February, 2021
Volume V, Issue III
Spring XXI
EMBA students win big at international business competition Samin Mahmud Khan Journalist Sakib Ahmed, Abu Sifat Mahmud, and Md Abrar Ul Hoque of Team Roots are Brac University EMBA students who made their names known by becoming the first runners-up in the 2014 HULT prize (On-campus). Now, they have taken it a step further, by winning the Disrupt to Sustain (D2S) 2020 pitch competition. D2S, hosted by The Bard MBA in sustainability (the world’s leading green MBA program), is a business competition that encourages pragmatic ideas from entrepreneurial rebels, with the objective of solving the globe’s most alarming issues. Team Roots, with its three former BracU undergraduates and EMBA students, continued their past project on early childhood education (ECE) in Bangladesh’s slums and cemented themselves as first place winners in New York on December 13th, winning USD 1500. Their participation in this global event was induced by BracU’s recent engagement with the Open Society Network University (OSUN). The social entrepreneurship practice, co-taught by the German Associate Professor Dr Sebastian Groh in cohesion with other professors from abroad, all helped guide Team Roots through their victorious run. The team’s journey all started when the three friends conducted field visits to lay the foundation of their project. Now, after countless day-long pitching sessions, they stand as victors among the 25 international teams. “Picking the right team member is crucial along with determination when pursuing such competitions,” said Sifat when asked about their success story. Sakib encouraged more BracU students to participate in these competitions as he stated, “We had to participate in a lot of competitions to get our first big break. BracU students are as competitive globally as they are domestically”. Another team, MEDIQ, from BracU also qualified for this competition.
Team Roots
School of Law wins International Competition Khwaja Zohura Zanzabil Journalist The BRAC University moot team won the Champions Trophy at the Second International Humanitarian Law Moot Court Competition 2020. The virtual contest took place from December 18th to December 19th and was organised by the Network for International Law Students (NILS) Bangladesh and the Center for the Study of Genocide and Justice, Liberation War Museum. With judges and 29 teams from both Bangladesh and abroad participating in the competition, the event was inaugurated by Mr. Justice Iman Ali, Honourable Justice of Appellate Division, with Madame Justice Naima Haider attending as the chief guest in the closing ceremony. The Brac University moot team consisted of Sanjida Haider Suha (Senior, SOL), Islam Ahmmed Chisty (Senior, SOL), and Sadat Uddin Ahmed (Senior, SOL), with Assistant Professor Md Mostafa Hosain as the team’s coach and guide. Out of the 29 participating teams, Brac University made it to the penultimate round alongside North South University (NSU). In the final round, the BRAC University team earned high scores from all three judges and defeated the NSU team to become the victors of the competition, with Sadat Uddin Ahmad being awarded as the third best researcher.
OSUN courses for Brac University Imrul Chowdhury Journalist Open Society University Network (OSUN) is an international network of academic institutions that combines both learning and development of knowledge, concentrating in social sciences, humanities, sciences, and arts. The expansion of this network is for both undergraduate and postgraduate levels across countries all over the globe. Courses range from different topics like Law and Human Rights, Anthropology, Literature, History, Environmental Studies, Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Engineering. Central European University’s Summer University has recently started taking applications from OSUN students, faculty, staff, and community partners for its 2021 online summer courses. These courses will be offered online during the month of June and July, and are going to be conducted by international teams of scholars and practitioners. Several courses are developed and will be jointly taught as OSUN partnerships globally, and contribute to current on-going initiatives and affiliations as well. It is to be mentioned that these online courses are tuition-free for institutions that are OSUN partners and affiliates. Brac University joined OSUN as an inaugural member, since BracU’s vision to be the international University of Bangladesh connects with the idea of OSUN to build global academic partnerships. Recently, BracU offered its students to take OSUN courses as this will work as a supplement to university learning. These OSUN transcripts and certification will to the academic profile of the participating students; it will be showing that they have engaged in systematic study through an international university network.
From Left to Right: Jonathan Becker, Leon Bostein, Vincent Chang