CO-CREATING A BRIGHTER FUTURE

"The Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) understands that to keep up with the rapid changes in technology, we have to continually look for new ways of problem-solving and tap on the brightest minds in the field," said Senior Minister of State for Defence Dr Mohamad Maliki Bin Osman at the MINDEF Internet of Things (IoT) Challenge prize presentation ceremony.

The challenge saw 11 teams, selected from 49 entries, fight it out for the top prizes in a two-day hackathon held at the National Design Centre from 24 to 25 Sep. It was part of a series of IT-enabled events organised by MINDEF annually since 2014 to crowdsource ideas and co-create prototypes to improve its processes and operations.

IoT refers to everyday objects that have the capability to access the Internet and communicate with other devices through the Net.

The teams were paired with Subject Matter Experts from MINDEF and the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) to tackle the 11 problems which were divided into three categories -- Logistics, Building and Soldier Health & Safety. The teams also comprised members from tertiary institutes, industries and start-up companies.

For Military Expert (ME) 5 Edna Goh Sze Sze's team, which was the top team in the challenge, their inspiration was an idea already used in everyday life. "Our project is similar to the POPstations established by Singapore Post except that it can move on its own, thus making it a robot delivery man," said the Commanding Officer of the 8th Supply Depot in Changi Air Base.

"This will definitely help to cut down on the manpower resources required to deliver spare parts to the different units."

ME5 Goh's team project featured an unmanned, secure delivery 'robot' mounted on a self-balancing scooter that is capable of carrying payloads up to 80 kilogrammes.

She added: "When we send soldiers out to deliver items needed by other units, the soldiers may have to wait at the meeting place for quite a while for the unit to arrive and collect the good, thus resulting in long waits and low efficiency levels. However, with our project, I would be able to send out the items at any time and the users can pick up their items at their own convenience."

Captain (CPT) Desmond Lim Zhe Xian, whose team took the second prize, said: "The whole experience has been very rewarding for me as I got to spend a lot of time with the team to come up with viable solutions for real-world transport situations."

The Headquarters Transport supply officer's team came up with a mobile application that facilitates job creation, assignment and sends job trip alerts to the driver.

On the inspiration for their prototype, teammate Gerald Tham Zhi-Choong, a Project Manager (National Service Admin) from Defence Science & Technology Agency Enterprise IT, said: "We realised the need to invest more resources in maximising the limited manpower we have and this was the main impetus of the project.

"When we came up with this idea, we knew that it was versatile and could be applied outside the military field. In fact, when I came out for tea break just now, one of the judges came over and said that he would like a solution like this for him to unlock his personal vehicle with. Therefore, I believe that this project could have a great impact on not just the defence force, but in everyday life as well."

Cash prizes of $5,000, $3,500 and $2,500 were given to the top three winners respectively and their proposals will be further assessed for future implementation in MINDEF and the SAF.