The RHU team HEATECHS is the proud winner of the 2018 Hult Prize Lebanon’s Finals that took place on Saturday, September 8, 2018 at New Biel Sin El Fil Beirut. The team won the largest startup award to-date of USD 250,000 from BLOM BANK.

The HEATECHS team consisted of four RHU engineering students, Rabab Kawtharani, Jawad Haidar, Rawan Ghalayini and Adam Choufi. It competed against five other teams including two teams from the American University of Beirut, one team from the Lebanese American University, and two teams from Beirut Arab University.

Under the patronage of H.E. Prime Minister Saad Hariri, the competition was hosted by the largest festival to be brought to the Middle East and Lebanon entitled “Change Maker Festival” which operates at the intersection of education, youth, entrepreneurship and impact!

The founder and CEO of Hult Prize, Ahmed Al-Ashkar, points out to the objectives of this competition, especially the support of young people talents and allowing them the opportunity to launch their creativity to implement their projects. Each year, the Hult Award presents a new challenge for social entrepreneurs. The teams that are able to reach the final round are those that have developed entirely new concepts that can impact the world in a positive way. The 2018 Hult Prize challenge was harnessing the power of energy to transform 10 million lives by 2025.

Building on this challenge, the HEATECHS team provided a solution for heating and cooling by using renewable energy with advanced material to manufacture blankets for refugees that provide a clean and safe solution for heating at a fraction of the cost and without the risk of uncontrolled heating from stoves.

The Central Bank of Lebanon and BLOM Bank contributed as official sponsors of the competition in Lebanon in order to encourage Lebanese youth to launch their creativity and develop their ideas to improve their country and achieve the high-tech projects required at this stage.

It was a well-earned win for the team after a series of pitches and long competition phases following the semi- finals of the Hult Prize Lebanon competition back in June 2018.

On Friday, September 7, and under the patronage and in the presence of H.E. Saad Hariri, the Grand Serail in down town Beirut hosted the “Change Maker Festival” gala dinner and the first ever Lebanon Impact Awards that recognized the country’s top impact leaders. It was held with full support of Hult Prize Lebanon official sponsors, Banque du Liban and Blom Bank, in cooperation with the United Nations Information Center, and in the presence of a large number of university directors and students who participated in the competition.

It is worth mentioning that more than 35 experts, mentors, professors, trainers, lawyers, experienced entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs have been invited to the Hult Prize Accelerator to help the teams transform their ideas to investment projects within the six weeks leading up to the final contest. Most of these experts and professionals came to Beirut for the first time for the sole purpose of training and helping emerging teams.