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Top Stories Competition to stimulate and inspire innovation concludes at NUST

Competition to stimulate and inspire innovation concludes at NUST

Islamabad October 13, 2020 – Grand Finale & Prize Distribution Ceremony of Finding Innovative & Creative Solutions for Society (FICS 2020), a platform to foster social entrepreneurship, was held at National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST) here on Tuesday. In view of the situation caused by COVID-19 outbreak, extraordinary measures were taken to conduct the event. The overall winner of FICS ’20 was Team Cyber Guard from NUST Military College of Signals (MCS), which emerged victorious from amongst 231 project ideas pitched during the 3-stage competition. Cyber Guard monitors and protects the pilferage and exfiltration of sensitive organisation data, either at rest or at motion. The winning team was awarded a cash prize of PKR 100,000/-, sponsored by Army Welfare Trust (AWT). In addition, the first 3 Runners-up and winners of Special Categories in 3 SGDs were awarded a cash prize of PKR 20,000/-, each. A total of 31 finalist teams of FICS’20 demonstrated their prototypes of technology-based innovative solutions using online mode to 4 panels of judges at the Grand Finale. Winning teams have also been awarded 6-month free incubation space at TechOne – NUST’s Incubation Centre.

Apart from the Prototype Development Fund (PDF) sponsored by the National Radio Telecommunication Corporation (NRTC), FICS is fortunate to have patronage for 7 SDG categories from a diverse set of industries. FICS ’20 sponsors and partners included NRTC, AWT, Reenergia, Arkhitech, Alfoze Technologies Pvt Ltd and Graana.

Addressing the audience, the chief guest, Lt Gen Naweed Zaman, HI(M), (Retd), Rector NUST, stressed upon the need to bring about improvement in the standard of life, especially the underprivileged, through technological intervention. He was all-praise for NUST students who came up with brilliant innovative ideas, and complimented the winners and runners-up for pulling through the rigorous 3-stage competition. He also acknowledged the efforts of faculty supervisors and management of NUST Schools and Colleges for their continuous guidance and supervision; NUST alumni for their mentoring of students and the industry partners for their unstinting support, in making FICS a real success over the years. He also congratulated FICS management for executing the competition while strictly adhering to SOPs in the wake of current pandemic.