Samsung Malaysia envisions a problem solving society through its Solve for Tomorrow competition

This post is brought to you by Samsung.

Inventions and breakthroughs revolving around the realm of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) have pushed humans to be a more tech centric society. Our lives are now more reliant on technology to tackle the issues and problems that we face – in medicine, teaching impairments, home tech, and etc.

An avenue to power these solutions and ideas has already been in the works with Samsung lending a platform through its Solve for Tomorrow competition globally held in the United States, Hong Kong, Singapore and now, Malaysia. A competition that challenges the minds and market-savviness of university students in the aforementioned disciplines to provide conceptualised solutions tasked at handling topical issues and day-to-day STEM related challenges faced by Malaysians.

Facilitating these ideas through the competition platform that pits 20 teams to pitch their concepts to a panel that have been in the industry long enough to tell whether these ideas are worth investing in. A final third tier pitching conducted earlier this month was to narrow down the 20 groups to a top 10 public presentation and to a final 3 groups that stand to receive a RM 20,000 (each) seed grant; Samsung Malaysia has also taken upon themselves to provide an internship experience and devices to go along with their learning trip to Samsung HQ, in South Korea.

Judging their pitches and works of innovation are a panelist of 5 well-versed individuals:

Ken Ding, Head of Product Innovation, South East Asia and Oceania, Samsung Electronics
Rushdi Abdul Rahim, Senior Vice President, MiGHT (Malaysia Industry-Government Group for High Technology)
Tan Eng Hoo, Founder and Vice President, MyTRIZ
Mohd Yazid bin Sairi, Assistant Director, Industry Relations, Ministry of Higher Education

Teams were given only 5 minutes to present their ideas together with their stage 3 beta prototypes, followed by another 5 minutes for a Q&A session with the panelist above. Taking the stage, the 10 groups sent their representatives each having to showcase their prototypes and address the problems they chose to tackle.

An unassuming trend was starting to form when they announced the winning top 3; all of them had their own ways of benefiting the field of medicine. In no particular order, the winners were:

Lower Extremity Exoskeleton (LEE) – a mechanical based exoskeleton that serves to help those with walking impairments, enabling them to stand and walk for longer periods. The group of boys from TARUC Selangor managed to get their 3^rd prototype to only cost RM 150 (approx) and be light enough to promote ease of use.

Flex Controlled Electrical Wheelchair – based at the same university as previously mentioned group, this team managed to put together an electronic wheelchair that utilises a flex sensing technology to allow motorised movement through bending movements. It will be meant for disabled groups that have difficulty in moving their hands to adjust joysticks of the current generation of motorised wheelchairs.

Interactive and Portable Rehabilitation for the Disabled (IPRD) – a device purposed towards rehab patients going through physiotherapy, data can be recorded and analysed on the sensors’ attachment to determine rate of fatigue and instances when muscles fail. The wearable device interacts with computer or mobile games that uses motion controls through Bluetooth; making the whole experience a lot more fun and gratifying.

Some noteworthy groups that didn’t make the top 3 include the following:

Insects’ Zapper – a team of foundation students from TARUC that defined the current-age of fly-swatters and insect zappers to be a level below their own creation; a bendable zapper that improves efficiency to rid homes and other spaces of flying insects. This young team’s focus was to lessen energy exertion while improving the device’s impact resistance. A feat that lead them winning the people’s choice awards.

Mosquito Buster – an ultrasonic humidifying system that uses a combination of water and lemongrass to repel mosquitoes from inhibiting a large area. The team from UNITEN tested their prototypes around campus (a top 10 dengue site) and after which, cases were non-existent.

6-Sense – a passive way of detecting blood glucose levels; an amazing invention made for diabetic patients that have to face constant finger pricking and blood-testing to monitor their sugar levels. The wearable system itself is in the form of a glove, enhanced by infrared sensors to detect blood glucose under the skin. However, KDU student Lim Wai Xiang didn’t manage to get the prototype to work when demonstrating earlier in the day.

At Malaysia’s first Samsung Solve for Tomorrow competition they saw 108 submissions from their 5 Demo Days held at selected universities across 5 states. Next year they hope to make it greater and bigger to allow more public and private university students a chance at solving the society’s STEM related problems. You can check out the competition page here.