Curtin Malaysia team second in #ShellSelamatSampai Varsity Challenge

Miri – 16 October 2018 – Team Wake Up! of Curtin University Malaysia (Curtin Malaysia) came in an incredibly close second (by just a 0.1 point difference) to champions Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) in the Grand Finale of the #ShellSelamatSampai Varsity Challenge (#SSSVC) 2018 in Kuala Lumpur recently.

The team also garnered the most public votes for the project it developed for the competition.

Wake Up! along with team Single Change for Extra Chance from Curtin Malaysia were among five teams selected to compete in the Grand Finale held in conjunction with the #mydigitalmaker Fair held at Axiata Arena in Bukit Jalil.

The #ShellSelamatSampai Varsity Challenge is an inter-varsity road safety innovation competition organised by Sarawak Shell Berhad under its flagship road safety initiative #ShellSelamatSampai in collaboration with the Road Safety Department, Road Transport Department, Royal Malaysia Police, Malaysian Institute of Road Safety (Miros), Public Works Department, residents’ associations, local councils and district offices, and selected schools, colleges and universities.

Aimed at improving road safety behaviours amongst youths and making a significant difference in the way youths approach road safety, the competition empowers university students to embark on road safety projects that would contribute towards achieving zero road-related accidents among youth and motorcyclists.

This year’s competition saw the participation of 15 teams from Curtin Malaysia, UNIMAS, Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Monash University Malaysia and Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Selangor.

The teams were selected based on their project proposals and each team was given a RM1,000 start-up fund to embark on an eight-week project implementation. At the end of the implementation, the teams submitted their final reports and the best five were shortlisted for the final project presentation in the Grand Finale.

Along with Wake Up! and Single Change for Extra Chance, two teams from UMS, and one team from UNIMAS made it to the finals. Each team presented its innovative road safety intervention prototype or device to a panel of judges.

Wake Up! consisted of mechanical engineering students Leong Yuh Chyi, Isabela Nina Kustanto and Gillian Anak Harold; electrical and computer engineering student Marcos Jay T. Concon; and environmental engineering student Johnny Wong Kee Hong. They were mentored by mechanical engineering programme coordinator and senior lecturer Dr. Sumaiya Islam.

The team’s project called ‘SteerSafe’ is an innovative solution to mitigate fatigue driving. Whenever the system, which comprises a capacitive sensor and a gyroscopic sensor, detects any divergence in the manoeuvring of a vehicle, the driver will be alerted to stay focused via vibrations emanating from the steering wheel cover.

Capacitive sensors work by generating an electric field and detecting nearby objects by sensing whether the field has been disrupted. Such sensors can detect anything that is conductive or has a significantly different permittivity to air, in this case human hands. This allows it to be used as a hands-off/hands-on detector on the steering wheel. If the driver’s hands are detected as being off the steering wheel, a buzzer will sound to alert the driver.

The gyroscopic sensor, meanwhile, detects the position of the steering wheel. When it detects that the driver is distracted, the vibration modules housed inside the device will vibrate to alert the driver.

“The gyroscopic module detects minor shifts in the angle of the steering wheel followed by large shifts. This is often an indication of distracted driving but can also occur when one is changing from one lane to another. Further refinements to the algorithm will still need to be conducted to increase the system’s accuracy,” said group leader Leong.

Leong said the #ShellSelamatSampai Varsity Challenge is a good platform for university students to showcase their engineering and entrepreneurial talents.

“I was very thrilled to see so much homegrown technology at work. We tend to look to the United States, Europe, China or Japan for the latest technology, but we should not forget to develop our own technology,” he said.

Wong said the team members were proud to be able to apply their classroom knowledge to design and develop an innovative solution to improve road safety in Malaysia.

“In addition to collaborating with my team members, interacting and connecting with like-minded students from other universities across Malaysia during the competition was a fantastic experience," he said.

Marcos Jay said the Challenge is a good platform to raise awareness of road safety issues among youths given that Malaysia has one of the highest rates of road fatalities in the world.

Isabela, meanwhile, said it was her first time participating in such a competition and she learned a great deal from the experience, while Gillian remarked that the interaction and exchanging of ideas with other students was the best part of the competition.

Single Change for Extra Chance’s project entitled ‘We Are Here’, meanwhile, involved a smart device called Car-Voice that can be installed in vehicles to send information to other cars and notify their drivers when overtaking.

The team comprised David Ha Heng Lee, Cheryl Chang Mei Xin, Marcus Lai Poh Juan, Sia Chun Wan and Eveline Kau Shat Lee and was mentored by electrical and computer engineering lecturer Pang Po Ken.

Besides the grand finale of the #ShellSelamatSampai Varsity Challenge, the #mydigitalmaker Fair 2018, which was held in collaboration with Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), showcased Shell's science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) initiatives comprising the #MyGeekMovement Access to Energy (A2E) project, Shell EcoMarathon and the Shell V-Power VroomPuzzleKitworkshop.

Shell Malaysia Trading Sdn Bhd managing director Shairan Huzani Husain said that though the #ShellSelamatSampai Varsity Challenge is a road safety initiative, the devices and interventions created are very much STEM-related as they involve technology and innovation.

He said Shell’s STEM support seeks not only to inspire more young people to pursue careers in science and engineering, but to equip them with the skills that will prepare them for the jobs of tomorrow.

For more information on Curtin Malaysia, visit its website (www.curtin.edu.my), its Facebook page (CurtinMalaysia), Twitter profile (curtinmalaysia), Google+ page (Curtin Malaysia), Instagram (curtinmalaysia) or YouTube channel (Curtin Malaysia).