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.
FAST TRACK? Chinese spouses must renounce their Chinese citizenship and pledge allegiance to Taiwan to gain citizenship, some demonstrators said Opponents and supporters of a bill that would allow Chinese spouses to obtain Taiwanese citizenship in four years instead of six staged protests near the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday morning. Those who oppose the bill proposed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) demanded that Chinese spouses be granted citizenship only after renouncing their Chinese citizenship, passing a citizenship test and pledging allegiance to Taiwan. The demonstrators, who were protesting at a side entrance to the Legislative Yuan on Jinan Road, were mostly members of the Taiwan Association of University Professors and other organizations advocating Taiwanese independence. Supporters of the bill, led
SILENT MAJORITY: Only 1 percent of Chinese rejected all options but war to annex Taiwan, while one-third viewed war as unacceptable, a university study showed Many Chinese are more concerned with developments inside their country than with seeking unification with Taiwan, al-Jazeera reported on Friday. Although China claims Taiwan as its own territory and has vowed to annex it, by force if necessary, 23-year-old Chinese Shao Hongtian was quoted by al-Jazeera as saying that “hostilities are not the way to bring China and Taiwan together.” “I want unification to happen peacefully,” Shao said. Al-Jazeera said it changed Shao’s name to respect his wish for anonymity. If peaceful unification is not possible, Shao said he would prefer “things to remain as they are,” adding that many of his friends feel
Taiwan has “absolute air superiority” over China in its own airspace, Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) told a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee on Monday, amid concern over whether Taipei could defend itself against a military incursion by Beijing. Po made the remarks in response to a question from Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉) on whether Taiwan would have partial or complete air superiority if Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) warplanes were to enter Taiwan’s airspace. Po, a retired pilot, said that the Taiwanese military has “absolute air superiority” over PLA
A shipment of basil pesto imported by Costco Wholesale Taiwan from the US in the middle of last month was intercepted at the border after testing positive for excessive pesticide residue, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. Samples taken from a shipment of the Kirkland Signature brand of basil pesto imported by Costco contained 0.1 milligrams per kilogram of ethylene oxide, exceeding the non-detectable limit. Ethylene oxide is a carcinogenic substance that can be used as a pesticide. The 674kg shipment of basil pesto would either be destroyed or returned to its country of origin, as is the procedure for all