IPOH: The Child Detection System in Vehicles, invented by two students from the Taiping Vocational College, won a gold medal at the Ninth World Inventor Award Festival (WIAF), organised by the Korea Invention News (KINEWS), recently.
The invention of Raja Nur Syafiqah Raja Shahidan and Mardiana Mokhtar, both 19, who are final year students of Diploma in Electronic Technology, is also named the best Electronic Innovation as well as fifth runner-up in the competition.
The college’s director, Kamarulzaman Nayan, said the results were announced by the organiser via email on Dec 3, while the prize-giving ceremony was held in Seoul, South Korea, on Dec 13.
“Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, entry was done online before Nov 10. For the winners, who could not attend the prize-giving ceremony, the results were informed through emails.
“This year’s competition received 30 entries from various countries, including Canada, India, Japan, Poland, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia and host South Korea.
“Malaysia was also shortlisted among the best 10,” he said when contacted here today.
On the winning invention, Kamarulzaman said the students came up with the idea to utilise microcontroller ESP32-CAM, a motion and thermal sensor, as well as a camera, following several fatalities involving children being trapped inside the vehicles due to the carelessness of the parents.
“Through the system, a notification will be activated as soon as the engine is turned off and the key is pulled out.
“When the sensor detects movement and temperature at the back seats, users will receive a photo and temperature message through the Telegram application via their registered mobile phones or computers,” he said, adding that the college also won a gold medal in the same event last year.
Kamarulzaman said Raja Nur Syafiqah and Mardiana’s innovation was selected from several outstanding final-year projects.
The invention also brought home the gold medal in the innovation category in the International Virtual Education, Invention, Innovation and Design Competition 2020 (iVEDIIC2020), organised by Universiti Teknologi Mara last month, he said.
“I hope this college can introduce more quality projects as part of efforts to embrace the culture of innovation, which is on the agenda of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) ,” he said.