[dropcap]C[/dropcap]hinese tech giant Huawei is offering 50 Irish STEM students €5,000 as part of a programme to learn about technology and Chinese culture.
As part of its 2021 Seeds for the Future scholarship programme, Huawei will invite several applicants to partake in a week-long online course in October, where the top 50 performers will be awarded the grant.
Huawei launched the programme in 2015, choosing Ireland as their first partner for the initiative in western Europe.
“Huawei is committed to investing in Ireland’s future ICT workforce and we see this scholarship programme as another way to help these students enhance their capabilities as they continue their STEM studies,” said Luke McDonnell, senior communications manager at Huawei Ireland.
To win the grant, applicants will work in teams to create projects for Huawei’s new Tech4Good project. The project tasks participants with examining how technology can be better used to address social and environmental issues. Each group will present their projects to a panel of judges at the end of the course week, which will consider the viability and creativity of the ideas to decide the best 50 to win the grant.
Students who are awarded the grant will receive several additional benefits from the company besides the money. Huawei will lead students through a virtual tour of their corporate headquarters, as well as their flagship consumer store in Shenzhen, China.
Grant recipients will also be exposed to extensive learning opportunities about Chinese business culture, including classes in Mandarin and calligraphy. Students will take courses that tackle the development of smart cities, AI, cloud computing, 5G, and the internet of things. Huawei is also offering recipients lectures in digital transformation, sustainable technology and strategic leadership, which will be given by Huawei engineers.
The announcement of the programme comes in the mists of the Chinese smartphone vendor’s significant investment in Ireland, both in money and in headcount. The company has had its European headquarters in Ireland since 2004, where it now employs more than 800 people. In the next two years, Huawei plans to invest €80 million in Irish research and development (R&D), and create an additional 200 jobs.
To apply for Huawei’s scholarship, Huawei asks that students send their CV’s, as well as an essay between 400 and 600 words, and a three-minute video discussing their interests and why they should be chosen, to seedsireland@huawei.com. The deadline for submissions is Thursday, October 14th.
Devin Sean Martin