Curtin Malaysia team wins Innovation Excellence Award for groundbreaking AgriSmartEye system

Miri, Sarawak – 27 May 2024 – The AgriSmartEye research team of Curtin University Malaysia (Curtin Malaysia) recently made the university proud by winning an Innovation Excellence Award for its AgriSmartEye system for analysing black pepper at the Sarawak Digital Economy Corporation (SDEC) Technology Accelerator Demo Day 2024 in Kuching.

This team comprises Professor Agus Saptoro, Terence Chia Yi Kai, Professor Garenth Lim King Hann, and Associate Professor Chua Han Bing, who were also winners of Curtin University’s much-coveted annual Curtinnovation Award in 2021, and gold medallists at InTEX 2022 and PECIPTA 2022, two prestigious national innovation competitions.

Chia received the award on behalf of the team from Dato Sri Roland Sagah Wee Inn, Minister for Education, Innovation and Talent Development, Sarawak, during the event.

Also present at the awards ceremony were Datuk Francis Harden Hollis, Deputy Minister for Talent Development, Sarawak; Datu Haji Azmi bin Haji Bujang, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Innovation and Talent Development; Tan Sri Datuk Amar Haji Mohamad Morshidi Bin Abdul Ghani, Chairman of Sarawak Development Economic Corporation (SDEC); and Ir. Ts. Sudarnoto Osman, SDEC’s Chief Executive Officer.

Themed ‘Propelling Deep Tech Breakthroughs’, the demo day saw the participation of teams from Cohorts 1 and 2 of SDEC Technology Accelerator (STAcc) Programme, which were funded and mentored by SDEC and the Malaysian Technology Development Corporation (MTDC) to develop and commercialise new technologies.

According to Professor Agus, black pepper is an important agricultural commodity in Sarawak, contributing to more than 95 per cent of Malaysia’s pepper industry. As a premium product sold internationally, it is important to ensure that it is sold as a pure, unadulterated product without added lower grade pepper or bulk contaminants. Furthermore, existing methods to detect the quality of the pepper are time-consuming and uneconomical.

He said AgriSmartEye is a rapid, reliable, and cost-effective screening tool that combines hyperspectral imaging technologies with deep learning artificial neural networks (DLANN) to detect not only adulterants but also the chemical properties and origin of black pepper samples.

Preliminary research and lab testing was funded by SDEC, and current partners in technological development and prototyping include SDEC, MTDC, the Malaysian Pepper Board and Vietnam’s Pepper Research and Development Centre (PRDC). Potential users of the tool will be local producers, traders and regulatory bodies such as the Malaysian Pepper Board (MPB).

The system greatly impressed the judges, comprising early investors, Intellectual Property (IP) agents, and SDEC technology ecosystem partners, during the demo day’s TechXcelerate Pitching Session.

The impact of AgriSmartEye will be significant given that it is the first screening tool to apply combined hyperspectral imaging and DLANN. The technology is fast with chemical analysis and geographical origin tracing taking under three minutes and is almost 100 per cent accurate.

With such a system, the local black pepper industry and regulatory bodies will be able to rapidly, accurately and cost-effectively monitor product quality and ensure customer safety. The system can also be adapted for other products that are prone to adulteration such as coffee, cocoa, sago and vanilla.

For further information about AgriSmartEye, contact Professor Agus Saptoro at agus.saptoro@curtin.edu.my or Terence Chia at terence_chia@postgrad.curtin.edu.my.

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

Chia (3rd right) representing the AgriSmartEye team receiving the award from Sagah, witnessed by (from right) Azmi, Francis, Morshidi, and Sudarnoto