Malaysian team heads to Hack the Planet 2021 finals

KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian team will be going to the Hack the Planet 2021 finals, says the Satellite Applications Catapult and the Commonwealth Secretariat.

It said that the Malaysian Terangi team made it into the finals after coming up with a wide-reaching idea that aims to deliver a toolbox of important environmental monitoring capabilities in a single technology platform.

"The toolbox includes modules for marine conservation areas, climate change monitoring, water quality, and the analysis of potential environmental threats," said the secretariat in a statement on Thursday (Oct 7).

Hack the Planet is an entirely virtual international ideas competition that brings together concepts from diverse communities living on the front-line in facing the challenges of the climate emergency and ocean sustainability across the Commonwealth, together with the technical resources to support the innovation of new solutions.

It is run by the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Satellite Applications Catapult and supported by Amazon Web Services, Deloitte, Maxar and Planet Labs.

The other finalists are from Gambia, Nigeria, along with two teams from United Kingdom as well as one more from Trinidad and Tobago.

The secretariat said that the ideas and commitment demonstrated by all six finalists to delivering real-world change greatly impressed the judges, who offered them their congratulations on reaching the final stage of the competition.

The finalists will now enter the final stage of the competition for a live pitch event, where they will pitch their concepts to a panel of expert judges.

The final event will be livestreamed on Oct 14, from 12:00 BST.

There is a prize-pool of £20,000 (RM113,755) plus over £85,000 (RM483,455) worth of satellite data and cloud computing services for the winners of the competition.

Earlier in the competition, 30 shortlisted teams were invited to participate in a rigorous, knowledge exchange programme where they learnt about satellite technologies and elements of design thinking that could support their ideas, and hone these into robust, compelling pitches.

To find out more, visit http://hacktheplanetcompetition.com/