Chili, Masks and Technology
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by Nur Ariana Iman binti Mohd Farid
From 6th to 18th July 2020, Collaborative Research in Engineering, Science and Technology (CREST), held two competitions, namely TheGreatLab Precision Farming Hackathon and TheGreatLab Smart City Hackathon. It was participated by various high schools, colleges and universities. Kolej Yayasan Saad sent a team to each competition under the high school category, with both teams being Form 2 students. The judging session was held via Zoom, with workshops and talks before that through Microsoft Team and Google Meet.
Precision Farming Hackathon
This team consisted of:
- Adam Farhan bin Fariq
- Shafeeq Zaim bin Samsulnazri
- Khairil Haziq bin Kasmadi
- Nur Ariana Iman binti Mohd Farid
As expected, our main problem throughout the competition was meeting up. After countless meetings with problems getting connected to the WiFi and the computer screen freezing, we finally came up with the FGC01 (Farming Gadget CREST 01).
Our device focuses mainly on reducing the import of chili by Malaysia. FGC01 is a device that will allow our target audience, who are people living in the urban areas, to start their own chili farms through the use of precision farming. It is linked to an app that will help users monitor their plants and its surroundings. We use multiple sensors and a camera to help with monitoring. Besides, we hope our gadget would create more job opportunities while boosting the economy of Malaysia with zero wastage.
Smart City Hackathon
This team consisted of:
- Omar bin Idi Fazlul
- Harith Amsyar bin Anuar
- Nurul Iffah binti Mastor
Overall, the experience was a bit challenging as it was our first time participating in a competition. We had online gatherings everyday. Luckily there were no problems. Using Miro to gather up our ideas, we finally created the “ReCover Project”.
Our project focuses on pandemics such as the Covid-19 pandemic and the littering of face masks in public. Our idea is a Smart Bin that will encourage the public to throw their masks into the proper place. We developed a point system to increase the people’s interest to participate in this project. On a smaller scale, we target students but we hope to bring it to a larger scale one day as we aim to introduce it to the public to ensure a pandemic-ready society.
Judging and Results
The farming team had their judging day on the 15th while the other team had theirs a day later. Luckily, we were all already in school, thus everything went well. It was a nerve-wracking moment just to wait for the judges to come online. We tried our best to stay calm, present with confidence and answer questions with ease.
On the 18th of July, the results were finally announced on the competition websites. We were overwhelmed to find out that Team Farming won first prize and will receive a prize of RM900, free seats to CREST workshop and also an electronic kit! Other than that, we are eligible to apply for TGL’s project seed fund, which is worth RM1,000 and we are also going to participate in the Grand Finale Challenge 2020 in Johor around November to December. Team Smart City also won with the consolation price and will receive a cash price of RM200.
We thank the school and our coaches for guiding us throughout this competition and we from Team Farming, hope to bring back another win for KYS in the next challenge. Wish us luck!
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