Prepared by: Floor Representative Council, Majlis Perwakilan Pelajar (MPK), 10th College 2020/2021 Session, UPM.

Prepared on: 8 February 2021

The IEEE SEACAS Hackathon is an international competition hosted for undergraduate students, trainees and graduates from Southeast Asian countries by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers – Circuits and Systems Society (IEEE CAS). This year, the competition was held via online due to the pandemic Covid-19. The category was divided into undergraduate and postgraduate categories. Two groups, The Elves and The Prodigies volunteered to take part in the event as the only participating team from Malaysia. They are the students from the Faculty of Engineering UPM who are also Tenth College students.  

This season, the challenge is to develop technology solutions associated with Circuits and System to overcome the problems occurring during the pandemic. All of the team were asked to create a solution for one of the problems such as social distancing, work/study from home, contact tracing, hospital capacity, Quarantine and Vaccine distribution. 

4 th February 2021, the first meeting starts at 9.30am GMT +7 Bangkok time. The host conducted the briefing session directly from Vietnam via Zoom followed by an opening speech from Vietnam IEEE-CAS chapter as the organizer for this season. At 10.30 am, all of the teams started to brainstorm with their team members and supervisors. Some of the team might have started to code their program on that day.

5 th February 2021, all of the teams continue working with their projects. The group representative from both teams of Malaysia went to Engineering Faculty, UPM to take the Arduino board and sensor kits. The components provided are limited so they need to find it elsewhere for the remaining components needed. It was a struggle to look for the components because most of the electronics stores are closed due to the Movement Restrictions Order at Selangor Area (not more than 10km). Turns out, both of the teams were disappointed and they have to change their plan.

6 th February 2021, all of the participants have to make their final preparation before the presentation time. The organizers of SEACAS Hackathon had given the time schedule for each team to present. The final session started at 8.30am GMT +7 Bangkok time with a short speech by the Vietnam IEEE-CAS organizer. Then, all of the team presented their slides and the session ended at noon with a closing speech by respected Yoshifumi Nishio, IEEE-CAS Top Society member. The results was announced 1 days after the programme through an email.

Both of the teams from Malaysia, The Elves and The Prodigies won the third prize and Fighting Spirit category respectfully. The Elves team members, Nur Farisha binti Shoeid, Nur Alifah Ilyana binti Mohd Sharihan, Norsyafiqah Atirah binti Muhamad Nazri and Clerence Lewin Champin had won the 150 usd for the third winning prize. The team has presented the idea on how to reduce depression and anxiety among the Covid-19 patients under quarantine. The team is supervised by AP Dr Syamsiah Mashohor. While The Prodigies, Aisswarya A/P K. Vasu, Kavieraj A/L Anbualagan, Sutehsan A/L B Gunasegaran, and Norshalisa Alis binti Zuremi won the Fighting Spirit category. The team has presented the idea on how to detect the social distancing amongst the people at public places. The team is supervised by AP Dr. Noor Ain Bt. Kamsani. Both of the teams were led by AP Ir. Dr. Fakhrul Zaman Rokhani as Malaysia IEEE-CAS chapter supervisor. The first winning prize goes to UET-X Alpha from Vietnam followed by ITB from Bandung, Indonesia and UET-Compiler from Vietnam team as well. All of the participants received a good experience from the virtual version of SEACAS Hackathon series besides the pandemic.

Date of Input: 02/07/2021 | Updated: 02/07/2021 | rahiza