Startups Spark Solutions: UITS Innovators Win Seed Grants for Tech-Based Ideas
With practical, tech-driven solutions to real-life problems, three innovation teams from the University of Information Technology and Sciences (UITS) — Peltier, Sound Vision, and Cloud — were awarded certificates of recognition and declared winners of a pre-seed fund. The victorious students were collectively granted a funding waiver worth BDT 170,000.
The Peltier team, consisting of Asif Mahmud, Nusrat Jahan Anni, K M Zakaria, and Jihadul Jarif Siam, won the Cohort-1 championship and received BDT 70,000 for designing a low-cost, energy-efficient temperature control module for poultry farms. The Sound Vision team — Ishraq Chowdhury, Syed Jisan Ahmed, Kazi Md. Azhar Uddin, and Sumaiya Binte Ismail — became the Cohort-2 champion, earning BDT 60,000 for developing smart glasses capable of facial recognition and real-time audiobook conversion for visually impaired individuals. The Cloud team, comprising Motaleb Hossain Imon, Redwanul Karim Abid, Md. Ibrahim, and Sharmin Ema, was awarded BDT 40,000 under Innovation Cohort 3 (IC3) for their project "Scrap Venture."
The awards were officially presented on March 14 at the UITS Baridhara campus by the university’s Institutional Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC). On May 6, the financial grants were formally announced by Monzur Mohammad Shahriar, Project Director of the “Digital Entrepreneurship and Innovation Ecosystem Development” project under the Bangladesh Hi-Tech Park Authority (BHTPA).
Speaking as the chief guest at the seminar, Monzur Mohammad Shahriar stated, “Universities have a vital role in preparing students for the IT/ITES sector. Effective collaboration between industry and academia is essential to ensure practical education.” He also emphasized involving startup founders in the University Innovation Hub to better engage students and young entrepreneurs.
The seminar was chaired by UITS Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr. Md. Abu Hasan Bhuiyan. Special guest Professor Dr. Siraj Uddin Ahmed, Treasurer, was also present. Engineer Md. Safayet Hossain, Director of IQAC, presented the keynote paper outlining the goals, structure, and student opportunities within the UIHP program.
Other notable attendees included Professor Dr. Md. Ashraful Islam, Dean of the Faculty of Science and Engineering; Md. Al Imtiaz, Head of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering; Md. Saiyed Fazle Farhan, Program Manager of UIHP; Kazi Akib, Business Development Manager at BRAC CED and UIHP mentor; Hasibul Hossain Rifat, Founder and CEO of Astronomy Pathshala; and Sumaiya Matiatur, Head of Communications at UIU.
