Kuala Lampur, Aug. 16 -- A few years ago, we joined the Ideation and Entrepreneurship Programme at Universiti Malaya with colleagues from different academic backgrounds - pharmacy, dentistry, medicine, chemistry, engineering and statistics.

We were asked what seemed like a simple task: identify a specific and meaningful problem worth solving.

Surprisingly, that turned out to be the hardest part.

Like many researchers, we were trained to analyse data, investigate problems and develop solutions.

Yet the programme challenged us to pause and look at problems from the perspective of the people we hoped to help.

It was a different way of thinking. Instead of asking, "What can we build?", we first had to ask, "What problem truly needs solvi...