Students urged to pursue innovation to tackle societal problems

Kenyan university students have been challenged to pursue innovative ideas to confront the economic and social challenges facing the nation.

During the inaugural Kenya-US Global Launchpad Initiative (KUGLi) summit at Kibabii University held over the week, students were urged to embrace entrepreneurship and partnerships.

The KUGLi project, led by Churchill Saoke, is a collaboration between Kenyan universities and Syracuse University in New York, facilitated by the US Embassy in Nairobi.

The initiative aims to design and implement an intensive training program for US and Kenyan university students, focusing on micro-multinational ventures to address global issues.

The summit was attended by US Cultural Attache in Nairobi, Drew Giblin, Bungoma Deputy Governor Janepher Mbatiany, and Blackstone Launchpad at Syracuse University Director Traci Geisler. They joined top university management, business leaders, and students from over eight universities for the event.

The students participated in mentorship sessions and had the opportunity to pitch their innovative ideas.

The programme enrolled 131 students from Kenya and the US, who took part in intensive experiential training sessions-both physical and virtual-led by faculties under the guidance of Prof Bruce Kingma from Syracuse University.

"We will identify unexploited areas for joint micro-multinational ventures using STEAM-focused solutions to address global issues," said Dr Saoke.

Deputy Governor Mbatiany outlined the county's priorities in youth empowerment, specifically working with students to build skills that meet community needs. Drew highlighted Kenya's role as a promoter of peace in the region and emphasised that the US government relies on Kenya's leadership to advance peace, stability, and economic growth.

"The US mission will continue working with partners such as universities to strengthen bilateral partnerships between the US and Kenya. Initiatives like KUGLi align with the embassy's interest in promoting the youth while building people-to-people ties," Drew said.

The summit deliberated on creating an entrepreneurial ecosystem, handling failure, business incubation and patenting among others. Various teams presented their pitches to a panel of judges, with the best pitches receiving awards.

Kibabii University Vice Chancellor Isaac Ipara expressed satisfaction with the initiative's impact on students saying, "we seek to optimise our work and resources to achieve excellence in generating, transmitting, and enhancing new knowledge in Science, Technology, and Innovation through quality teaching, research, training, scholarship, consultancy, and outreach programmes."

"Our students have formed teams where they continually sharpen their ideas. This summit offers an opportunity for them to understand the competitiveness in the entrepreneurship space and to refine their skills for pitching their ideas effectively," he added.

Prof Ipara revealed that Kibabii is currently positioning itself to accelerate global research frontiers in emerging areas specifically in the integration of AI to indigenous languages.

He said that the university is keen on building partnerships and hopes that through the US Embassy strategic partnerships with other US universities they could achieve the goal.