Chips@School Singapore 2021

Chips@School Singapore 2021 

In the current pandemic situation, many patients at hospitals have to spend their time in isolation with limited social interaction. How can we help maintain social connection and improve their mental health? 

This was the problem that a team of students from Greendale Secondary School tried to tackle with their concept, “Connect AI – Connecting the ill”, using AI to match patients with similar conditions and interest, allowing them to communicate via translation-enabled text or video. 

Connect.AI eventually proved the winning idea and was one out of 41 innovative ideas submitted by teams of secondary school students to Chips@School 2021 - a competition to engage and motivate young innovators in Singapore - organised by our industry partner, Infineon Technologies. 

All in all, 12 finalists presented their ideas and concepts online to a panel of judges, which included Mr Patrick Thavaseelan from STEM Inc, Science Centre Singapore.

During the Competition, one of the judges, Tjia Jerome in his opening speech shared childhood story of how as a boy, he was intrigued and fascinated by electronics and technology. This passion lead him to became an engineer and now he have been working in the semiconductor industry for over 30 years.

This year's Competition themed “A.I Connecting the World” involved living in the era of a pandemic where artificial intelligence (AI) and automation were at the forefront of changing the way we worked, lived and connected. Students were invited to take part in this Competition to pitch their ideas to help Infineon shape the future while learning about AI and semiconductors.

Prior to the Competition, a design thinking workshop was conducted to help students adopt a human-centered approach for problem solving. With design thinking, students could obtain a broader understanding of the problem to develop more insightful solutions. 

The top 3 winners at the Competition were:

First Prize: Connect AI – Connecting the ill by Greendale Secondary School Team 2

The first place went to Greendale Secondary School Team 2 for the project titled ‘Connect AI – Connecting the ill’ which matches patients with similar conditions or interest, allowing them to communicate with each other via text or video. It is also equipped with professional help hotlines for the patient if they face serious problems. The AI is also able to perform language translation. The idea proposed is particularly relevant in the current pandemic situation where many patients have to spend most of their time in isolation with limited social interaction. Hence, this AI application will be able to help patients forge new bonds virtually and stay connected, thereby improving their mental health.

 

Second Prize: Sweat health monitor by Saint Patrick’s School Team 2

The second place went to St. Patrick’s School for their project titled ‘Sweat Health Monitor’. The proposed idea aimed to utilize wearable devices to monitor health conditions via the ‘sweat’ composition. The team also did a live demonstration on how the ‘sweat’ droplets can be separated into their different elements which definitely left a notable impression in our judges.

 

Third Prize: Commonsense by Saint Andrew’s Secondary School Team SASS

The third place was awarded to St. Andrew’s School for their idea on ‘Commonsense’. Their idea aims to help the disabled people to make sense of non-verbal cues and body language. For example, the AI application is able to help the visually impaired people to analyze and understand body languages to enhance the effectiveness of their communication. This proposed idea definitely aims to improve the quality of life with AI!

 

Special Prize: Paya Lebar Methodist Girl’s School

A special prize was also award to the most active participating school, Paya Lebar Methodist Girl’s School for the highest number of projects submitted (six!) among all secondary schools that participated. The finalist team for Paya Lebar Methodist Girl’s School presented their ideas of AIM which give the visually impaired a shot at connection even if they aren’t physically able.

 

All the winners were awarded cash vouchers and plaques. Participants were also given personalized gifts for their effort in making Chips@School 2021 a success. In the event closing speech, Girdhar Rohit shared that he was very impressed with the passion and hard work of all contesting teams. He was also amazed by the concepts and details behind each entry and it showed us that STEM education in Singapore remained world-class.