Stepping Up To The Challenge With Alibaba Get Global Challenge

Jun 2020

By Lim Vin Tsen 

HELP University is proud to announce that three proposals from ELM Graduate School students have been selected for Phase 2 by a team of international panel of judges for the Alibaba GET Global Challenge Competition. Of the three teams, two teams, FOODXLESS and HoList, had successfully made it to the Semi-Final Round of the Challenge. In a recent email interview, the team FOODXLESS, comprising Piong Mei Jun (Team Leader), Wong Hui Man, Kirankumar, and Sharanappa Ronand, shared their thoughts and challenges involved about the competition. 

From left to right: Piong Mei Jun, Team Leader, Masters of Entrepreneurship, Wong Hui Man, Masters in Philosophy (Mphil), Kirankumar Ronald, Masters of Business Administration

The name FOODXLESS was created in agreement with all three team members. Piong Mei explained, “We came into agreement with the group name, FoodXLESS because the name itself tells the concept of the business goal of the Challenge, which is to “reduce food wastage by wasting less.” Therefore, we want to subtly increase civic mindness among individuals about wasting food when they look, read and use our app name, FoodXLESS.” Miss Hui Man said that the concept and idea behind FODDXLESS was to serve as a solution for food wastage problems, as according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FA0), approximately, one third of the food produced globally is lost or goes to waste. “Hence,” she said, “We aim to reduce food wastage by developing an app which can match the supply and demand of the food, via Alibaba cloud-based analytics and smart geolocation features. This app, said Miss Jun, will also help track and report food wastage through the Food Loss and Waste Accounting and Reporting Standard (FLW) statistics.” 

Miss Hui Man added that by creating FOODXLESS, ‘We hope to play our part as a global citizen to reduce food wastage and to help empower the underprivileged to have access to affordable and high quality food as well as to contribute towards a sustainable economy.’ Mr. Ronand reiterated both his teammates’ explanation by pointing out that choosing a unique name like FOODXLESS would usually be remembered more fondly. 

The team’s success in reaching the Semi-Finals can be contributed to the continuous support and dedication of their mentors, Rd. Bernard, Dr. Wendy, Professor Datuk Dr. Paul Chan and Dr. Ting Ho. With such sheer determination and positivity, HELP University wishes nothing but the best for team FOODXLESS and HoList as they continue to face the uphill challenge towards the World Finals Challenge online from 17 August to 15 August 2020. 

HELP University’s ELM Graduate School is a graduate department lead by a faculty of academic experts and experiences industry practitioners. The various programnmes emphasises strong problem-solving methodologies, problem-based learning and simulations studies followed with formal lectures and class discussions supported by C-1 executives in the ELM Executive Education Forum.  The ELM Graduate School offers a broad range of Master’s programmes including the new MHR (Masters in Human Resource) Development, Doctorate and Phd by research studies. 

The Masters programmes are: Master of Philosophy, Master of Accounting & Finance, Master of Entrepreneurship, Master of Business Administration, Masters of Business Administration Online, Master of Clinical Psychology, Master in Corporate Governance, Master in Counselling, Masters in Education in Teaching English as a Second Language, Master of Education in Teaching and Learning, Master of Human Resource Development, Master of Philosophy in Psychology, Master of Project Management (PMI Accredited), Doctor of Business Administration, Doctor of Philosophy in Business, Management and Entrepreneurship, Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology. 

Visit university.help.edu.my or call 03-2716 2000 to speak to our guidance counsellors today. Join us for a challenging and rewarding journey towards achieving your higher education goals today at HELP University, the University of Achievers.  

The Alibaba GET Network was initiated in 2018 as an extension of Alibaba’s GET programme which, to date, has benefitted 80 education partners and trained more than 300 lecturers and over 13,000 students from Australia, Russia, India, Israel, Mongolia, Malaysia, Thailand, Turkey, South Korea, Singapore, China, Serbia, Philippines, Thailand and Uzbekistan. The winning team will be win USD14,000 to kick-start their business plan and earn a fully sponsored digital dream trip to visit Alibaba in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.