UTM-DHL Data Challenge: The Sustainable Food Nexus 2023
The SUSTAINABLE FOOD NEXUS DATA CHALLENGE 2023 was successfully organised by the Faculty of Computing, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia powered by DHL. This data challenge was sponsored by Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), Iskandar Investment Berhad (IIB), UTM Centre for Student Innovation and Technology Entrepreneurship (XCITE), Wavelet Solutions Sdn Bhd and Certiify started off with the preliminary round, which featured 35 teams of undergraduate students from public and private universities across Malaysia, including UTM, APU, TAR-UMT, UKM, UM, UMP, UMS, UTEM, UiTM, UTP, UUM, Southern University College, University of Southampton, The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus and University of Wollongong.
Organizing committee, mentors, judges, and sponsors for The Sustainable Food Nexus Data Challenge
The main objective of this event is to encourage young talent to address global food system sustainability issues by harnessing the power of data analytics. This competition challenged participants to analyse data sets on three areas – food safety, food loss and waste, and greenhouse gas emissions – and gain valuable insights from them. Ten finalist teams were selected from the preliminary round, mentored by Jonah Lau (SiniSana Technologies), Arif Makhdzir (Braintree Technologies), Chris Fong and Kelveen Soh (FeFiFo), Mohd Nazrul (Kapitani), Teo Teck Guan (GradientX Academy).
Finalists of The Sustainable Food Nexus Data Challenge
The final round will take place on 6 October 2023 at the DHL Global Centre of Excellence, Medini 6, where finalists will present their analysis and solutions to a panel of judges from both agriculture industry and data-related business units. Ray Leung, Head of DHL Global of Excellence, welcomed the finalist teams from UTM, UMS, APU, UKM, UUM, UM and TAR-UMT in his opening speech.
The first prize went to Team Kinabalu Data who flew all the way from Sabah. APU won the second and third prizes, represented by Team Trio Endah and Eliza and Team Koi. Two finalist teams from UTM did not win any prizes but put in great efforts in preparing their analysis and presentation. Dr Larry Wong (Senior Visiting Fellow, Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) Malaysia), Angie Lim (Head of Digital Data & AI Unit, MDEC) and Ridzwan Azhar (Project & Operation Manager, Coolcode Sdn Bhd), who represented the judges, were delighted with the brilliant ideas of the young minds and encouraged them to continue taking steps to play their role in the sustainability of the food system. Associate Professor Dr Abdul Rashid bin Husain, director of UTM XCITE, said in his closing speech that the programme successfully promoted quadruple helix initiatives and translated academic knowledge into something that would benefit the government, university, community and industry, especially in the areas of food safety, food loss and waste, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
First Prize Winner : Team Kinabalu Data from Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) with the pitch entitle Eco-friendly or Eco-Foe?: Analyzing GHG Emissions from Different Food Products and Its Implications for Food Security and Waste
Second Prize Winner : Team Trio Endah and Eliza from Asia Pacific University proposing sustainable beef production in Malaysia using data driven approach
Third Prize Winner : Team Koi from Asia Pacific University proposing Foodnet: Fostering Sustainable Solutions for Food Waste Reduction in the Supply Chain
The committee of the Faculty of Computer Science consists of staff (Dr Nor Erne Nazira Bazin, Dr Ahmad Najmi Amerhaider Nuar, Dr Suhaila Mohamad Yusuf, Dr Mohammad Iqbal Tariq Idris, Dr Izyan Izzati Kamsani), students and the technical team of the Faculty of Computer Science, supported by the team of the DHL Asia Pacific Innovation Centre, and worked closely together to organise this event. This is a sign of the close collaboration between the Faculty of Computer Science and the DHL Asia Pacific Innovation Centre, which celebrates its fourth year in 2023. Overall, this event was successfully organised thanks to the support of all sponsors, mentors and the tireless efforts of the organising committee. It is hoped that more events like this will be organised in the future to encourage younger generations to get involved in solving global problems.