In the finale of GBSN’s reimagined 7 week long virtual program, the GBSN team, in partnership with The Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Research Institute (HUMLOG) at the Hanken School of Economics, are proud to announce the winners of the virtual student competition: The HUMLOG Challenge.
During the month of October, over four hundred (400) students from across the globe, including six continents, worked to identify and frame problems found in supply chains within their local communities.
“We’re incredibly proud of all the students who stepped up to the HUMLOG Challenge,” said Dan LeClair, CEO of the Global Business School Network, “and hope the experience was a meaningful and memorable part of their learning and development over the last month and half.”
The HUMLOG Challenge convened students across various disciplines in a team-oriented virtual competition to drive the development of regional humanitarian logistics solutions. In total, GBSN received 49 submissions from 16 countries, with 22 projects moving forward into the preliminary round of judging. With help from DHL’s Head of Innovations America, Gina Chung, and MIT’s Humanitarian Supply Chain Lab research team, those 22 projects were evaluated to determine the top 5 finalists who would advance to the live presentations round during the week of November 9-13th at the GBSN Beyond virtual conference. Our 5 team finalists (listed below) pitched their problems, solution packages, and successfully answered an intensive round of questions from our esteemed judges.
Team_Houston: PPE Shortage Solution in Harris County, TX
Bauer College of Business, University of Houston
- Derick Del Rio, Undergraduate, Management Information Systems
- Thuy Le, Undergraduate, Supply Chain and Management Information Systems
- Crystal Gamboa, Undergraduate, Supply Chain Management
- Huyen Li, Undergraduate, Supply Chain Management
- Kareen Nguyen, Undergraduate, Supply Chain and Management Information Systems
Team_QUT: Electronic Waste Solution in Colombia
Queensland University of Technology,Australia,
- Jeisson Adrian Valderrama Aguirre — Graduate, Management
- Javier Ramirez Osorio, Graduate
- Juli Katherine Villamil, Graduate
- Kuenzang Choden , Graduate
- Sejal Dhongde, Graduate
Team_Los_Andes:
Solution: Water Supply Chain Solution in La Guajira, Colombia
- From Universidad de Los Andes School of Management in Colombia, we have
- Johary Azizi Perez Duran, Graduate, Supply Chain Management
- Maria de los Angeles Olave Solano, Graduate, Supply Chain Management
- Diana Carolina Amaya Giraldo, Graduate, Supply Chain Management
Team_GIM: Sugar Industry Solution in India
Goa Institute of Management, India
- Navya Khurana, Graduate, Marketing and Finance
- Mohamed Irfan, Graduate, Mechanical Engineering
- Seemakshi Agarwal, Graduate, Economics
- Nipun Allurwar, Graduate, Instrumentation and Control Engineering
- Sartyaki Manna, Graduate, Electrical Engineering
Team_WU: Sars Cov2 Testing Solution in Vienna, Austria
Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria
- Rucha Deshpande, Graduate, Supply Chain Management
- Vanessa Klackl, Graduate, Supply Chain Management
- Markus Domevscek, Graduate, Supply Chain Management
- Michael Pesendorfer, Graduate, Supply Chain Management
- Tobias Damberger, Graduate, Supply Chain Management
The panel of esteemed judges was led by Professor Gyöngyi Kovács, an Erkko Professor in Humanitarian Logistics from the Hanken School of Economics. Joining Professor Kovács are Professor Jarrod Goentzel, Founder and Director of the MIT Humanitarian Supply Chain Lab in the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics, Professor Sherwat Elwan Ibrahim, Director of the MBA and EMBA programs at The American University in Cairo, Professor Tina Wakolbringer from Vienna University of Economics and Business specializing in Supply Chain Management, and finally Mr. Larry St. Onge, President of the Life Sciences and Healthcare sector at DHL.
“I was very impressed by the work of the student teams. Their ability to identify problems relevant for their community, their diligent efforts to understand the root causes of these problems and their creativity in suggesting novel solutions were inspiring” said Professor Tina Wakolbinger, Deputy Head of Institute Vienna University of Economics and Business specializing in Supply Chain Management.
After critiquing the work of the student teams and providing valuable feedback based on criteria such as problem framing, creativity, clarity, and implementation, the judges concluded the top 3 winners of the competition.
In third place is Team Houston and in second place is Team WU, who will each be receiving a unique opportunity for a one-on-one mentoring session with either Larry St. Onge from DHL, Sherwat Ibrahim from the American University of Cairo, or Tina Wakolbinger from Vienna University. This mentoring session could be anything from career advice to how to take the next steps to get their solution off the ground.
And in first place, earning both a mentoring session and the 5,000 USD scholarship award that will contribute to their ongoing education, is Team Los Andes!
Team Los Andes developed a fog catcher system in order to provide sanitized water to the Wayuu indigenous peoples in La Guajira, Colombia, one of the driest and most deserted areas in the country.
“The problem is relevant both overall to the COVID-19 pandemic, and also addresses the context of the indigenous community of the Wayuu of lacking access to safe water for hand washing and hygiene. The link between local weather conditions and using fog catchers as a solution is intriguing. The team has managed to delineate the problem from the user and health authorities’ perspective and ascertain that the solution is technically feasible, and suppliers and materials would exist in the region. The recommended solution overcomes the problem of shipping water, as well as access to safe water. Importantly, the solution is an add-on to the current situation, as alone it does result in the quantities of safe water that would be needed” said Professor Gyöngyi Kovács, Lead Judge of the HUMLOG Challenge student competition and Erkko Professor in Humanitarian Logistics at the Hanken School of Economics and is the Head of Supply Chain Management and Social Responsibility.
GBSN and Hanken School of Economics couldn’t be more impressed with the extraordinary innovation from students that are tackling the most pressing needs of their respective local communities. A guiding principle from the challenge is that all students take away the knowledge that they are the future of the humanitarian logistics and supply chain world. Their work will change lives dramatically and positively. A key outcome of the GBSN Beyond virtual event is sharing the bold efforts of leading business schools to move beyond business and borders to positively impact society to generate inclusive as well as sustainable growth.
ABOUT GBSN:
GBSN is a nonprofit organization harnessing the power of a network of leading business schools to address the critical need for skilled managers, entrepreneurs and leaders for the developing world by increasing access to quality, locally relevant management and entrepreneurship education. Learn more about our networking, knowledge sharing and network opportunities at www.gbsn.org.