When 19-year-old student Gary Chien (簡瑞廷) and four of his team members from New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) signed up for the Hult Global Case Challenge, little did they know that their efforts would culminate in the presentation of an award by a former US president and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate — or that their proposal could improve the lives of countless people in Africa.
The annual competition, hosted by the Hult Business School in partnership with the Clinton Global Initiative and the Innovation, Excellence and Leadership Center, is described as the world’s largest crowd-sourcing platform for social good. Its goal is to challenge teams of students from around the world to submit solutions to achieve the social and economic development goals of top non-governmental organizations in the areas of energy, education and housing.
Chien’s team, which included sophomores from India, China, Pakistan and an NYU alumnus from Canada, won the top award for their solution to provide solar lighting to 1 million households in Africa by next year.
Photo courtesy of the Hult International Business School
About 4,000 teams from more than 130 countries entered the international competition this year. Chien’s team was selected for its plan to create a strong network for after-sale customer care and maintenance for solar lamps. They conducted two research trips to Ethiopia and Kenya, during which they established the importance of building trust within rural communities, NYUAD said in a press release.
The NGO SolarAid, which aims to eradicate the use of kerosene lamps in Africa by the end of the decade, will use its share of a US$1 million grant to implement the team’s plan.
Presenting the award to Chien’s team in New York last week, former US president Bill Clinton pointed to the importance of what the winners’ home countries could learn from such global cooperation. To cap things off, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, the world renowned Bangladeshi economist, handed them the trophy.
In an e-mail to the Taipei Times yesterday, the maths and physics major also expressed his pride in being able to represent his country abroad.
“When [former] president Clinton announced us as the winner, he also mentioned each of our nationalities,” he said. “I felt honored, as a Taiwanese, to be able to bring my country onto a global platform where everyone is devoted to changing the world.”
“I find it very interesting that our team consists of a Taiwanese, Chinese, Pakistani, Indian and a Canadian. We come from countries that are perceived as conflicting, and yet we could collaborate as a team and try to impact people on the other side of the world,” Chien wrote.
In his second year of studies, Chien — who graduated from the Affiliated High School of National Taiwan Normal University before moving on to NYUAD — said he would likely go straight to graduate school after college, with a possible return to his country of birth afterwards.
“I’d be more than willing to go back and work in Taiwan to contribute my share to the country where I was born and raised,” he said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck off Tainan at 11:47am today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 32.3km northeast of Tainan City Hall at a depth of 7.3km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Tainan and Chiayi County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and County, and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Kaohsiung, Nantou County, Changhua County, Taitung County and offshore Penghu County, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated