The winners of V-MIIEx 2021 who represented UOW Malaysia KDU this year.

The winners of V-MIIEx 2021 who represented UOW Malaysia KDU this year.

By UOW Malaysia KDU

On the 2^nd July 2021, four teams of students from the UOW Malaysia KDU Penang School of Engineering, Computing & Built Environment, alongside their supervisors, participated in this year’s Virtual-Melaka International Intellectual Exposition (V-MIIEx 2021).

The Virtual-Melaka International Intellectual Exposition, or V-MIIEx, is an annual innovation competition organized by UiTM Melaka Campus to bring together ideas and inspiration that could fit commercial needs. This event creates a platform for researchers to establish networking, partnership and opportunities to collaborate with industry, and for this year, organizers astutely utilized the theme ‘Creativity in the New Norms’, as a call for participants to adopt an innovative mindset in a post-pandemic world.

Ang Jing Ming and Teo Chong Yaw from Department of Engineering won the Gold Medal in the Innovation Category with their “Sound Wave Fire Extinguisher” proposal. They argued how sound waves are the superior alternative solution to extinguishing a fire. For example, it is safe for the environment and does not have any residual leftovers. Even though it is not a new idea, it is yet to be effectively implemented in Malaysia.

For the invention category, Computing students Manickam Murugappan, Lam E. Shuen, Dicky Larson, Felicity Boey Mei Yen, and their supervisor Dr. Joshua Thomas, won the Gold Medal for their “COVIDNet” proposal. COVIDNet aims to implement a parallel architecture utilizing both sound and imagery towards achieving a high level of efficacy in diagnosing COVID-19. Through having a more accurate predictive tool through analyzing imaging, cough samples and utilizing machine learning diagnosis, it was proposed that COVID-19 could be more effectively prevented.

UOW Malaysia KDU Engineering student Tan Wai Chun and his supervisor, Mr. Koay Fong Thai won a Silver Medal in the Outbreak-Vention Category with their “Handwritten Score Recognition and Extraction System for Scored Answer Sheets” presentation. In the same category, Built Environment students Char Kar Jun, Wong Teck Wen, Brandon Pan Shiang Jiunn and Houssem Hanmami won the Bronze Medal with their “UOW Malaysia Virtual Open Day 2021” presentation with a video walkthrough of how the institution effectively connects with the public through the virtual open day platform to ease students and parents into exploring further study options during the pandemic. This project was supervised by Mr. John Poh.

At the award ceremony, the Rector of UiTM Melaka Branch, Professor Dr. Abd Halim Mohd Noor concluded how the competition is timely, especially as our nation and the world are going through a prolonged global pandemic.

He said, “the global Covid-19 pandemic has brought challenges especially towards the education industry which promptly forced the implementation of new ways of working and organizing activities to adapt to the new norms. A push was also made towards adopting extensive usage of technology in the workspace. In accommodating and adapting to this new working environment, people strived diligently to create and innovate in order to remain competitive and relevant. Therefore, this competition is being held to acknowledge the hard work of all those who have made innovations in this pandemic.”

Again, Congratulations to all the winners. We are so proud that every team representing UOW Malaysia KDU returned home with a prominent award and were able to showcase their great ideas and solutions to make the world a better place.