The University of Agriculture Faisalabad’s student Muhammad Usman bagged the first position in the Distinguished Innovations, Collaboration and Entrepreneurship (DICE) Festival for developing Invelox Wind Turbine enabling producing cheap and environmental friendly energy in low windy area at even lessen that will help in addressing energy issue.

The University of Agriculture Faisalabad’s student Muhammad Usman bagged the first position in the Distinguished Innovations, Collaboration and Entrepreneurship (DICE) Festival for developing Invelox Wind Turbine enabling producing cheap and environmental friendly energy in low windy area at even lessen that will help in addressing energy issue. Two-day DICE Festival, innovative business plan competition, in the field of Agriculture and Food Sciences concluded at the University of Agriculture Faisalabad on Thursday In which, students from 30 universities presented their business plans at UAF Expo Center and set up 120 stalls. The event organized by Office of Research, Innovation and Commercialization in collaboration with DICE Foundation was presided over by DICE Foundation Chairperson Dr Khurshid Qureshi, while DICE President Saad Elahi, Director Institute of Horticulture UAF Dr Aman Ullah Malik, Director ORIC Dr Zahir Ahmad Zahir, Dr Waseem Ahmad, and other notables also spoke on the concluding session. The first prize winner is awarded one lakh rupees to get the first prize. Abid Hasnain from the University of Karachi got the second position on the development of commercially important cold water soluble instant starch from indigenous sources. Mahwish Tanveer from University of Agriculture Faisalabad stood third on the development of nutritionally rich noodles utilizing high extradition multigrain flour. The second and third position holders were awarded 60,000 and 40,000 rupees respectively. The others who were given rupees 10,000 awards as the token of their noble ideas included the Sidra ul Muntaha from Jinnah Women University on the development of multi-purpose therapeutic inhaler. Mydah from National Textile University won the prize on the project titled special fabric having vitamin C properties from citrus peel. Danial Yousuf from University of Education developed the project of barely oil that will help decrease our dependency on palm oil. Waseem Akram from University of Agriculture Faisalabad worked on mobifogger a convenient fogging approach. Muhammad Nasir from Baluchistan University of Information Technology Quetta developed the industrial monitoring system through smart devices. Yumna Naz from Jinnah University for Women developed the utilization of mango seed Kernel Flour in marking Gluten Free Cupcakes. Dr Khurshid Qureshi said that they were establishing National Innovation Basket in which innovation ideas with sustainability would be worked out. He said that it is time of change from the conventional business technique to the innovative ones. He added that innovation acts lifeblood of economy and termed it as the key ingredient behind its sustainable progress and prosperity. He said they were meant for fostering innovation and entrepreneurship culture in the country at all levels. He said that the country was blessed with the tremendous talent. He said that they were mapping out a plan under which innovation Friday market would be set up. In which, people will come up with their innovative products to attract the people and industry. Saad Elahi said that Dice provides a common platform for both academia and industry to share and collaborate on innovative concepts and products. He said that strong academia- industry linkages would address the issue including food security, and help in poverty alleviation. UAF Director ORIC Zahir Ahmad Zahir said that the agriculture is the backbone of our country which is contributing 20 percent to the Gross Domestic Product. He stressed upon the need to come up with out-of-the-box solutions to problems of the general public and farming community. He called for strengthening industry-academia linkages and to promote innovative approaches. Dr Aman Ullah Malik said we develop the skills among youth keeping the challenges of the modern world in view, we would be able to compete with the rest of the world. He said that time has come when we have to provide the platform to the students to commercialize their innovative ideas with the help of strong academia-industry linkages. Dr. Abdul Naveed, Dr. Abdul Rasheed, Dr. Khurram Zia and Coordinator Farooq Hassan also spoke