three mentors, five judges, speakers, and the general audience. The mentors from industry, entrepreneurship, and academia guided the groups towards turning their idea into a probable product. dedicated In the end, the groups went through another round of presentations where they presented their improved version of the solutions, which were much closer to marketable products. Judges from different professions, who had observed the improvement process of the teams, then graded each team based on the quality of the final product and presentation, as well as how well the mentors’ feedbacks were incorporated. There were significant and tangible modifications and additions in the final presentation of each group, including SWOT analysis, SROI discussion, restructuring of the solution to serve the target audience better, etc. The winners were provided prize money to take their products to the next level. The participants also created a strong network with successful entrepreneurs through this WIE platform which will aid them in the future. The daylong event contained keynote speeches by established entrepreneurs of the country to allow the participants to be inspired by the stories of humanitarian entrepreneurship, embrace the mindset and pick up best practice tips.

Tanzim Faruque Aditi (Co-founder and Director of Aus-Bangla Limited), Humaira Chowdhury (Co-founder and Managing Director of Frontier Technology) and Ataur Rahman (Founder, Amar Desh Amar Gram) served as the mentors. The speakers were Ruomei LI (Senior member of IEEEChair of Women in Power Committee (WIP) of IEEE Power & Energy Society), Farhana A Rahman (CEO ChairpersonUY Systems Ltd), Nazmus Saliheen (Barrister at law Advocate, Bangladesh Supreme Court), Hosne Ara Begum ndc (Managing Director (Secretary) Hitech Park Authority) and Runia Hossain (Director, Telecom Services Innovative Minds Consulting Limited.

The event was funded by IEEE Humanitarian Activities Committee .