Hult Prize / en Used coffee grounds turned into fuel logs, battery-free heating vests: five U of T teams compete in Hult Prize regionals this weekend /news/used-coffee-grounds-turned-fuel-logs-battery-free-heating-vests-five-u-t-teams-compete-hult <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Used coffee grounds turned into fuel logs, battery-free heating vests: five U of T teams compete in Hult Prize regionals this weekend</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2017-03-01-hult2017_0.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=wdiuaMdH 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2017-03-01-hult2017_0.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=NMVlvhOf 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2017-03-01-hult2017_0.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=FhiDxkuD 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2017-03-01-hult2017_0.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=wdiuaMdH" alt> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>ullahnor</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2017-03-01T13:02:14-05:00" title="Wednesday, March 1, 2017 - 13:02" class="datetime">Wed, 03/01/2017 - 13:02</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">From left to right, winners of U of T's Hult Prize competition include Matthew Frehlich, Lucas Siow, Sam Bennett and Gowtham Ramachandran (photo courtesy of Sam Bennett)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/tyler-irving" hreflang="en">Tyler Irving</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Tyler Irving</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/global-lens" hreflang="en">Global Lens</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/hult-prize" hreflang="en">Hult Prize</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/rotman-school-management" hreflang="en">Rotman School of Management</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-applied-science-engineering" hreflang="en">Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/munk-school-global-affairs-public-policy" hreflang="en">Munk School of Global Affairs &amp; Public Policy</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/u-t-mississauga" hreflang="en">U of T Mississauga</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/oise" hreflang="en">OISE</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">This year's theme is restoring rights and dignity to the world's 10 million refugees</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>U of T students headed to the next round of the&nbsp;Hult Prize – considered the world's largest student competition for&nbsp;social good&nbsp;– are&nbsp;hoping to&nbsp;show how&nbsp;a simple mixture of used coffee grounds, wax and sugar can help restore the dignity of refugees around the world.</p> <p>Team Moto&nbsp;–&nbsp;named after the Swahili word for fire –&nbsp;is competing this&nbsp;Friday&nbsp;in the Shanghai Regionals of the&nbsp;Hult Prize, an annual $1-million competition that aims to create and launch startup enterprises that address challenges faced by billions of people.&nbsp;The team is this year's winner of the&nbsp;U of T phase of the competition. But, altogether&nbsp;five&nbsp;U of T teams&nbsp;– four&nbsp;applied on their own to the Clinton Global Initiative's 2017&nbsp;Hult Prize challenge&nbsp;–&nbsp;are headed to&nbsp;regional competitions around the world.</p> <p>This year’s social enterprise face-off&nbsp;focuses on restoring the rights and dignity of people and societies forced into motion due to social injustices, politics, economic pressures, climate change and war.&nbsp;Winners of the regionals&nbsp;then move into an incubator where they'll prep for&nbsp;finals in September.</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__3625 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" src="/sites/default/files/Brick%202_0.jpg" style="width: 750px; height: 442px;" typeof="foaf:Image"><br> <em>Team Moto’s fuel log is made from used coffee grounds held together with wax and sugar&nbsp;(photo by&nbsp;Team Moto)</em></p> <p>For their design,&nbsp;members of Team Moto sought to overcome a massive daily challenge faced by residents of African refugee camps: gathering firewood.</p> <p>“A lot of the time, it’s women and children that are going to harvest firewood,” says&nbsp;<strong>Matthew Frehlich</strong>, a master's student at&nbsp;U of T's Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering, who is a part of&nbsp;Team Moto. “Because of deforestation, they have to trek up to 15 kilometres to get this firewood. Once they are outside of the camps, they are vulnerable to violence.”</p> <p>Frehlich and his team members&nbsp;– the&nbsp;Rotman School of Management's MBA candidates&nbsp;<strong>Sam Bennett</strong>,&nbsp;<strong>Gowtham Ramachandran</strong>,<strong>&nbsp;Lucas Siow&nbsp;</strong>and&nbsp;<strong>Lucy Yang</strong>&nbsp;–&nbsp;want to eliminate the need for this dangerous trip. Their solution is a fuel log that could be manufactured from low-cost waste materials repurposed from coffee-drinking countries.</p> <p>“We came across the original recipe for a coffee-based fuel log on Instagram,” says Frehlich “It was meant to be a decorative holiday log, but we realized it had potential for our purposes because it used a product that would otherwise be discarded as waste, which makes it inexpensive to produce.”</p> <p>Last fall the team started scavenging coffee grounds from local retailers, baking fuel logs in a loaf pan and testing them in a backyard barbecue.&nbsp;</p> <p>Their product can burn for up to 90 minutes, providing enough heat to cook standard food rations. They have now secured partnerships with local coffee producers to supply raw materials for their pilot project.&nbsp;</p> <p>After&nbsp;beating more than 20 other teams at U of T's&nbsp;Hult&nbsp;competition Team Moto&nbsp;has been focused on improving the&nbsp;product and pitch for the regional competition in Shanghai.</p> <p>“We feel confident knowing that we've done everything we can to prepare ourselves and our business idea for this big next step,”&nbsp;says Frehlich.&nbsp;“We've conducted a focus group with former residents of African refugee camps to get feedback on the product, and we’ve sent a sample to representatives of the United Nations High Commission on Refugees for further field testing in Uganda. We also have a letter of intent with Starbucks Canada to supply us with coffee grounds for our pilot project. We’re hopeful that all this will give us the edge we need to win.”</p> <p>Two U of T teams are headed&nbsp;to regionals in Boston this weekend. The&nbsp;Munk School of Global Affairs'&nbsp;<strong>Bushra Ebadi</strong>,&nbsp;<strong>Tessa MacNeil</strong>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<strong>Mustafa Sayedi</strong>&nbsp;make up one team. The second U of T team from Rotman's evening MBA program has&nbsp;developed a battery-free heated vest for refugees facing prolonged exposure to low temperatures. The team includes&nbsp;<strong>Jing (Amanda) Wang</strong>,&nbsp;<strong>Lulu Feng</strong>,&nbsp;<strong>Nash Xu&nbsp;</strong>and<strong>&nbsp;Heywood Chu</strong>.</p> <p>The team headed to San Francisco regionals includes&nbsp;<strong>Grace Mabika</strong>&nbsp;from&nbsp;the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education,&nbsp;<strong>Omowonuola "Wonu" Adeshina&nbsp;</strong>from&nbsp;University of Toronto Mississauga and&nbsp;<strong>Kai "Candice" Yun</strong>, who justed graduated from U of T.<br> &nbsp;<br> A fifth team&nbsp;heading&nbsp;to the regionals in&nbsp;London includes&nbsp;<strong>Zaid Atto</strong>,&nbsp;<strong>Andrei Dranka</strong>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<strong>Deeptanshu (Deep) Prasad</strong>&nbsp;– all from&nbsp;the&nbsp;Faculty of Applied Science &amp;&nbsp;Engineering and&nbsp;<strong>Rosemary Yachouh</strong>&nbsp;of the&nbsp;Institute of Health Policy Management and Evaluation.</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Wed, 01 Mar 2017 18:02:14 +0000 ullahnor 105257 at U of T team heads to Hult Prize regionals with plan for firewood alternative in refugee camps /news/u-t-team-heads-hult-prize-regionals-plan-firewood-alternative-refugee-camps <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">U of T team heads to Hult Prize regionals with plan for firewood alternative in refugee camps</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/refugee%20camp.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=KufOEBil 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/refugee%20camp.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=anfihUGl 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/refugee%20camp.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=fdUTgj6c 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/refugee%20camp.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=KufOEBil" alt="Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>lanthierj</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2016-12-19T10:59:24-05:00" title="Monday, December 19, 2016 - 10:59" class="datetime">Mon, 12/19/2016 - 10:59</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan (World Bank Photo Collection via Flickr)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/ken-mcguffin" hreflang="en">Ken McGuffin</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Ken McGuffin</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/global-lens" hreflang="en">Global Lens</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/current-students" hreflang="en">Current Students</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/hult-prize" hreflang="en">Hult Prize</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/rotman-school-management" hreflang="en">Rotman School of Management</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/global" hreflang="en">Global</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/international" hreflang="en">International</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/team-atollo" hreflang="en">Team Atollo</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-applied-science-engineering" hreflang="en">Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>They won with a substitute for firewood made from recycled coffee grounds.&nbsp;</p> <p>Teams of students with an interest in social entrepreneurship gathered at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management last week to participate in the quarterfinal qualifying round for the Hult Prize.&nbsp;</p> <p>The prize is a startup accelerator for social entrepreneurship that brings together the brightest college and university students from around the globe to solve the world’s most pressing issues.&nbsp;</p> <h3><a href="/news/u-t-teams-tackle-refugee-crisis-2017-hult-prize">Read more about the Hult Prize at U of T</a></h3> <p>Student teams drawn from a wide range of faculties at U of T tackled the competition’s challenge of “Refugees - Reawakening Human Potential and Restoring the Dignity of 10M People by 2022”. The challenge focused on restoring the rights and dignity of people and societies affected by&nbsp;social injustices, politics, economic pressures, climate change and war.</p> <p>The winner of the U of T competition was Team Journey. Composed of three Rotman MBA students and a U of T Master of Engineering student, Team Journey developed a substitute for firewood made from recycled coffee grounds which could be used to alleviate the fuel and firewood shortage in many refugee camps in Africa.</p> <p>Engineering's <strong>Matthew Frehlich</strong> and Rotman's <strong>Lucas Siow</strong>, <strong>Sam Bennett</strong>, and <strong>Gowtham Ramachandran</strong> will advance to one of the Hult Prize regional finals to be held in March. &nbsp;</p> <p>“The calibre of ideas coming out of this year’s competition was exceptional," said <strong>Tina-Marie&nbsp;Assi</strong>, U of T's Hult Prize Campus Director. "The panel of judges contributed invaluable insights in both rounds of pitches.”&nbsp;</p> <p>She said that speakers&nbsp;<strong>Rod Lohin</strong>, executive director of the Michael Lee-Chin Family Institute for Corporate Citizenship, and <strong>Nouman Ashraf</strong>, an assistant professor in the teaching stream at Rotman, “provided motivation and much food for thought for anyone looking to make their mark with a career in innovation and sustainability.”&nbsp;</p> <p>Judges for the qualifying round included <strong>Aisha Bukhari</strong>, a Rotman MBA graduate with Attolo SE Inc.&nbsp;<a href="/news/u-t-grads-finals-hult-prize-talking-stickers-boost-literacy-impoverished-children">who reached the final round of the Hult Prize in 2015</a>,&nbsp;Assaf Weisz, co-founder and&nbsp;managing director of Purpose Capital,&nbsp;Astrum Nanji, founder and managing director at Lux Equity,&nbsp;Hamoon Ekhtiari, director of strategy and innovation for the executive vice-president at TELUS,&nbsp;Jacky Magee, director of developer audience experience for Microsoft Canada,&nbsp;<strong>Jamal Khayyat</strong>, a Rotman MBA graduate who was the Hult Prize campus director at U of T in 2015-2016,&nbsp;Ted Graham, head of open innovation at General Motors&nbsp;and&nbsp;<strong>Zahra Ebrahim</strong>, a co-leader of Doblin’s Canada practice.&nbsp;</p> <h3><a href="http://www.hultprize.org">Learn more about the Hult Prize</a></h3> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Mon, 19 Dec 2016 15:59:24 +0000 lanthierj 102820 at