Curtin Malaysia holds Tech Master Championship as part of STEM Fair

Miri – 5 December 2022 – The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Student Branch of Curtin University Malaysia (Curtin Malaysia) recently hosted a Tech Master Championship to promote innovation and creativity among Curtin Malaysia students in conjunction with the IEEE STEM Fair held at its campus.

The championship was organised in collaboration with IEEE Region 10 Women in Engineering (WIE) and TEGAS Community Innovative Learning (TCIL).

Nine teams of students participated in the challenge, from which three were chosen by a panel of judges for the top three prizes based on the merits of their engineering and science projects.

Coming out tops was team ‘Fantastic 3’ comprising Jack Tan Zhen Shiun, Ryan Chee Lit Zhi and Koo Yu Wei for their ‘IoT Rubbish Bin with Mosquito Trap’ project, which is a combination of smart Internet of Things (IoT) mosquito trap and rubbish bin that can help to reduce mosquito infestation and maintain cleanliness at the same time.

The device not only catches and kills mosquitos that might linger around the bin, which can also be used as a general-use rubbish bin, a built-in sensor detects if the bin is full and alerts users via phone to replace the garbage bag inside.

Team leader Tan said mosquito infestation can be a problem on the campus at times, making it inconvenient for students to work outdoors for long periods. This prompted the team to devise mosquito traps to place around the campus and, following a few prototypes, they came up with the novel idea to add a rubbish bin underneath as a dual-purpose solution.

The first runner-up prize went to team ‘Gnosis’ comprising Solomon Haw Wei Wern, Shawn Chok Siu Shen and Terence Yew Wei Lin for their innovation of an energy-efficient and environment-friendly smart streetlight with sensors.

The solar-powered streetlight is designed with an electrical fault detection system built using Arduino and Node-RED. Sensors are embedded in the system to remotely detect time of failure and type of failure (battery, lamp or solar panel) of individual streetlights. Whenever there is a failure, warning messages will be sent to a mobile phone via SMS.

Second runner-up was team ‘Rocks’ consisting of Liong Jie Sze, So Kar Lok, Darren Ting Chung Yee and Wong Voon Xing for their project titled ‘Smart Watch for Elders’, which is a wearable IoT device (watch) that prevents elderly wearers from falling down.

The watch features a main page that shows the current time and date and key functions such as heartbeat measurement, fall detection, and medical reminders. If the watch detects a fall, it will send a message alert to a predefined responder.

The panel of judges for the challenge comprised Zarustina Putit from All Aboard Young Leader Centre, Bong Chu Jun from Ultech Technology and Hamzah Hamizan from Tabung Ekonomi Gagasan Anak Sarawak (TEGAS) Digital Village and Digital Innovation Hub.

IEEE Curtin Malaysia Student Branch chair Andrea Wong Saen Er thanked the teams for their participation, saying their innovations could have wider applications that could impact the community in the future.

“We look forward to more students joining competitions like this to showcase their projects and innovations and help develop solutions to problems faced by the community,” she said.

Advisor to the student branch, Associate Professor Garenth Lim King Hann, meanwhile said, “We encourage our students to not just to develop innovative solutions for competitions, but also develop a technopreneurship mindset that would benefit them in the long term.”

He said IEEE holds events such as the IEEE Innovation Nation to specifically promote a business mindset and the creating of impactful and meaningful solutions that benefit the society. Students are encouraged to leverage their practical skillsets with the aim of eventually commercialising their innovations.

Information on Curtin Malaysia can be found on its website at www.curtin.edu.my, or look for Curtin Malaysia on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn or TikTok.

Team Fantastic 3 with their winning IoT Rubbish Bin with Mosquito Trap project