Combo-photo shows the Swinburne Sarawak students (clockwise, from top left) Dennis, Darrell, Gabriel, Paul Cornelius and Thon, who staged a commendable performance at IMDC 2021.
KUCHING (Aug 17): Two teams consisting of students from the School of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) of Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus took home prizes worth RM3,500 from the recent Innovate Malaysia Design Competition (IMDC) 2021.
The first team comprising Dennis Lim Chia Yin, Darrell Lai Vui Kiat and Gabriel Kong Qi Hao won the ‘DHL Express Design Challenge’ with their project, ‘DHL AI-Driven Chatbot Assistant to Improve Customer and Employee Experience’.
Supervised by lecturers Dr Brian Loh and Dr Vong Wan Tze, the project was aimed at supporting DHL Express in maintaining quality customer service after working hours.
Towards achieving this, an artificial-intelligent (AI) chatbot had been developed with the objective of providing accurate answers to questions regarding shipping regulations, prohibited items by country and also shipment status.
“Different from script-based chatbots, the AI-driven assistant leverages on advanced natural language processing algorithms that enable the understanding of intent and also provision of human-like interactions.
“An administrative web system has also been created to allow DHL Express staff to monitor chatbot performance in terms of missed utterances, daily usage, and customer feedback.
“As a whole, the project combined AI and cloud technologies to provide a possible Industry 4.0 solution to serve customers efficiently,” said Swinburne Sarawak in a statement.
Under the supervision of lecturers Dr Lee Sue Han and Dr Joel Than, another Swinburne Sarawak team comprising Thon Pun Liang and Paul Cornelius Bong received the consolation prize in the ‘Intel Track’.
The duo proposed ‘The Development of Smart On-Road Surveillance System’ project, which focuses on creating a mass public solution to prevent car thefts, and provides on-road real-time surveillance using state-of-the-art deep-learning architectures and imaging processing techniques.
The project is a stepping stone to building a data-driven AI-based surveillance system that could open up the possibility of consistent and legitimate collection and analysis of citizen data on a large scale, and serve as a benchmark for crisis management systems today.
“This project’s solution firstly detects a car plate from the image obtained from a dash camera, followed by recognition of the characters and numbers of the car plate. This information is then paired with longitude and latitude information, and further transmitted to a cloud database for recording.
“This solution potentially allows authorities to determine the last known locations of stolen cars and cars that are linked to crime. Through this project, students are exposed to Python, Microsoft Azure, Intel’s Up Squared board and deep learning libraries,” said Swinburne Sarawak.
The IMDC is the largest national design competition in Malaysia that is open to students studying engineering, ICT, science, and mathematics.
The teams participating in the competition are involved in various technology tracks namely AWS, Intel, Keysight, Microsoft, SilTerra/CEDEC/Intel, as well as design challenges such as CREST, DHL Express, and Sarawak Energy.
A total of 215 teams from 27 universities from all over the country took part this year and from the total, 36 teams were shortlisted as finalists to compete for multiple prizes offered by industry partners as well as engineering professional bodies.
The finalists were graded based on innovation, specification or validation plan, practicality, complexity, and working design
Meanwhile, Swinburne Sarawak’s August 2021 intake is now open for enrolment into its foundation, diploma, degree, and master programmes.
All classes are expected to commence this Aug 30.
For more information, chat with Swinburne’s Education Counsellor via WhatsApp number 019-819 6353, or send emails to [email protected].
Online counselling on demand is also available from Monday to Sunday, 10am to 10pm daily.
For more information about Swinburne Sarawak, go to website www.swinburne.edu.my, Facebook page (@swinburnesarawak), Instagram (@swinburnesarawak), Twitter page (@Swinburne_Swk) or YouTube channel (Swinburne Sarawak).