FICS concludes at NUST

Islamabad : Grand finale and prize distribution ceremony of ‘Finding Innovative & Creative Solutions for Society’ (FICS 2022), a platform to foster social entrepreneurship, was held at National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST).

The overall winner of FICS ’22, organised by Innovation & Commercialisation Office, was Team “Mine Information Modelling (MIM)” from NUST Institute of Geographical Systems, NUST School of Civil & Environmental Engineering.

The team emerged victorious from amongst 395 project ideas pitched during the 3-stage competition. The winning project revolves around integrated BIM-GIS application that can be effectively used for asset management, having detailed and intelligent design incorporating various aspects of an asset.

The winning team was awarded a cash prize of PKR 250,000/-, sponsored by National Radio Telecommunication Corporation (NRTC). In addition, 2nd & 3rd prizes, and 4 winners of Special Categories in SGDs were awarded cash prizes of Rs150,000, Rs100,000 and Rs25,000 each, respectively.

Team ‘Environmental Prediction through Satellite’ from Egypt stood first amongst the international contestants and was awarded a Global Champion Award of $1,000, sponsored by Walled City Co. A total of 80+ finalist teams of FICS ’22 demonstrated their prototypes of technology-based innovative solutions to a panel of 20+ industry judges. The winning teams have also been awarded 6-month free incubation space at TechOne – NUST’s Incubation Centre.

FICS is fortunate to have patronage from a diverse set of industries, which includes seed fund for the promising projects.

In his welcome address, Pro-Rector Research, Innovation & Commercialisation (RIC) at NUST, Dr Rizwan Riaz, emphasised the role of science & technology universities in improving the lives of communities at large. He maintained that the initiative has come a long way as a viable platform for deployment and commercialisation of students’ technology-based ideas.

Senior advisor to HBL on Information Technology, Amir Mateen, commended NUST efforts for building trust between industry and university. He was extremely pleased with the quality of prototypes displayed at the grand finale.

Addressing the audience, he said that FICS is a perfect example of entrepreneurial ecosystem, consisting of many critical components, including international and national partners. He extended his compliments to FICS ’22 finalists, particularly the winners for pulling through the rigorous 3-stage competition.