Integrating People with Disabilities- 2020 Winter Technology & Management International Business Plan Competition (IBPC) in Brazil
2020 Winter Technology & Management International Business Plan Competition (IBPC) was held at São Paulo, Sao Carlos and Brotas, Brazil from 5 to 14 January to explore how modern technologies help integrate people with disabilities into society.
12 Dual Degree Program in Technology & Management (T&M-DDP) students formed mixed teams with students from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign of USA, University of Bayreuth of Germany and University of Sao Paulo of Brazil. Each team made up of students from 4 universities was required to create a business plan to help people with disabilities to integrate into the society within the 10-day competition under the guidance of professors and industry mentors.
Students visited Rehabilitation Center Lucy Montoro and Paralympic Training Center to understand the needs and difficulties faced by people with disabilities. They also attended workshops on design thinking and innovation ecosystem of Brazil; and got insights from experts in the fields of rehabilitation and physiotherapy through sharing. Teams prepared their proposals and presented to a group of judges consisted of professors and field experts at the final presentation and received constructive feedbacks to improve their pitching skills and business plans.
About The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) (www.ust.hk) is a world-class research university that focuses on science, technology and business as well as humanities and social science. HKUST offers an international campus, and a holistic and interdisciplinary pedagogy to nurture well-rounded graduates with global vision, a strong entrepreneurial spirit and innovative thinking. HKUST attained the highest proportion of internationally excellent research work in the Research Assessment Exercise 2014 of Hong Kong’s University Grants Committee, and is ranked as the world’s best young university in Times Higher Education’s Young University Rankings 2019. Its graduates were ranked 16th worldwide and top in Greater China in Global University Employability Survey 2018.
