The Faculty of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (FKEE) of Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) hosted and co-organised the Innovate Malaysia Design Competition of 2018 (IMDC 2018) for Southern Region, held in Iskandar Puteri, Johor on the 28th and 29th of April 2018. It was a first for a university to be appointed as host. The event was officiated by Professor Ts. Dr. Ruzairi Abdul Rahim, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation) of UTHM. Among the honoured guests include Ir. Mohd Salehoddin Abdul Hamid, Senior Vice President, Special Project Division of Iskandar Investment Berhad; Mr. Jason Phang Sin Mun, Engineering Manager of Intel Corporation; Sr. Dr. Noorsidi Aizuddin Mat Noor, Manager (Technovation Park) of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia; Profesor Dr. Jose Rajan, Dean of Research (Technology) of Universiti Malaysia Pahang; Profesor Dr. Hashim Saim, Dean of FKEE, UTHM; and Dr. Hor Poh Jin, Co-founder and Director of DreamCatcher Consulting. The participants consisted of students from UTHM, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP) and other local universities.
IMDC 2018, the largest design competition held in Malaysia, was open to participation from third or final year of Engineering, Computer Science, Information Technology and Science/Mathematics students. Participants could choose to compete in either the Technology Track or Design Challenge categories. They could also compete in both. The goal of the competition was to promote the innovative culture in engineering design work, through tackling real-world problems with practical engineering solutions. The competition also aimed at grooming talents for product research, development and commercialisation.
The Technology Tracks were provided by co-organisers from Google, Intel, Keysight, MathWorks, Microsoft, SAS, SilTerra/CEDEC and SOLIDWORKS. The Design Challenges, on the other hand, were supplied by Celcom, Cyberview, Daikin, Exabytes, Telekom Malaysia and WCS Malaysia. The panelof judges were representatives from these companies and the winner for each category was chosen through a rigorous and careful selection.
Only winners for certain Technology Tracks and Design Challenge were announced during the prize giving ceremony. The winners will automatically become the finalists for IMDC 2018 Grand Finale to be held in July of this year. The winner for SilTerra/CEDEC track was awarded to the team from Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM). For Intel – Lifestyle track, the winning team was from UTHM. The winners for SOLIDWORKS, Mathworks, Keysight, Microsoft, Google, Intel – IoT and Intel – FPGA tracks were teams from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). The overall winner for Intel technology tracks was the Intel – IoT team from UTM. Only the finalist for TM Design Challenge was announced in this event and they were the team from UTM.
The IMDC 2018 for Southern Region was sponsored by the DreamCatcher Consulting as the Industry Host and supported by the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia. Iskandar Investment Berhad as the venue host has granted the use of Iskandar Space as the venue of the event.
