Bayes students put their best feet forward in competition to design businesses of the future

A domestic task-fulfilling robot and a futuristic taxi for urban transport were among prize-winning submissions in the Bayes Forward-Thinking Challenge, Bayes Business School’s inaugural competition for first-year Business and Management students.

With this year’s stage one Business Management courses represented by almost 80 nationalities, the competition aims to integrate new students and encourages them to build international friendships throughout their first term to solve a business problem of the future.

This year’s contest, sponsored by digital payments company TerraPay, tasked teams to “Imagine a successful company in 2075. Using AI, create a prototype of a product or service that represents this future business.”

More than 40 teams of students submitted entries, shortlisted down to a top five by module leaders. These were then voted on by 56 Bayes academics, experts from other institutions and leading industry professionals from companies such as Amazon, PwC and KPMG.

Four categories for voting criteria included:

• Innovation & Originality – how novel and forward-thinking is the concept?
• Technological Feasibility – could the idea be developed with future advancements?
• Practicality & Functionality – does it address a real need or problem?
• Aesthetics & Design – how visually compelling and well-presented is the concept?

Winners and runners-up were announced at an awards ceremony at Bunhill Row, in front of peers, judges, and tutors.

The year’s winning entry was ‘Caremate’, a robot programmed to complete daily chores such as assisted cleaning, cooking and companionship – by Alima Gaisina, Gabrielle Ardhanareswari and Maryam Yakubova. Runners-up were Muhammad Ibrahim Abbasi, Syed Mikael Shirazi, Leander Edwin and Abdullah Agtas with ‘MIAL’, an autonomous taxi for urban transportation ‘combining cutting-edge autonomous technology, sustainability, and seamless integration with smart city infrastructure’.

Maryam (BSc Business Management) said working on the project had helped her meet classmates and show creative freedom.

“Gabby, Alima, and I met each other online prior to joining Bayes last summer,” she said.

“When we eventually met in person, we found we shared a similar approach to work and an enthusiasm for this competition, so we decided to enter a team.

“I really enjoyed the creative freedom we were given in this task. Setting us a challenge to think of the future was very entertaining and exciting, coming up with features that could be realistic one day.

The competition helped me regain the experience of working on a group project, while meeting and discussing work with my teammates helped me grow closer to them and have fun with peers early on in my university life.

“It also helped me understand Bayes Business School’s values, and the encouraging and intellectually challenging attitude of people here.”

Dr Li Cunningham, Course Director for the Undergraduate Business Management Cluster at Bayes, said the competition aimed to foster community and friendship, while testing creative skills.

“At Bayes, we aim to nurture a strong sense of community, which includes helping new students to settle and build meaningful friendships.

“We introduced the Forward-Thinking Challenge to encourage engagement, creativity, and future-focused thinking among our new intake of Business and Management undergraduates.

“The competition serves as an ice-breaker for first-year students, while challenging their teamworking, creative imagination and presentation skills – all absolute necessities for navigating a successful career in business leadership.

“Judges of the prize, many of whom themselves are experienced innovators, were highly impressed by the calibre of submissions. We now aim to make this an annual event to encourage new students to meet and grow lasting friendships, and kickstart business school life.

“Many congratulations to Alima, Gabrielle and Maryam, plus all contestants for the quality of ideas on show. Our thanks go to TerraPay for their generous sponsorship of this event, and to all industry professionals involved in the judging process.”

Find out more about undergraduate Business and Management courses at Bayes Business School.