DU Innovation and Incubation Lab (DU i-Lab), University of Dhaka (DU) in partnership with KolpoKoushol, an initiative of MIT Alumni organized a one day workshop on “Innovation and Creativity” on July 29, 2016 at the Professor Abdul Matin Chowdhury Virtual Class Room (Old Senate Room), VC office, DU.

The objective of the workshop is to foster creativity and innovation among the students from different disciplines e.g. science, humanities, and business through an inter-disciplinary approach, and to embed a culture of problem solving to tackle social and economic challenges in the most innovative way.

Mr. Joe Hyun-Gue, Country Director, KOICA Bangladesh inaugurated the workshop as chief guest. Mr. Joe, in his speech highly appreciated the importance of the DU i-Lab and the activities it is planning to roll out in future. He emphasized that the developing countries like Bangladesh needs to focus on skills development, and a workshop on innovation and creativity will certainly encourage future innovators and thinkers to come up with different innovation to address social and business challenges the country is facing. He mentioned that “KOICA recognizes the great potential Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) sd s critical means of inclusive growth. KOICA sism to support such global development efforts through a three-pronged approach: strengthening STI capacity of partner countries; integrating S &T solutions into KOICA’s ODA projects; fostering and mobilizing STI capacity of private partners in and out of Korea”.

Honorable Vice-Chancellor of the University of Dhaka and Chairman of the DU i-Lab Professor Dr. A A M S Arefin Siddique while speaking with the KOICA country director and faculty members, mentioned the importance innovative thinking to address various social challenges. He also mentioned that the necessity of having innovation labs at the school level across the different parts of the country.

Md. Rashedur Rahman, Director of DU i-Lab and Assistant Professor of the Department of International Business, University of Dhaka moderated the workshop and made a presentation on the role, scope, activities and future plan of the lab. Mr. Rahman while highlighting the importance of inter-disciplinary education, thanked the chief guests, and trainers of the workshop who came all the way from USA’s top business school to conduct the workshop. The workshop was facilitated by Nazmus Saquib, PhD Student, MIT Media Lab, Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed, PhD Candidate, Cornell University, Deeni Fatiha, MBA Student, Harvard Business School and MIT Alumna, and Upol Ehsan, PhD Student, Georgia Institute of Technology.

A total of 75 students from the different discipline e.g. science, humanities, and businesses attended the day long workshops. Faculty members from different departments also attended the inaugural workshop.

Md. Rashedur Rahman

Director of DU i-Lab

     and

Assistant Professor

Department of International Business

University of Dhaka