300 undergrad students take KAUST’s STEAM challenge

The three-day STEAM Innovation Challenge took the participants through different levels of the ideation stage, from problem definition to pitching and marketing.

About 300 undergraduate students from 20 Saudi universities from across the Kingdom gathered at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) to compete in the STEAM Innovation Challenge. The 48 participating teams were on a mission to find solutions to challenges affecting the environment, health, smart cities, quality of life and safety and security.
STEAM — science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics — is an annual intensive ideation program which mixed interdisciplinary teams work together to create innovative concepts to solve pressing challenges nationally and globally.
The STEAM challenge, which took place from May 2 to 4, was the seventh at KAUST and the largest yet. This year’s STEAM event was held in partnership with Northrop Grumman, the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) and Elm.
The three-day challenge, which was organized by KAUST Innovation & Economic Development, took the participants through different levels of the ideation stage from problem definition to pitching and marketing. The student teams pitched their ideas on the final afternoon panel of judges, with awards given to the top three teams.
“We designed the STEAM Innovation Challenge to inspire youth in Saudi Arabia on a national scale by immersing them in an intensive innovation experience,” said Hattan Ahmed, head of KAUST Entrepreneurship Center. “The students addressed real challenges around the topic of sustainable cities, crafted in collaboration with our corporate partners.”
The winning teams were iCare, a bracelet to monitor pilgrims’ vitals and report accidents to health- care providers for a better Hajj experience; Cure, which works to incentivize the collection of unused household medications for distribution to relief organizations for better living; and EHFADHHA, demand-prediction software for food retailers.
The STEAM Innovation Challenge is offered to university students by KAUST in partnership with Saudi universities, large companies and non-profit organizations. The program is designed to engage students in mixed interdisciplinary teams to create innovative concepts that solve particular challenges. By partnering with the student populations of KAUST and select Saudi universities, the program offers an opportunity to showcase and support Saudi student-led innovation.
The event also serves as a networking platform, where students can connect with experts from partner organizations as well as meet and collaborate with students from different Saudi universities.