New Innovation Leadership Training award
Bangor University Honorary Fellow and Electronic Engineering alumnus, Kailesh Karavadra, is leading a new programme to help enhance the employability of our students. Kailesh is a Senior Partner at Ernst & Young, based in California, and sits on the University’s Council and Alumni Advisory Board.
During the current pilot phase, the Bangor University Innovation Leadership Training (BUILT) programme will partner with the well-established Enterprise by Design (EbD) course which brings together students from different subjects to compete in multi-disciplinary teams on a community challenge. All students are welcome to participate, regardless of their course subject.
This semester’s EbD / BUILT challenge aligns with several of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and Bangor University’s #Bangor25by25 campaign. Teams have been set the challenge to research and understand the food landscape in North Wales - including opportunities for people to produce their own food – and discover and define a specific problem to solve. They will then develop and deliver a concept that addresses the problem they have identified, communicate the challenge and its solution and discuss the potential impact of their proposal on the local food system.
Kailesh explained, “Through BUILT, students will have the chance to experience a start-up organisation environment, role play C-Suite Executives, receive mentoring and support from businesses and alumni, enhance their CV and experience of Innovation and Entrepreneurship and develop an idea that could win them some money for further development. This hands-on experiential learning is a big differentiator for employability as well as gaining access to wonderful mentors while expanding their professional networks.”
Dr Andy Goodman, Director, Pontio Innovation / senior lecturer in design, said, “Enterprise by Design provides an experience of systems and design thinking - students prototype and test an idea to ensure that it meets a user need. Partnering with BUILT, students will gain invaluable experience of commercial realities. At the end of the programme, teams will present their proposals to a panel of judges, who will evaluate the proposals based on their potential impact, feasibility, and overall vision for promoting local food production in North Wales.”
The full program is expected to go live at the start of the next academic year following the learnings from this pilot.