Four teams of young Malaysian entrepreneurs finalists in worldwide competition

SUZHOU, China, Dec. 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- On 14 December, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University's Entrepreneur College (Taicang) in China, in partnership with start-up incubator XbotPark (Changzhou), will hold the finals of its Global Entrepreneurial Dream-chasers Competition.

The event will bring together 16 student teams from academic institutions around the globe to pitch their innovative ideas based on furthering the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). Four teams from Malaysia – all from Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL) – are among the finalists.

The entries were whittled down to 16 from 64, and the finalists' projects cover a range of solutions from water filtration to personal safety devices.

Malaysian students showcase their innovations

• A team led by Muhammad Nur Firdaus Bin Mohd from UniKL Business School is working on disposable water filtering straws that can allow people to instantly drink safely from anywhere at any time.
• Another team, led by Muhammad Afiq Bin Shamsudin from UniKL Malaysian Institute of Industrial Technology, came up with an environmentally friendly disposable packaging material made from mycelium, which is a threadlike part of many fungi. Mycelium is biodegradable and safe for consumption, and the material is cost-effective, especially in Malaysia, because mycelium fungi are widely planted in the country.
• With a focus on personal safety, Sir Mohd Nasrul Hakim Bin Jalaludin and his team from UniKL Business School proposed a new type of pepper spray that combines pepper liquid, an alarm, an electrical shock function and a tracker. This product is sustainable and built with smart technologies.
• The fourth Malaysian team entered the finals with their Smartech Bin. The team, led by Ili Maisarah Binti Mohd Faizal from UniKL Business School, aims to provide a more hygienic way to dispose of used sanitary pads, preventing the associated disease transmission among women.

Dream-chasers

XJTLU Entrepreneur College (Taicang)'s Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Hub, together with its industry partner XbotPark (Changzhou), will provide the winning projects with up to CNY 500,000 seed funding by XbotPark (Changzhou), the XJTLU Scholarship for the MSc Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme, and entrepreneurship guidance from mentors.