‘Earthwish’ team, representing Zewail City University for Science and Technology, won third place in the Regional Finals of Shell’s ‘Imagine the Future’ competition held on July 10th at Intercontinental City Stars Hotel in Cairo, Egypt, competing with teams from Singapore and Kuwait. Singapore’s ‘Dhaka2060’ team, which joined remotely from their home country came in first place, while the Kuwaiti team ‘K Tide’ came in second place.

The ‘Imagine the Future’ competition, which launched globally in 2016 and in Egypt in 2018, is part of Shell’s social investment activities, and aims to involve university students in exploring future scenarios incorporating economic, environmental, legal, political, social and technological driving forces.

The Regional Finals were attended by Alaa Hagar, Head of the Central Administration of the Ministry’s Technical Office at the Ministry of Petroleum, and Jailan Maher, Acting Head of Human Resources Management and representative of the National Training Academy. Senior representatives from Shell were also in attendance, including Corporate Relations Regional Manager for North Africa Chris Hill, Regional Social Performance Manager for the MENA & CIS region Gilbert Merhej, Shell Egypt Chairman Khaled Kacem, Communications Manager Sherine Nehad, Head of Corporate Relations & Government Relations Alaa Eldabaa, Social Investment Manager Nashwa Saleh, as well as Country Chair of Kuwait Anwar Almutlaq.

Back in May, Egypt’s ‘Earthwish’ team came in first place at the Local Finals for which 623 applicants from 39 universities signed up. 32 finalists have been selected and divided into five teams, tasked with crafting innovative scenarios addressing the key problem statement: “What will more and cleaner energy in an Egyptian city of your choice look like in 2060? How will residents live, work, and play?”.

For the Regional Finals, the ‘Earthwish’ team, presented a dual scenario capturing their vision for the Mediterranean coastal city of Port Said in 2060. The scenarios envisioned Port Said as a hub for next-generation transport technologies, hand-in-hand with sustainable living driven by a balanced mix of decarbonized fossil fuel and renewable energy and eco-friendly fishing methods, while also placing environmental sustainability at the heart of Port Said’s innovative development.

Singapore’s ‘Dhaka2060’ team worked on two scenarios focusing on Dhaka – the capital city of Bangladesh – in 2060, entailing the inclusion of a diversified network of domestically-produced renewable energy sources in the city’s energy mix in its first scenario, and reducing the city’s reliance on external factors. The team’s second scenario focused on turning the city into a hub of foreign investment, and transforming Dhaka into the primary technological center of Asia.

The ‘K-Tide’ team from Kuwait created two scenarios around the country’s comprehensive transformation in 2060, outlining how the country can leverage AI and advanced technologies to develop its education system, while focusing on sustainability, clean energy, cultural preservation and tourism. This would require the country to transition to clean energy through Small Modular Reactors in order to build advanced, intelligent infrastructure.

“Shell Egypt’s social investment programs are core to our capacity-building activities within the country. We are always keen on connecting with Egypt’s wide base of talented and dynamic youth and helping them reach their full potential through our various initiatives. We are excited to host the Regional Finals in Egypt for the first time since the competition’s launch, which truly underlines Shell Egypt’s commitment to developing and supporting the strong caliber of the country’s youth. Shell has been using Scenarios for over fifty years to help make better decisions. In these increasingly complex and uncertain times it is both humbling and encouraging to see what these young individuals achieve during this competition,” Khaled Kacem, Vice President and Country Chair of Shell Egypt, said.

Hundreds of registered students at the ‘Imagine the Future’ competition participated in Shell’s NXplorers program which focuses on complex and creative thinking skills, while nearly 200 students across many universities attended a scenario planning workshop.

‘Imagine the Future’ is one of Shell Egypt’s wide-ranging social investment initiatives, spanning the Shell Intilaaqah Egypt Program, Shell Eco-Marathon, Shell NXplorers as well as supporting Al-Amal Program.