Late last month, RBC hosted its Next Great Innovator Challenge — a 24-hour prototyping marathon that challenged young students to come up with the next great idea for RBC to implement in their business.

More than 150 postsecondary students from 23 institutions across Canada competed to build an innovative prototype for a mobile, tablet, web or desktop app that utilizes the power of social media to seamlessly integrate banking into the daily lives of banking clients.

The winning team, including third-year Engineering student Mugdha Mulay, took home $5,000 and were given a unique chance to display their talents in front of senior executives and judges.

“Participating in the RBC Next Great Innovators Challenge has been a wonderful experience,” said Mulay. “Being part of a team comprised of students from different universities and colleges, collaboration was a key component in being successful. As a team, we were eager to learn and make the most of the opportunity provided to us.”

Mulay’s winning app was created for the Android operating system. The team’s prototype focused on transferring money, product and educational information between mobile devices by tapping them together.