Huwaei seeds for the future

Here at the blog, I have shared my personal experience with Huawei Seeds for the Future. I represented Nepal as a delegate with my teammates at Huawei Asia-Pacific Seeds for the Future 2022, held on-site in Bangkok and Hua-Hin. A global flagship CSR program dedicated to students that bring together young talents from top universities to explore Huawei’s cutting-edge ICT and hone their professional development. This program also covers your expense. I can sense that you are interested in hearing about this. Make sure you don’t miss the following year.

# Initial story : Rejection

Yes, my application had rejected during the selection process for this program. Huawei Nepal has a systematic selection process where you must have some requirements.

CV
Motivation letter
Recent GPA record & Good academia
Passport
Covid-19 Vaccination certificate

The top 20 students had shortlisted among all Nepali students who had applied on the respective online form. I was also one of them. Interviews were by distinguished professors from multiple universities for the final onsite round for shortlisted candidates.

As I was in my fourth semester in university, the Dean of my university asked me about the AI one where I need explain one chapter of AI one. I explained the concepts of intelligent agents. I cleared out its structure and properties along with configuration and types. Similarly, I even got a question about cloud-based service models. As I also work professionally as a DevOps practitioner along with my study hence when I ever heard this question, I was happy inside and cleared the concept. I had a question about the technical one with government policy with ICT. It was challenging I tried my best. Overall I thought it was good. The result will be coming out in the evening. I was waiting for it via mail. The result was like this.

# Hope & Comfort zone

On July 25, I had given my semester exam early in the morning about Database. I got a call from Huawei PR right after my exam. I had been smiling on the way about being a delegate on the program via call. Never set expectations on anything was the good thing I have ever done. I would miss out on my semester exam as it also collab with the seeds program. I avoid feeling regret about such an opportunity, taking the risk. I shared with my manager, accepted, and got the holiday for this new journey in my office. You have to know that the biggest risk is not taking any risk and I was excited about this.

We even have some meetup casual with other delegates for Seeds. I missed almost every event except the UNSECO. On the UNESCO, we emphasized focusing on the sustainability of the World Heritage Sites by incorporating technology to ensure authenticity, originality, and preserving the essence of the sites, particularly while reconstructing and maintaining them. We even had an opening ceremony, made a slide before 30 minutes of the ceremony and gave the insights talk. There had been an announcement about giving presentation, none had prepared. Talking about my public speaking background, I used to give talks on a technical meetups rather than this one. It was different and wonderful experience. I got some feedbacks on where I need to get improved.

I had been improving and still trying new things rather than technical ones. I was learning along with my mistake during the journey

# Moving ahead at Bangkok & Hua Hin

I was excited for the following day, unforunately the nightmare begun after the day first. I had tested positive and need to go quarantine at Radisson hotel. I wasn’t alone at this rest delegates from other countries were also victims of it. Few departed from Bangkok to their home country. I missed UNESCAP, Tourism, Cultural Exchange, and Metaverse Expo events. You can also understand how it feels when everyone had been participated and you are the one left behind. I had a meditation during quarantine so I could controlled the state of mind. After 3-4 days, I got negative and moved out.

The feeling right after all getting rid of it was so amazing. As mentioned, expenses were handle by Huawei for medical bills. We went to the Huawei G Tower visit to learn how they are working toward their vision and mission to digital and leverage the technology to address social and environmental issues to improve quality of life and sustainability.

The actual fun and opportunities began at Hua Hin. I meet lots of delegates from multiple countries. Great insights to learn about their language, culture, food and many more. We had classes to be taken out for our incoming Tech4Good project to propose technical solutions using AI, 5G, Cloud, and soft skill training. We had a hackathon where every team was assigned a tutor. Every team got to represent their ideas in the evening with their final pitch. We had named Advait.

Advait is an app that uses blockchain and AI to detect possible fraud in medications. The idea is that each medication file gets a QR code. When buyers scan the QR code unique to the medication, they would instantly learn about the manufacturing date, expiry date, whether the medication comes from a registered distributor or retailer, and the MRP.

I have some takeaways too. Whenever you participate either a hackathon or an idea pitching contest make sure you have the following points.

Identify a problem: A phase of research where it shouldn’t have to be a huge issue, you can came across with your local one and scale it slowly.
Brainstorm solution: Write as many ideas as possible with estimated time so your team discuss and prioritize based on cost with impact to make it good as possible solution. - Solution doesn’t have to be complex, might be solved within basic things and make sure it has proven realistic.
Modeling: Creation of a framework that highlights a prioritized strategic component of the business model with a bigger picture including the business’s operations, customers, stakeholders, and many more.
Presentation: I always prefer to come up with good storytelling that connects the dots of various factors.

# Tech4Good Accelerator Camp

Every team gave their best shot. The result announcement came up. We were also a few of the team who went to Singapore for further next round. Our team got selected and had being able to participate in the Tech4Good accelerator camp where we met experts and did a public demonstration of their idea at the National University of Singapore campus.

The design thinking process was the most insightful session I have attended at Tech4Good Accelerator Camp. We had a session with leaders from multiple organizations and individuals. During the process breakdown of the solution, one important thing I have learned so far was technology is just a tool, not a solution. I was the technical guy behind the idea. It was fun and super hectic during the submission o the project at 2 AM late at night. After the event, we danced with other delegates, it was so much fun and had sung a song with my Public Relation manager too. I enjoyed and loved the talented delegate’s performances too. I had never swum in my life before and had learned during this trip. I also got the change for the video shot for the dance one with every country’s representative delegate. I was leaving out of my comfort zone.

Travel opens my mind to new perspectives and allows me to recontextualize existing systems of thought. I am grateful to everyone with speakers, leaders, organizers, volunteers, delegates, PR, my team, and supporter. Thanks to Huawei for such an opportunity. I am pretty much sure that one day these ‘Seeds’ will grow into a global ‘forest’ and make a change in the future.