Anant National University Announces The Grand Finale Of Question.Engage.Design (QED)

Bangalore: Anant National University(AnantU) will host an online grand finale of Question.Engage.Design (QED), a national level design competition for students and young entrepreneurs, on Sunday, 21st June 2020. The finalists will get the chance to win prizes worth Rs 5 Lakhs. The jury for the grand finale comprises some of the leading entrepreneurs, innovators, corporate leaders and academics of the country like, Sanjay Banerjee, Subhrangshu Sanyal, Jagadeesh Sunkad, Somesh Bhagat, Srikant Sastri, Anubha Kakroo, Amit Gulati and Miniya Chatterji.

With a view to encourage young minds to apply design thinking and curate creative solutions to real life challenges, AnantU announced QED earlier this year. Participants were asked to identify real life challenges and recommend solutions for the same. The university will host the final round of the competition on the virtual meeting platform zoom. Viewers can watch the final round live by registering through the links. For the final round between young professionals, viewers can register here. To the ones who would want to witness the competition between students can register here. The final round will be aired live on the Facebook handle of the university.

The design competition witnessed participation from over 100 students and 30 young entrepreneurs from all over the country. The first stage of the preliminary round invited video submissions and a short note from students on their solution. After the conclusion of the first stage of the preliminary round, thirty student participants were shortlisted, who were required to submit a short essay of 1000 – 1500 words for the next round. These essays covered the problem identified, the detailed account of the workings of the prototype/solution, the materials used and the impact of the design. Contestants also included photographs and drawings of the proposed model with their essay.

The solutions were evaluated on the basis of the impact on society, sustainability, scalability and other relevant aspects. For the final round, a total of 18 entries have been selected out of which 10 were from the group of students and 8 from the young entrepreneurs. The concern areas and the solutions presented ranged across sectors –

• Anuya Desai a student from NMIMS design school submitted a project on the adverse effects of fast fashion on the industry and ways to cope with it

• Urooj Iqbal from MITS Gwalior highlighted the “Eco-textile techno Hub- Revitalisation of textile culture of Gwalior”

• Bhawna Saini, a young professional from Gwalior presented her project called SOTIYO which will help farmers to adopt regenerative farming, streamline certifications, create their co-operatives and host own FMCG marketplace.

• Suganthan Annadurai, a development practitioner cum researcher and a strong advocator of youth in governance from Tamil Nadu is addressing the developmental needs of children and has  proposed to solve the same through children panchayats

All the participants were mentored by a group of experts associated with AnantU. Talking about the competition, Dr. Anunaya Chaubey, Provost, Anant National University, said, “India’s youth has a massive burden to face and conquer some of the greatest challenges for humanity. The QED contest is an initiative to instill in the youth a habit to apply design thinking and seek solutions to societal, economic and environmental problems. We congratulate all our participants who have set out on the path to become solutionaries.”