Award giving ceremony of Fem Tech Challenge held

The award giving ceremony of Fem Tech Challenge was held virtually on 13 February.

The MakerLab of EMK Center has launched a two-year long campaign titled "She Can STEM" earlier this year to facilitate women's success in STEM Education, Career, and Entrepreneurial Opportunities, said a press release.

As a part of this Campaign, EMK Center initiated a competition "Fem Tech Challenge" last November 2021 to encourage women to generate ideas, develop digital and online services that provide real value for the members of these important communities.

The programme ended through the award giving ceremony of final Pitch Presentation where the finalists presented their startup models elaborately.

The participants came up with a wide range of ideas based on technology which can solve the rising problems around us.

Among 64 applicants, top 9 finalist were selected who got the opportunity to pitch how practical and implementable their startup idea was.

Their ideas and startup models ranged from medical, education, tourism, law, healthcare to transportation problem-solving which included highly advanced and luminary technologies like machine learning, brain computer interface, piezoelectric technology etc.

Participants of this competition got guidance throughout December 2021 from talented and resourceful facilitators and mentors to build their project model successfully.

Among the mentors were Nile A Rahman, country director of Simprints, Syed Rubayyat Akbar, senior consultant of Booz Allen Hamilton, Shah Md Arafat Hossain, UX Manager of Redlime Solutions, Partha Sarker, project manager of Women In Digital, and Moumita Mahfuz, team Lead of Women In Digital.

The guests of the closing and award-giving ceremony were Asif Uddin Ahmed, assistant professor of ULAB and acting director of EMK Center, Achia Khaleda Nila, founder of Women in Digital.

The event was moderated by Farjana Ali, project manager of WID.

Nile appreciated EMK Center and Women in Digital for arranging such programs because women in STEM will boost up our economy as they consist 50% of the total population and he was impressed with the maturity of all projects presented in the final.

Asif shared his thoughts and insights about the importance of Women contribution in STEM Sector.

He mentioned, "There are many women in Bangladesh who cannot succeed for the lack of opportunities and assistance. These minds have the ability to change our world with their innovation and ideas only if we could reach out to them."

Shamsun Nahar Leepi, EMK MakerLab Outreach Officer of EMK Center, shared the collaboration opportunities available in EMK MakerLab to the finalists.

 Achia Nila, the pioneer in Women in STEM sector, declared the winners of competition and wished to see all venture of the participants being used in solving Bangladeshi problems.

The Top 10 teams are: We're Able, Bhai Thamen, Neuro V, Wonder Women, Pink Buddy, Legal Service, Nora- Real-time biofilm detection device, Xero_Extended, and Plant Easy.

Finally, Shohana Afsana Promi, undergrad student of Department of Microbiology and Biotechnology of BRAC University, declared as the winner for her project "Xero_Extended" which will provide a one-stop smart healthcare system with a combination of embedded system, IoT environment and machine learning for rural healthcare betterment.

The first Runner up was Farsia Kawsar Chowdhury, undergrad student of Department of Mechanical Engineering, BUET, with her idea  "NeuroV" which will address road safety problems with Machine learning and Brain-Computer Interface.

 Hafsa Jarin Snigdha, undergrad student of Department of Microbiology of IUB, secured the 2nd runner up position for her venture plan "NORA", A Healthcare Solution.

It is worth mentioning that Farsia and Hafsa were top performer of EMK MakerLab's training programme "Women Techpreneur 2021".