They received international acclaim by coming in the top three teams presenting innovative and business ideas, among 25 competing teams from across the world. They were also the proud winners of the previously held grand challenges; 'Discover: NUST Business Plan Competition' and 'Lean Startup Machine Conference' in Pakistan.
The 2nd Global Entrepreneurship summit featured technology ideas competition titled 'GIST Battle of Ideas World Cup' organised jointly by US state department and CRDF Global. It selected the best technology and business ideas on the basis of innovation and feasibility. The selected ideas were then uploaded on the internet for global voting. The idea presented by these youngsters from NUST topped this round of the competition in the entire world becoming the 20th most watched video on YouTube.
On December 2, they were invited to participate in the Global Summit under the theme 'Entrepreneurship, Values and Development: A Global Agenda', hosted by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In this context, 275 Muslim entrepreneurs from 59 countries participated in the Summit. Along with that, US Vice President Joe Biden, Endeavor Co-founder and CEO Linda Rottenberg delivered keynote addresses on the occasion. The participants received rigorous trainings with speaker sessions and mentorship from MIT professors and venture capitalists from Silicon Valley.
There were two NUST teams among the eleven teams to be selected for the semi-finals on 4th Dec. The Nustians proved their mettle once more by making it to the final round. Grand finale was held on the next day where the finalists pitched their ideas in front of an illustrious panel of eleven judges from around the world. They came with an amazing amount of energy, passion, and commitment to see their projects through. One NUST team comprising Bilal and Fahd received immense adulation and praise for making to the victory stand by coming in the world top three teams.
They were also among the two teams who were sponsored by the US State Department for a trip to Silicon Valley, California, to meet with venture capitalists and technology firms. In addition to it, they were awarded cash prize of US$5,000.
This has been the culmination of NUST pioneer venture at National level to encourage and support entrepreneurship through Prime Minister's entrepreneurship challenge 2011. In it more than 1200 participants from 30 universities across Pakistan participated. The competition was conducted in phases spanning over 6-7 months. Good number of mentors from academia, industry and business sector contributed usefully.