Team Oryx to represent GCC at the HIC 7 international final in Düsseldorf

Innovation 2050: A peep into futuristic world of beauty with the digital cream

Dubai – Team Oryx has been declared the winner of the GCC semi-final of Henkel’s student competition –  the Henkel Innovation Challenge 7. Sudan national Sarah Mustafa and Mauritian national Jaasim Polin, representing the Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar were adjudged the winners by the jury over with their innovative idea -- AOK Allure-Digital Beauty Cream.

The team will therefore be representing the GCC at the international finals, to be held in Düsseldorf, Germany between March 31 and April 3, 2014. In Düsseldorf, they will meet the best teams from the other 29 countries participating in the Henkel Innovation Challenge.

Team Oryx presented their winning idea at the HIC 7 GCC semi-final recently which brought together 9 teams. Following the motto – ‘Create. Learn. Grow.’ – the task for the participants in the GCC semi-final of the Henkel Innovation Challenge was to develop a concept for an innovative product or technology for one of Henkel’s business areas: Laundry & Home Care, Beauty Care or Adhesive Technologies.

18 students from numerous universities in UAE, KSA and Qatar registered their innovative ideas in teams of two. A jury consisting of Henkel-managers from different business divisions evaluated the ideas and presentations. Team Oryx of Sarah Mustafa and Jaasim Polin will be accompanied to the international final in Dusseldorf by Ramy Bermawy, General Manager, Beauty Care -GCC at Henkel.

The innovative concept - AOK Allure-Digital Beauty Cream – presented by Team Oryx presents a futuristic look into the world of beauty with the revolutionary product. Explaining about the product, Sarah and Jaasim said: “It is the world's first programmable beauty product. This cream is made of living proteins with digital data stored in them. It is controlled by people with the help of special software on a computer. The cream will be able to reproduce a 3D model of the face of the user and display it on an external device. The users will be able to make retouching on their face such as changing shades, colour, hiding pimples, improving glow, radiance and curves on the face.”

The GCC winning team is overjoyed with the success and excited about what is going to happen next. They have booked their ticket for the international final in Düsseldorf. The top three winning teams from the international final will meet the Henkel CEO Kasper Rorsted and will receive an additional prize: while the winning team will get an around-the-world ticket worth 10,000 euros, the second place will be awarded 4,000 euros and the third place 2,000 euros.

For further information on the international competition please visit www.henkelchallenge.com or the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/henkelchallenge. Videos from previous years can be found on YouTube.

Henkel operates worldwide with leading brands and technologies in three business areas:
Laundry & Home Care, Beauty Care and Adhesive Technologies. Founded in 1876, Henkel holds globally leading market positions both in the consumer and industrial businesses with well-known brands such as Persil, Schwarzkopf and Loctite. Henkel employs about 47,000 people and reported sales of 16,510 million euros and adjusted operating profit of 2,335 million euros in fiscal 2012. Henkel’s preferred shares are listed in the German stock index DAX.