KUCHING – A disaster early warning and evacuation planning system proposed by a Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus undergraduate student and an academic recently won the country category of a United Nations competition.
The two were named Malaysian winners in the Big Ideas Competition 2016: Sustainable Cities and Urban Communities which saw 278 entries from ASEAN member countries and the Republic of Korea.
Engineering and computer science double degree student Foong Chee Hin and computing senior lecturer Dr Loke Kar Seng from the Faculty of Engineering, Computing and Science at the Australian university campus were the brains behind the Disaster Early Warning and Dynamic Evacuation Planning System.
After brain-storming on numerous ideas, the two settled on developing the system which was resilient against attacks on its servers with a dynamic evacuation plan that could adjust and adapt to the situation.
The submission of their proposal for the competition was followed up with a video presentation by Foong on the system.
“I completed the video over one weekend soon after my final examinations,” said the 26-year-old. “It was due on Monday, so I had to burn some midnight oil to make sure the content meets the competition’s requirements.”
Held entirely online, proposals submitted by participants had to fulfil data-driven needs that could advance the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals with a focus on its Goal #11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.
Final judging was done through video conferencing in the form of an interview by a panel made up of representatives from among the organisers.
The Big Ideas Competition: Sustainable Cities and Urban Communities is a collaboration between the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning of the Republic of Korea, the National Information Society Agency of the Republic of Korea, the Korea Association for ICT Promotion, the Korea Big Data Alliance, the United Nations Development Programme Asia and the Pacific, United Nations Volunteers, and Pulse Lab Jakarta.
The annual competition seeks data-driven solutions to advance basic service delivery, sustainable transport and energy, resilience to natural disasters and climate change, and harmonious urban environments.
