Around 1,200 European universities and graduate schools were invited to participate in the digital championship competition, but only 100 teams were selected for the final in Luxembourg. Teams submitted public-interest projects as a teaser slideshow for the judges, which were later presented to the European Commission and 200 European investors.
Each three-member student team could choose from 10 categories for its team project: digital education development, social cultural exchange, sharing economy, environment, business, research, finance and technology, mobility and transportation, energy, and healthcare.
Healthcare challenge
RSM’s Pei Wen Lin from Taiwan, and Indian students Shashank Batra and Jarna Gandhi from RSM’s International Full-time MBA Class of 2016 won the Morpheus Cup’s Best European Students Project: Healthcare Challenge.
“We understand the challenges existing in the healthcare sector,” said Batra, who worked in the healthcare sector helping to develop mobile applications for the underprivileged. “Although there is the best medicine available in the world, governments are struggling to treat patients suffering from diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV.”
Batra says the resolution of complex problems often begins with simple steps that have enormous impacts. “It takes innovative and creative minds to find common grounds across different people and places to come up with solutions applicable to various contexts,” he said.
Making a difference
The competition was an all-round test of skills of participating teams, including a quiz, a business plan challenge and a creativity test. “This format kept us on our toes but was also a lot of fun,” said MBA team member Jarna Gandhi. “We presented our own business idea, and also participated in mini-challenges that tested our team’s other skill sets. We had absolutely no idea what was coming up next and that made it very unpredictable and exciting.”
Gandhi added that her team’s business idea addressed a real need in the healthcare segment, specifically in developing countries such as India. “It’s an implementable project that the jury could easily relate with.” The jury represented top business leaders from Warner Bros Digital, European Investment Fund, FC Barcelona, Dailymotion, and Mars One.
“Despite the diversity in our geographical and industry backgrounds, one common factor that unites us and differentiated us from other teams is our will to make a difference in the lives of the underprivileged,” said Batra.
