How can we improve civil services with modern technology so that municipal governments can provide citizens with the best service possible with limited resources? This is exactly the question that Magan Chin and Stan van Baarsen are trying to answer with their venture, FIG. On Tuesday 27 May, the pair participated in the final Pitch@King’s of the year with the hope of articulating their mission and sharing how they aim to address the bottlenecks in local government services. In this week’s blog, read the founders’ reflections on the development of their partnership, their journey to Pitch@King’s, and their hopes for their venture.

At the end of June, the King’s E-Lab ran its annual LLM x Law Hackathon, in partnership with Stanford Universuty CodeX and the Cambridge Judge Business School. The four-day event brought together over 150 students from 14 countries representing 43 universities. For a second year running, it produced an array of exciting collaborations and innovative solutions to legal challenges set out by our sponsors. In this week’s blog, hear from the winner of the Hacker Track, Julia Volovich as she discusses her CounterClaim Eagle application.

Multilateral Development Institutions (MDIs) play a crucial role in creating connections across nations and in deploying context-specific financial tools to support the development of diverse economies. These practices, while they must be open to scrutiny, should not be too easily dismissed given the value they can generate for vulnerable populations across the world. In this week’s blog, Jigar Patel and Christiaan van der Does de Willebois reflect on their recent EMBA cohort trip to the International Finance Corporation’s (IFC) Sao Paulo offices. They extend a call to students to use the opportunities they have to explore how we build relationships for the better of all in these complex times.

Joodi Mourhli completed the King’s E-Lab Residential Programme as a part of the 2023-2024 cohort and received a runner up prize in the E-Lab competition the same year. Since then, Joodi has pursued her venture through participation in programmes, like EnterpriseWOMEN, and partnerships with key stakeholders in her industry, such as the Syrian Youth Empowerment (SYE) initiative. In this week’s blog, read about Joodi’s journey to embrace entrepreneurial thinking by asking bold questions, acting with empathy, and believing that small interventions can create outsized impact.

What happens when a shared passion for change meets a rigorous Climate Challenge? In this week’s blog, Sally Musonye and Jockim Kamalha share their journey in bridging energy poverty and educational inequality from rural Kenya to the Cambridge Zero Climate Challenge stage, recounting how their innovative approach transforms lives in underserved communities. At the finale in March 2024, Sally and Kamalha pitched MPowered, as a part of AshGold Africa Initiative, and achieved recognition as runners-up. Learn about their experience from the demanding yet profoundly rewarding training, from the moments of doubt and motivation, and from their belief in building through collaboration.

On the 13^th of March, Lucy-Anne Garnett, Sigrid Kirk and Katy Wickremesinghe joined Art History Student Jin Cheng in an exploration of the transformative connections between art and business and shed light on how these intersections create dynamic networks that bridge emerging and established careers. In this week’s blog, Jin reflects on the insights from the speakers: cultural capital is not static, art and business can align when care rather than commodity is focal, and proactive efforts to build inclusive spaces are possible.

We’ve come to the close of the University’s two-week #ShapingAIforeveryone Campaign and, in this week’s blog post we’re spotlighting the key activities, research and students from the King’s E-Lab that contribute to the inclusive imagining, design and implementation of AI.

#ShapingAIForEveryone

To celebrate International Women’s Day 2025, the E-Lab and King’s College Student Union (KCSU) hosted a conversation between Gillian Tett and Noor Sweid on the evening of the 5^th of March. Noor Sweid is the Founder and Managing Partner of Global Ventures, a leading venture capital firm based in the UAE, investing across the Middle East and Africa. She is one of the World's Top 50 Women in Tech and has been recognised by Arabian Business as one of the "Top 100 Most Influential Arab Women". Cambridge alumna and tech expert Blossom Kafumbata reflects on the discussion in this week’s blog post.

On Friday the 29^th of November, the E-Lab brought together some of the industry's most insightful voices: Emily Chan (Senior Sustainability & Features Editor at Vogue), Isabella Rose Davey (COO at Copenhagen Fashion Week), and Olya Kuryshchuk (Founder and Editor-in-Chief of 1 GRANARY). Moderated by Art Historian Ane Cornelia Pade, the guests delved into the difficult dilemmas facing actors in the industry and balanced a discussion that invoked both hope and anger. In this blog post, read the perspective of one panellist and one attendee as they reflect on the ongoing challenges and future potentials of sustainability in fashion.

On 18th of February, King’s E-Lab hosted the 10th Anniversary of InnoFrugal, a movement that has championed the idea of “doing more with less” since its modest beginnings in Jyväskylä, Finland, back in 2014. Over the years, InnoFrugal has evolved into a global platform highlighting sustainable, resource-efficient solutions—often referred to as frugal innovations—across sectors like digital, healthcare, consumer products, and increasingly, artificial intelligence. Cofounder and Visiting Fellow at JBS, Venkata Gandikota details the afternoon’s event in this weeks blog post.

How do you get people to really think about AI? Not just to watch videos about it, but to actively engage in working out what they believe? In this post, Martin Percy shares insights into participatory documentary making as just such a way to engage audiences and filmmakers alike on complex contemporary subjects. Through his latest ‘participatory documentary’ "AI Basics: Thrills or Chills?", Percy breaks down the wall between film and audience and works with audiences to figure out what AI means for them.

On the 13^th of February 2025, King’s E-Lab hosted Niren Chaudhary for an evening on value-based leadership. The world today is in a polycrisis and we face significant contemporary challenges - rise in hate, increase in inequity, global warming and unique risk with technology. These challenges, however, can become unprecedented opportunities if we lead through our values - compassion for hate, accountability for climate, responsibility for inequality, and morality for risk. Values based leadership is the way forward for a better world. EMBA student Vicky Carson reflects on the evening’s insights in this week’s blog post. 

In 2024, the E-Lab ran the second edition of our Entrepreneurship Essay Competition. The purpose of the competition is to encourage UK-based school students to pursue entrepreneurial aspirations and understand better how to launch an enterprise. The students choose between three essay questions which reflects the importance of entrepreneurism and the challenges that businesses face. This week, we share the essay of our winner, Emily Ennis from Lancaster Royal Grammar School, which explores the concept of social entrepreneurship and its role in addressing social and environmental issues.

In 2024, the E-Lab ran the second edition of our Entrepreneurship Essay Competition. The purpose of the competition is to encourage UK-based school students to pursue entrepreneurial aspirations and understand better how to launch an enterprise. The students choose between three essay questions which reflects the importance of entrepreneurism and the challenges that businesses face. This week, we share the essay of our second runner up, Maxim Cartledge from Tiffin School, which explores the trade-offs to be considered when entrepreneurs innovate.