FINDING INNOVATIVE & CREATIVE SOLUTIONS FOR SOCIETY (FICS’20) CONCLUDES AT NUST

Islamabad Tuesday October 13, 2020 – Grand Finale & Prize Distribution Ceremony of Finding Innovative & Creative Solutions for Society (FICS 2020), a platform to foster social entrepreneurship, was held at National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST) here on Tuesday. Despite pandemic situation caused by Covid, extraordinary measures were taken to conduct this event safely. The overall winner of FICS ’20 was Team Cyber Guard, who emerged victorious from amongst 231 project ideas pitched during the 3-stage competition. Cyber Guard monitors and protect the pilferage and exfiltration of sensitive organization data, either at rest or at motion. The winning team was awarded a cash prize of PKR 100,000/-, sponsored by Army Welfare Trust. In addition, three runners up teams and three special prizes in SGDs were awarded PKR 20,000, each. A total of 31 finalist teams of FICS ’20 demonstrated their prototypes of technology-based innovative solutions to 04 panels of judges.
Apart from the Prototype Development Fund sponsored by the National Radio Telecommunication Corporation (NRTC), FICS is fortunate to have patronage for 14 SDG categories from a diverse set of industries. FICS ’20 sponsors and partners included National Radio and Telecommunication Corporation (NRTC), Army Welfare Trust (AWT), Reenergia, Arkhitech, Alfoze Technologies Pvt. Ltd. and Graana.
Addressing the audience, the chief guest, Lt Gen Naweed Zaman, HI (M), (Retd), Rector NUST, emphasised on the role of Science & Technology Universities in improving the lives of communities through technological intervention. He said FICS is a perfect example of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, consisting of many critical components and working quite efficiently in unison to create the desired output. He added that the initiative has now come a long way as a viable platform for deployment and commercialisation of students’ technology-based ideas. He also protracted his compliments to the finalists of FICS’20 and wished them success in future endeavours.
Winning teams have been give 06 months of free incubation space at TechOne Incubation centre at NUST.