First year Master of Design student Shima Soltani demonstrated the power of design thinking as part of a winning team at this year鈥檚 .听听听
听Organized by the Halifax Partnership and Dalhousie University, the 5th Annual Halifax Innovation Challenge provided students from Halifax universities an opportunity to demonstrate their ability to innovate and collaborate within interdisciplinary teams to solve real-life business challenges.听
All teams were given one of three challenges to work on and present their solutions to executive leaders and academics. Winning teams received a cash prize of $1,200.鈥�
Working with five Dalhousie students, Soltani鈥檚 team competed against ten other teams on a challenge called 鈥淏uilding Client Relationships and Trust with Al RBC.鈥� They were asked how the bank might 鈥渟afely and ethically use data & Artificial Intelligence to provide best-in-class financial solutions, advice, planning and recommendations to support the diverse needs of all of our clients.鈥濃��
鈥淢y teammates were so talented in their majors and knew a lot about AI, marketing, investing, banking and data science,鈥� Soltani says. 鈥淭he initial challenge inside our team was how to put all our expertise on a direct path to focus on the problem.鈥澨�
They spoke with clients about RBC鈥檚 current situation and their relationship with clients, about RBC services and issues around the RBC phone application. Then they hit upon a solution: to use NOMI InvestPro, empowered by AI, to bridge the gap of RBC鈥檚 services. It proved to be a winning idea.听听
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‘Teamwork is truly important’
鈥淢y role in the team was to help my team to focus on the main point of trust: what it means, and what happens when people lose their trust in a company. I looked at who the RBC’s clients are, their age groups, social groups and what their needs are and their expectations,鈥� says Soltani.听听
Soltani鈥檚 teammate Zack Holroyd says that having someone with design expertise was very important to their success.听听听
鈥淲e were able to have someone to make recommendations on what the application could do. With Shima鈥檚 help we were able to make an application that was reasonable to create based on her knowledge of design.鈥澨�听
鈥淪ometimes technical people are focused more on the technical side while the management people care more about the presentation and business proposal. Designers are concerned more with people and that helps,鈥� adds teammate Almasfiza Anwar Hussain.鈥�听
The inclusion of 泡芙短视频 design students at the Halifax Innovation Challenge began when Huschang Pourian, an assistant professor of design took his class to a pitch competition in September.听听听
鈥淚 encouraged my MDes students to participate in this鈥�2-day event,鈥痵tressing the importance of entrepreneurial thinking, networking, and collaborative working across disciplines. But I did not supervise them 鈥撯�痠t was a completely self-directed initiative,鈥� says Pourian.听听
鈥淭eamwork is truly important,鈥� says Soltani. 鈥淚 learned how to deal with different points of view and put them in one direct way to address the challenge. I also learned how to manage my time in a short period of time, how to present my ideas, and how to support my ideas.鈥澨� 听