The 2019 Hult Prize-GBA Innovation Challenge was held at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen (CUHK-Shenzhen) in May 24-26. The focus was on three social challenges nowadays, intergenerational harmony, economic empowerment, and barrier-free accessibility. 240 college students, 54 teams from 25 colleges and universities in the Greater Bay Area (GBA) were invited to participate in the competition. Three teams,  STAR, Millionaires and G-knot have won the champion, second winner and third winner separately.

Group Photo of Closing Ceremony

Hult Prize is honored as one of the "five global creative ideas" by Time Magazine. It is a global initiative for budding young social entrepreneurs from leading universities and colleges around the world to sustainably solve the world’s most critical social challenges. In the last decade, Hult Prize has invested more than $50 million into social innovation through these global activities and encouraged more than a million young people to rethink the future of business. Hult Prize cultivates innovative and revolutionary ideas in colleges and universities of more than 100 countries.

Over the past few years, Hult Prize has become the biggest student competition worldwide. With a strong focus towards the Greater Bay Area, Hult Prize Greater China is a new addition to the global map this year. Co-organized by Hult Prize Greater China and CUHK-Shenzhen, the challenge aims to build up a societal community in the area and to inspire young talents to create profitable business plans.

The opening ceremony was formally held at 1:00 p.m. on May 24. The organizer invited Mr. Xu Dingkai, the head of the Greater China Region, and Professor Michael Ferguson, Senior Associate Dean of School of Management and Economics, CUHK-Shenzhen to give an opening speech. The two speakers both mentioned that Social Innovation was the general trend of the times, and the development of the Greater Bay Area would provide more opportunities for the talents here. They hoped that students could grasp the opportunities and explore their potential. They also mentioned that this experience was unique for networking, the students should cherish this opportunity and maintain the contacts, treating it as one of the most precious resource in their life journeys.

Professor Gordon Lam from the School of Management and Economics, CUHK-Shenzhen said that the Hult Prize had provided a creative and innovative platform internationally. He hoped the students of the Greater Bay Area could have more entrepreneurial opportunities globally through this platform. He also pointed out that players from more districts were the highlight of this year. Besides, English was used in the whole competition, and so students should be fluent in English as well.  Many players were well prepared when they presented their business models to match the topics perfectly. “The business models and their proposals were of strong feasibility in solving some of the social problems”, commented by Mr. S.C. Mak from Hong Kong Venture Capital and Private Equity Association. He also praised the players for their passion, creativity and solutions to the social problems of Shenzhen.

240 students from 25 universities and institutions

Champion-STAR

The Millionaires team composed of students from CUHK-Shenzhen received the second prize. The team members are Ke Junyu, from SSE, Dilligentia College, Wang Juntao from SSE, Harmonia College, Wang Yaxuan from SME, Shaw College, Huang Yuxuan, from SME, Harmonia College, and Li Wanyu, from Financial Engineering, Shaw College. 

Chen Ke, from SME, Harmonia College, is a member of the team G-knot, which won the third prize. 

The Second Prize Winner--Team Millionaires from CUHK-Shenzhen 

Group photo of the judge

For more details about the challenge and participants of CUHK-Shenzhen, please scan below QR code to watch MAXFC video.