A team of six Bachelor of Science (Honours) Software Engineering students from UTAR Lee Kong Chian Faculty of Engineering and Science (LKC FES) was awarded first runner-up at the AIA Hackathon 2022 held at AIA Training Centre, Kuala Lumpur on 27, 28 and 30 June 2022.

The members of the team included Leong Kam Ga, Eyu Jer Min, Chin Kai Wen, Goh Pei Jin, Jong Jian Yi and Sia Chong Perng. As the proud winners of second place, they walked away with a cash prize of RM2,500.

The AIA Hackathon 2022 was a competition open to only 50 participants. It was jointly organised by AIA Malaysia and Human Inc. It aimed to assist AIA in building the future of insurance, mental health, and sustainability. It also served as an opportunity for participants to meet professionals from AIA, receive potential internship opportunities, and learn new business skills to boost innovation.

The team of six enthused, “Winning the first runner-up is indeed a rewarding and motivating experience because it validates our skills, abilities and also our hard work. We joined the hackathon as we were motivated by the opportunity to get recognition and make connections with industry professionals, mentors and others in the software and insurance industry. Other than that, it is a valuable learning opportunity to enhance our soft skills such as communication, problem-solving, and collaboration skills which are essential in any professional sector.”

The team also expressed their gratitude towards UTAR for the useful skills provided to them during their study. They said, “UTAR has prepared us with the knowledge we need to win the hackathon by providing relevant and comprehensive courses. For instance, the knowledge and hands-on experience we gained from the Human-Computer Interaction Design course are useful in building a good prototype in the hackathon. Software Entrepreneurship is also one of the courses that prepared us to build the business model canvas. It acted as the key guideline for us to put ourselves in our clients’ shoes.”

The team brainstormed for two days before coming up with a prototype that secured them second place. “Our prototype is a mental health monitoring and analysis mobile application incorporated with the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI). The application is proposed to raise public awareness of mental health and help people who are suffering from mental health. It keeps track of users’ moods, heart rates and blood pressure. The data will be used by AI to perform predictive analytics. The AI-based virtual agent will reach out to the users proactively if the results show symptoms of mental health degradation. It acts as a channel for users to pour out their feelings, thus comforting their emotions and leading them to live a healthier lifestyle by giving free consultations and courses,” explained the team about their award-winning prototype.