Norman Wong (SMU YIC)

Dare to Dream

The Entrepreneurship Club sent a team of 4 members to participate in the 2017 Singapore Management University (SMU) Youth Innovation Challenge organised by SMU’s Institute of Innovation & Challenge. It was a platform for students to showcase their ideas, business plans, entrepreneurial talents and attract seed funding to further their business ambitions as well as extend their network of friends and business contacts through the competition.

During this challenge, we demonstrated entrepreneurial dare. We aspired to empower people to save the environment without compromising their daily lifestyles. For this reason, we came up with ZEUS, a product which capitalised on the rising trend of high-rise buildings adopted by various governments and private corporations around the world. Using the principle of energy conservation, ZEUS converts the kinetic energy generated from throwing rubbish down the chutes in high-rise buildings to electrical energy, thus generating electricity.

The journey to make ZEUS a success was a challenging one. This competition required us to apply marketing and entrepreneurial skills which we had to hone. We also needed to manage our schedules and priorities within a short span of time. Needless to say, there were times when the going got tough, but we persevered as a team. We were all very proud of our business proposal, crafted under the guidance of Mr Kevin Ong, the founder of Chewy Junior. Our efforts eventually paid off as we clinched the Best Innovation Award (Technology).

This award is made possible by the effort and dedication of each and every team member, Mr Kevin Ong and our teachers, Mr Vincent Chan, Ms Mada, Mr Koh Siong Yang and Ms Poh Lilin. They played a vital role during this journey in guiding us to transform our business idea into reality. This award is indeed, a celebration of our teamwork and a recognition of our entrepreneurial dare.