Media Release

19th July 2017 - Undergrads tackle real world engineering challenges at Innovate Malaysia 2017

INNOVATE Malaysia 2017 on July 18 concluded the largest engineering design competition in the country with a showcase of the innovative projects by 45 teams nationwide.

The seventh series of the Innovate Malaysia Design Competition (IMDC), which aimed to inculcate the culture of innovation among final year engineering, computer science, and IT undergraduates in Malaysia, was organised by Fusionex, Intel, Keysight, MathWorks, Microsoft, Motorola Solutions, National Instruments, Silterra, and ViTrox – and managed by Dream Catcher Consulting Sdn Bhd.

The competition, which saw the participation of over 600 students this year, received support from the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE), Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC), and the Institution of Engineers Malaysia (IEM).

Deputy Minister of MOHE Dr Mary Yap (pic, above) said, “The IMDC is certainly innovative in its own way as it complements the various Government efforts to address the country’s crucial need for highly skilled and globally competent human capital reserve. It serves as a test-bed for undergraduates in Malaysia to put on their creative and innovative thinking caps and compete with the best minds from the country.”

This year, Motorola Solutions was appointed as the industry host for the IMDC grand finale. Motorola Solutions Malaysia’s Penang Design Centre lead Solomon Lorthu (pic, below) shared, “We are pleased to receive an overwhelming response from students across Malaysia with their impressive and out-of-the-box engineering solutions in this year’s IMDC.

“This competition has allowed us to help groom larger talent pool of future engineers in devising forward-thinking solutions for industrial application. Furthermore, this underscores the legacy of innovation at Motorola Solutions and our continuous commitment to develop next-generation devices and solutions for customers worldwide.”

As part of this season’s challenge, the participants were invited to compete across the nine organisers’ technology track, where they tackle real-world problems with practical engineering solutions through the submission of a proposal paper in the initial stage of the competition.

Teams had the option of taking on one of the nine social, commercial, or industrial challenges set by organisations from various sectors, including Cyberview, Daikin, Entopia, iM4U, IQ Group, Ranhill, Sime Darby, Telekom Malaysia, and Wildlife Conservation Society.

The shortlisted teams then underwent training and received mentorship from the industry experts, while being supplied with state-of-the-art industry technology platforms that could assist them with their prototyping. The finalists were then selected to take part in the grand finale upon the submission of the participants’ final project paper.

Launched in October 2016, the IMDC 2017 received more than 390 creative ideas from the public, out of which 45 team of up to three participants per team made it to the final stage where they showcased their solutions to a panel of judges.

The projects were judged by the nine industry experts on their innovation, specification or validation plan, practicality, complexity, and working design, with the most important factor being innovation and working design on the designated platform.

Over RM100,000 in cash and prizes were awarded to the finalists of all tracks. However, it is the ViTrox track champion team from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia – comprising of electronic engineering majors Daniel Ng Chiu Loong, 24, Ang Miin Shan, 23, and Lee San Kong, 24 – who ultimately won the Innovate Excellence Award with their winning solution, an Internet of Things (IoT) smart parking system with machine vision, which came in the form of an app called Spot. The team worked under the supervision of Dr. Yusmeeraz Yusof from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of UTM.

“We developed the Spot app because we understand the difficulty of getting a parking spot at high-traffic areas, especially during lunchtime. By using IoT, we are able to provide real-time update on the availability of empty parking spots which provides time efficiency, and enhanced parking experience for Malaysians with a ‘reserved’ feature.

“The platform also allows drivers to communicate with each other within the app itself, for instance, for those who are involved in a double-parking situation,” shared Ng.

“Winning the IMDC 2017 gave us a boost of confidence in our technological solution ideas, and we hope to take our app further and make it available for the public in the near future.”

sourced from: Digital News Asia