Najmuzzaman Mohammad (YES’08), who is currently based in Bangalore participated in an event named Unleash Lab 2018 from 30th May to 6th June 2018 in Singapore which was an innovation lab where 1000 talents from more than 110 countries came together to build solutions aligned to the UN Sustainability Development Goals. He was a part of the “Quality Education” track and their team came up with an app that recommends parents of 3-5-year-olds experiential activities that they can do with their kids for their emotional and social development.
The talents went through a facilitated process of innovation, uniquely tailored by UNLEASH and Deloitte. They formed teams to explore real-life challenges within the eight SDG themes; Food, Health, Education & ICT, Water, Energy, Urban Sustainability, Responsible Supply Chain and Consumption, and Climate Action. The themes were explored from multiple angles, before defining specific problems and developing preliminary solutions. These solutions were tested with leading experts and company partners and refined.
At the end of this rapid-fire innovation process, each team of talents had a draft SDG solution, implementation plan, and presentation – making them ready for their pitches.
On June 5, all teams presented their solutions. On the final day of UNLEASH, the Closing Ceremony took place. All talents and UNLEASH partners came together, and innovators and thought leaders celebrated their work. Five winners were picked to receive special awards and to pitch in front of all attendees.
Attendees experienced talks by the President of Singapore, Mdm Halimah Yacob, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, José Ramos-Horta, UNDP Innovation Champion and robot, Sophia, actor and UNESCO Special Envoy, Forest Whitaker, and CEO of DBS Bank, Piyush Gupta.