A delegation from the World Bank visited the innovation hub of United International University (UIU) on Wednesday (February 12). 

The delegation was led by Martin Raiser, Regional Vice President, South Asia Region (SAR), The World Bank & Ms. Gayle Martin, Country Director (Interim), Bangladesh and Bhutan, The World Bank. 

The team also included Mathew A. Verghis, Regional Director, Prosperity Practice Group, Gabi George Afram, Finance, Competitiveness, and Investment (FCI), SAR; Souleymane Coulibaly, Country Lead Economist and Program Leader, Prosperity; Hosna Ferdous Sumi, Sr. Private Sector Specialist, FCI, SAR; Sophie Dong, Financial Sector Specialist, FCI, SAR; Georga Louise Mcnally, Jr. Professional Associate, SARVP Office; Mehrin A. Mahbub, Senior External Affairs Officer, The World Bank and Md Faruk Hossain, Program Associate, Prosperity.  

During their short visit, the delegation joined in a discussion on the current condition of tech entrepreneurship in Bangladesh, the prospect of research to commercialisation endeavors and also met with the selected students team and mentors from Launchpad By UIHP@UIU - an innovation cohort for young start-ups. 

The program was chaired by Prof. Abdullah Al-Mamun, Director - Institute of Research, Innovation, Incubation & Commercialisation (IRIIC), UIU and the delegates were warmly welcomed by Prof. Dr. Abul Kashem Mia - Vice-Chancellor, UIU. 

The Innovation Hub is run by Bangladesh Hi-tech Park Authority (BHTPA) under its University Innovation Hub Program (UIHP) to facilitate industry-academia collaboration on new ideas and new start-up ventures. UIU Innovation Hub is known as IRIIC - a flagship initiative where research engineers are working with projects like - Neuromarketing, Bangla Medical GPT, apps for Endometriosis screening, Breast Cancer Screening, Alzheimer's Screening etc.