UTAR Lee Kong Chian Faculty of Engineering and Science (LKC FES) Biomedical Engineering student Wong Yi Jie received the certificate of Best Presenter at the virtual 2021 IEEE 12th Annual Ubiquitous Computing, Electronics & Mobile Communication Conference (IEEE UEMCON 2021), New York, USA. The conference was held from 1 to 4 December 2021.

The title of the paper was “Joint Disaster Classification and Victim Detection using Multi-Task Learning”. It was presented by Wong in session 13 of the IEEE UEMCON 2021. The research was supported under LKC FES Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering academic Ir Ts Dr Tham Mau Luen’s international research grant.

Wong walked away with a certificate of acknowledgement. When asked about the importance of receiving this recognition, he replied, “As an artificial intelligence enthusiast, this award motivates me to work harder and explore more interesting topics in the field.”

He then explained, “Most existing disaster detection methods fall under the class of single-task learning, which can either detect victims or classify disasters. So, our paper proposes a multi-task model which performs the aforementioned tasks simultaneously. In this research, we selected YOLOv3, which is one of the widely used object detectors as the victim detection model. Then, we modified the YOLOv3 model by adding extra layers for the disaster classification task. After several experiments, we were able to develop a multi-task model with results comparable to some of the state-of-the-art models for both tasks.”

When asked about the benefits of the research to society, Wong added, “According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the first 72 hours after a disaster are critical for rescuing survivors. To save victims as soon as possible, a disaster response system plays a vital role in facilitating search and rescue efforts. Based on the reported number of victims and activity of disasters, emergency response units can dispatch manpower more efficiently, which could save more lives. Our multi-task model is able to identify disaster activity and detect victims simultaneously, making it a useful tool to facilitate search and rescue efforts.”

Wong also encouraged other junior researchers to find out their interest in research and work hard on it. He enthused, “I am currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Engineering, however, I found my interest in artificial intelligence. I spend some extra time daily exploring interesting topics in this field.”

According to Dr Tham, this research paper is the output of the ICT Virtual Organization of ASEAN Institutes and NICT (ASEAN IVO)’s project titled “Context-Aware Disaster Mitigation using Mobile Edge Computing and Wireless Mesh Network”, an international research grant project which was funded by National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT). The co-authors include LKC FES Department of Mechatronics and BioMedical Engineering Head Dr Kwan Ban Hoe, LKC FES Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Head Ir Dr Chang Yoong Choon, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT, Japan) Senior Researcher Dr Yasunori Owada and University of Computer Studies (Yangon, Myanmar) Prof Myint Myint Sein.

The IEEE UEMCON 2021 was organised virtually this year. It provided the opportunity for researchers, educators and students to discuss and exchange ideas on issues, trends and developments in Computing, Electronics, and Mobile Communication. It aimed to bring together scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds to emphasise the dissemination of ongoing research in the fields of Ubiquitous Computing, Electronics, and Mobile Communication. The conference included a peer-reviewed programme of technical sessions and promoted an intense dialogue between academia and industry to bridge the gap between academic research, industry initiatives and governmental policies. This was fostered through panel discussions, keynotes, invited talks, and industry exhibits. The industry, in return, benefits by gaining exposure to leading-edge research in networking as well as gaining the opportunity to communicate with academic researchers regarding practical problems that require further research.