Thumbs up: Woon, Ee, Hoh and Khor (from left) posing for a photo after their win.
Team DoBetter aces hackathon with AI innovation
AS digital transformation continues to be a top priority for global business organisations, tertiary education institutions are expected to play a vital role in producing an innovative workforce to meet the growing market demand.
Team DoBetter, comprising undergraduates from Asia Pacific University of Technology & Innovation (APU) computer science and information technology programmes, recently showcased how young talents can bridge the gap for 77% of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia that are still in the early stages of digitalisation.
Led by Hoh Shen Yien, the team, comprising Khor Zhen Win, Nicole Ee Sze Mien and Woon Eusean, emerged as the grand champion at ImpactHack 2023.
The nationwide hybrid hackathon, organised by Standard Chartered Malaysia and hosted by JomHack, focused on digitalising Malaysian SMEs to transform the industry.
The students stood out among 100 teams with over 350 participants, including industry professionals from all over the country, and were rewarded with a cash prize of RM30,000.
Their project, BizFlow, is a centralised data intelligence solution featuring a user interface (UI) that provides a general-purpose solution with potential benefits for various industries.
The team successfully navigated the 48-hour virtual hackathon held from June 16 to 18, qualifying as one of the top 10 teams.
They then captured the attention of the judges during a five-minute presentation at the grand final, which took place at the Asian International Arbitration Centre in Kuala Lumpur on June 24.
“BizFlow was developed using Next.js, React, and Flask, enabling us to build a functional website with a seamless UI and high performance within a short time.
“This allowed us to distinguish ourselves from our competitors. Overall, our team demonstrated exceptional skills in data science, business and marketing, web development, innovation, and creativity,” said Hoh in a press release.
By highlighting the challenges faced by SME owners, the team demonstrated how BizFlow can digitalise day-to-day operations and business processes using artificial intelligence (AI).
“BizFlow went the extra mile by enabling the inclusion of media, such as images and videos, in the output, and by automating user actions, allowing for message sending, posting of social media images, and even providing video recommendations based on user prompts,” Hoh said, adding that a voice recognition feature, was also included in their innovation.
Team DoBetter, said APU School of Computing Assoc Prof Dr Tan Chin Ike, has set a remarkable example and benchmark for the next generation of innovators.
