Congrats to the winning teams!

Social Innovation Pitching Competition 
APRU SDG4GC program 2022-2023

On March 20th, 2023, the panel of UN judges announced “You-aid” as the winner of the competition. The project was pitched by Team D under the mentorship by Dr. Qian Wang. “The Wisdom College”, the project idea from Team E under the mentorship of Mr. Savinda Ranathunga, was named runner-up. 

The Social Innovation Pitching Competition was the culminating event of APRU SDG Education for Global Citizenship Program 2022-2023. Toward the competition, students worked together in a team spirit and gained real experience of communicating their ideas addressing SDGs and global wellbeing.

Students learned design thinking key five steps, namely, Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test. Based on which they worked out their own unique topics and approaches creating their projects for this competition.

The eight projects entered the competition were: 

  • The MH Nook 
  • 15-MINUTE COMMUNITY
  • The Redress of Climate Injustice
  • You–Aid (Winner!)
  • Wisdom College (Runner-up!)
  • Diabetes Algorithm
  • Use of Cotton Candy and Communal Cultivation centers for short term and long term solutions
  • WeVolve University Mental Health App

“I really want to applaud all teams. Everyone did such a fantastic job. All of you should be very proud of yourselves”said Ms. Marisa Panyachiva, the judge from UN Resident Coordinator Office in Thailand. “I hope that your idea won’t stop at this competition. You can continue developing your ideas and even consult among each other and see how you can bring these ideas forward and make them into reality. As the UN, we realize that partnerships are essential. We are not going to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals just on our own. It is not only UN’s SDGs but it is really everyone’s SDGs. It belongs to everyone and young people are central to solution and building changes” she said.  

Winner and runner-up team will be awarded with a week-long onsite training opportunity in Bangkok, Thailand. The program to be hosted by Chulalongkorn University will include training at the Chulalongkorn University’s Innovation Hub, offering field trips to spin-off companies and startups in a rural community to learn innovative practices. Students will also have an opportunity to participate as observers at the UNESCAP “79th Session of the Commission”, the most important annual event of UNESCAP. Further details will be provided to all team members.