Izah Azahari
Team Pitchr was awarded BND2,000 on Sunday for their winning entry ‘Smart Compost Gamification’, in the Shell LiveWIRE Hackathon held in conjunction with Shell LiveWIRE’s 20th anniversary.
Team RecOil received BND1,500 with their idea on turning used cooking oil into renewable energy as the first runner-up and Electrack team received BND1,000 with their idea for an app that tracts electricity usage at third place.
Pedalling-it-out team received an honorary mention with their electrical bike for public convenience idea.
The competition, held on April 9-11 at the Banquet Hall of Progresif HQ Building, served to confirm Shell’s commitment to responding to the changing of global needs
Shell LiveWIRE is focussing on supporting budding entrepreneurs by providing a platform to generate opportunities to learn, network, collaborate and produce results as part of the process.
The three-day LiveWIRE Hackathon is designed to stimulate participants entrepreneurial capacity to work together and develop suitable solutions from a broader perspective focussing on five core areas – agrotechnology, waste management, digitalisation, smart manufacturing and energy transition.
All 40 participants comprising higher education institutions students such as Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD), Universiti Teknologi Brunei (UTB), Politeknik Brunei, Universiti Islam Sultan Sharif Ali (UNISSA) and Institute of Brunei Technical Education (IBTE) are expected to take into consideration the softer components such as reshaping business strategies and processes to derive the value of the Industrial Revolution (IR) 4.0 prospects.
Besides counsellors from LiveWIRE Brunei, experts from corperations such as Brunei Shell Petroleum Co Sdn Bhd (BSP), DARe (Darussalam Enterprise), Progresif Sdn Bhd and S&R Aquafarm were invited to mentor participants to further refine their ideas and validate their business proposals.
Eight teams successfully pitched their ideas to a panel of judges including Social Investment Lead of BSP Haziq Abdullah Lim, Programme Director of Shell LiveWIRE (B) Sdn Bhd Haji Abdul Yusrin bin Dato Seri Laila Jasa Haji Mohd Salleh, Chief Corporate Strategy Officer of Progresif Johan bin Dato Dr Haji Johar, and DARe Startup Development Manager Reuben Chin.
Chairperson of Shell LiveWIRE and BSP In-Country Value Manager of Brunei Shell Petroleum Sdn Bhd Hajah Rosita binti Haji Hassan also joined the judges during the deliberation of the final pitches based on their feasibility, commercial value, team composition, innovation, financial prospects and business’ alignment to the five core areas.
Participants are expected to be well-equipped with the knowledge gained from the event and produce business ideas that can lead to business opportunities worth the further investment and to be carried forward through LiveWIRE programmes such as LiveWIRE Top Ten Innovator and Business Awards.
The event was also supported by Strategic Partner, Progresif and Ecosystem Partner, DARe.