Five Students from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Chang Wai Sin PHD student from FABU, Chin Chia Yuan from AHIBS, Soh Ghee Hou from FKE, Low Kai Choong from FKM and Mohamed Zakarya Fekry from FC participated in TECHSTARS STARTUP WEEKEND ISKANDAR PUTERI @ IPSMART “CREATE” 2019 at Iskandar Puteri from 28th-30th June 2019. They won the overall winner prize and the crowd favorite category with their business idea: “The Third Eye”.

The idea is to help blind people to detect objects in front of them and have the ability to read text. The prototype was a wearable bag with an input camera and output audio speaker that applies the technology of image processing, machine learning and text to audio conversion. The team competed with other 14 teams with various backgrounds of developers, entrepreneurs, marketing experts, and designers from Johor region.

IP SMART 2019: The third Startup Weekend in Iskandar Puteri by Startup Johor!

Startup Weekend was a 54-hour events designed to provide superior experiential education for technical and non-technical entrepreneurs. Whether you are looking for feedback on an idea, a co-founder, specific skill sets, or a team to help you execute, Startup Weekend was the perfect environment in which to test your ideas and take the first steps towards launching your own startup. Beginning with open mic pitches on Friday, attendees brought their best ideas and inspired others to join their team. Over Saturday and Sunday, teams focused on customer development, validating their ideas, practicing LEAN Startup Methodologies and building a minimal viable product (MVP). On Sunday evening teams demonstrated their prototypes and received valuable feedback from a panel of experts.

It was also the third time for Chin Chia Yuan (AHIBS) from Nescafe UTM under UTM XCITE and second time for Chang Wai Sin (FABU) to participate in IP SMART TECHSTARS STARTUP WEEKEND ISKANDAR PUTERI organized by Startup Johor and won prizes consecutively since 2018.

Below are their achievements who brought up the name of UTM in the startup events:

1. Third IP SMART     28th-30th June 2019  – Grand Prize Winner & Crowd Favorite
2. Second IP SMART 17th-19th Aug 2018   – Winner of Social Enterprise Category
3. First IP SMART       26th-28th Jan 2018   – Grand Prize Winner

In IP SMART 2019, there was a total of 4 UTM teams with 16 students participated in this event mainly led by @Chin Chia Yuan from AHIBS, @Dr Ruzimi Mohamed , @Azwad Abib with the team of 4th year FKE Mechatronic students, @Wong Yat Weng with the robocon team of 2nd year FKE Mechatronic students.