LKC FES student wins first place in AI design competition

Ho Wei Liang

Ho Wei Liang, a student from UTAR Lee Kong Chian Faculty of Engineering and Science (LKC FES) recently won first place in the AI Impact Creator (over 18s) category at the 2022 Intel Building Digital Readiness Program, an online Artificial Intelligence (AI) design competition developed for youths (aged 13 to 19 years old), tertiary education students and educators from high schools and tertiary education institutions. The award ceremony took place on 23 July 2022 via Microsoft Teams.

Organised by Intel Malaysia in collaboration with the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia (MCMC), and Collaborative Research in Engineering, Science & Technology (CREST), the programme aimed to provide youths with the opportunity to learn AI skills and apply them responsibly to design any AI solution.

Ho managed to successfully win first place with his final year project titled Fire Monitoring and Detection Using Federated Learning Approach. When asked about his project, Ho explained, “This project uses the computer vision method with a fire and smoke detection algorithm to spot the warning signs of a wildfire, before it fully breaks out. I presented an innovative approach that uses drones to monitor the forest according to a schedule, whilst protecting the data at the same time to avoid any privacy laws, using the Federated Learning approach. To develop the system, multiple Intel technologies were used, such as the OpenFL framework, OpenVINO Toolkit, and Intel’s Next Unit of Computing (NUC).”

Ho took home several prizes which included one unit of Intel NUC 11 Pro Kit NUC11TNKv5, certificates of excellence and participation, and a special invitation to the Intel AI Global Impact Festival 2022. All prizes were sponsored by Intel. He also mentioned that he would utilise the prize to further enhance his final year project.

Lastly, Ho expressed his gratitude for winning the competition. He said, “There was a lot of competition in this programme, as the other finalists were from other top universities. This competition, however, has exposed me to something new and pushed me beyond my boundaries. It was truly an honour for me to win the first prize in the AI Impact Creator (over 18s) category. I am also thrilled to receive an invitation to attend the Intel AI Global Impact Festival 2022.” He also thanked his supervisors and the university for their assistance. He said, “I would like to take this opportunity to thank my FYP supervisor, Ir Ts Dr Tham Mau Luen and my co-supervisor, Dr Kwan Ban Hoe for their support, guidance, and help in completing my final year project. I, too, would like to thank UTAR for providing me with a tremendous academic background and allowing me to develop my potential in this national-level competition.”

Ho receiving his award at the prize-giving ceremony

UTAR is extremely proud and congratulates Ho on this amazing achievement.