Virtual Hackathon Provides Affordable Inventions For SMEs Of The Electronic And Electrical (E&E) Sub-sector

Leveraging on Industry 4.0 in age of technologies, Electrical & Electronics Productivity Nexus (EEPN) supported by the Malaysia Productivity Corporation (MPC) has organised Virtual Hackathon (East Malaysia) to encourage universities students to develop Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based Machine Vision System to be used by businesses.

Assistant Minister for Youth and Sports in The Cabinet of Sarawak, Yang Berhormat Datuk Snowdan Anak Donald Lawan said besides providing the opportunities for universities students to be exposed to the real issues that the industry is facing based on the real case studies, Virtual Hackathon (East Malaysia) also helps to shape the students skills in problem solving and project management which indirectly nurture the universities students to be entrepreneur via business matching between SMEs and students.

Across the economic sector, talent has been identified as a challenge that impeding productivity growth and required urgent action. More cohesive efforts needed to meet the demand of the future economy, by building a strong pipeline of skilled workers and gradually reducing reliance on low-skilled workers.

The E&E subsector especially are facing with lack of manpower planning between industry and universities that led to shortage of engineers. There is a need to strengthen collaboration between industry, government and universities to ensure supply of industry-ready engineers.

Moving forward, the time is now for our country to embrace and adopt digitalisation in order to fulfil our national aspiration to be an advanced economy. We need highly skilled and well-trained human capital that are motivated towards higher-value and knowledge-based activities, he said.

According to Yang Berhormat Datuk Snowdan Anak Donald Lawan, Sarawak has spearheaded the Digital Economy Transformation through its five-year Sarawak Digital Economy Strategy (2018-2022).

The strategy sets out the possible directions Sarawak can take in order to leapfrog into the digital economy to be at the forefront of the digital world. By building, develop and head hunt a workforce that is agile, digital savvy and industry-ready will assist in developing the human resources for Sarawak’s Digital Economy.

The Electrical and Electronics Productivity Nexus (EEPN), established under Malaysia Productivity Blueprint (MPB), is chartered to improve productivity of the E&E sector. Four key strategies were identified under the EEPN, namely, to enhance higher value-added activities, nurture talent development, create value towards the Industry 4.0 ecosystem and strengthen SMEs development.

One of the EEPN I4.0 initiatives is to organise I4.0 Hackathons, which features an AI-based Machine Vision System, where participants are using Intel’s OpenVINO toolkit as part of their software suite.

In conjunction with the event, Champion of Electronic & Electrical Productivity Nexus (EEPN), YBhg. Dato Seri Wong Siew Hai also shared on Electrical & Electronics Industry in Malaysia to create awareness among industries on Industry4.0 approach.

Meanwhile, Director General of MPC, YBhg. Dato Abdul Latif Haji Abu Seman said the program which held virtually was also aimed to improve the productivity of the companies by providing affordable invention to SMEs and to enhance the competitiveness of the industry; particularly in increasing productivity, capability, and competency of the Electronic and Electrical (E&E) subsector.

The program was held in collaboration with Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), Curtin University, Misi 4.0 and Serba Dinamik.

“Today’s event serves as the platform of opportunity for all the students to present their projects since our kick-off event on 24th September 2020. The past 3 weeks saw all participants working hard and smart as teams, developing their proof of concept (POC) projects, and submitting these projects to the panel of judges for evaluation. This morning, we will listen and watch final pitching presentations from all participating teams. I was made to understand that this Hackathon event has attracted a total of 14 teams from 5 universities. There are many attractive awards to be won; with a total cash prizes of RM 11,500.00 for today’s Hackathon. We hope that this program will further engage between universities and industries as well as to create job opportunities for universities students in the AI, digital and industry in his speech yesterday.

Also attended the program were Non-Independent Non-Executive Director Serba Dinamik Holdings Berhad, YBhg. Datuk Haji Abdul Kadier Sahib and Director of MPC Sarawak, Yang Berusaha Hajah Sarimah Misman.