The University of Nottingham Malaysia has emerged as National Champions in the L’Oreal Brandstorm 2019 competition, which was held on 11 April 2019. The team of Business and Engineering students will represent Malaysia in at the L’Oreal Brandstorm World Finals in Paris, France, next month.
L’Oreal Brandstorm is an annual international innovation competition that takes place in 60 countries and provides a platform to enhance students’ entrepreneurial and creativity skills, in addition to offering participants the opportunity to come up with innovations for the beauty industry. The business case to be solved differs each year. Participants in the 2019 edition were challenged to ‘invent the future skincare experience for health-conscious consumers’.
The winning team, Team Soleil comprised of first-year Mechanical Engineering student Tee Zhen Hong, third-year Business School student Wong Wee Wen, and fourth-year Electrical and Electronic Engineering student Ivy Wong Yee Yee. "Our team name, Soleil, is from the French word for 'sun'. While sun care is extremely important, this awareness is very much lacking especially amongst consumers in the Asia-Pacific region.
Therefore, our invention, 'My UV Armour', focuses on streamlining the sun care experience to facilitate the adoption of a sun care habits amongst millennials. My UV Armour is a device that provides a holistic customer experience from instilling awareness, detection of UV and sunscreen, to being a dispenser and a reminder tool all in a single device," says team member Ivy. The team’s proposed device also aims to help decrease the environmental impact of the industry through a new biodegradable packaging idea as a substitute for plastic bottles.
Ivy adds, “We are confident that with our invention, we can disrupt the current sun care culture and make a positive impact in the local community and environment."
“The best part about the L’Oreal Brandstorm Challenge was that we were allowed to generate innovative ideas to disrupt the skincare industry. We realised the challenges of having our solution remain practical and feasible while being creative,” says Wee Wen.
“All the teams in the competition had superb ideas, and we are truly grateful to have had the opportunity to not only compete with but also to learn from them. We will do our best to make Nottingham and Malaysia proud in the global finals in Paris.”
It was a double celebration for the University of Nottingham Malaysia as a second team of Nottingham students, comprising fourth-year Chemical and Environmental Engineering students Tai Jia Hui, Khoo Miinyi and Soh Wei Li, emerged First Runner-Up with their prototype design of a face scanner and applicator that worked in sync with a mobile application to secrete the precise amount of skincare product based on the user’s needs.
“I am pleased to see our students from across faculties joining forces to come up with innovative ideas for this competition. They have already demonstrated their combined capabilities at the national level, and we look forward to their continued success in the international competition,” University of Nottingham Malaysia Provost and CEO Professor Graham Kendall said.
University of Nottingham students also recently won the PwC Trust Builders Challenge. Final-year Business School students Wong Wee Wen, Alvin Ng Wei Yan and Zachary Luke Chee won the competition, beating nine other teams from universities across Malaysia.
About Nottingham University Business School Malaysia
Nottingham University Business School Malaysia has had more than a decade's experience in providing international quality teaching and scholarship in various areas of business, management and finance, and is part of an elite global group of business schools accredited by the European Quality Improvement System (EQUIS) and Association of MBAs (AMBA). Find out more about the School at www.nottingham.edu.my/business.
(Image caption: (from left to right): Tee Zhen Hong, Wong Wee Wen and Ivy Wong Yee Yee)
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For more information please contact Dr Roy Khong or Chan Wen Li and for media enquiries please contact Josephine Dionisappu, PR & Communications Manager.
The University of Nottingham is a research-intensive university with a proud heritage, consistently ranked among the world's top 100. Studying at the University of Nottingham is a life-changing experience and we pride ourselves on unlocking the potential of our 44,000 students - Nottingham was named University of the Year for Graduate Employment in the 2017 Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide, was awarded gold in the TEF 2017 and features in the top 20 of all three major UK rankings. We have a pioneering spirit, expressed in the vision of our founder Sir Jesse Boot, which has seen us lead the way in establishing campuses in China and Malaysia - part of a globally connected network of education, research and industrial engagement. We are ranked eighth for research power in the UK according to REF 2014. We have six beacons of research excellence helping to transform lives and change the world; we are also a major employer and industry partner - locally and globally.
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Posted on 26th April 2019