Cradle Fund MYHackathon 2020 Graduation Day: Top Rewards – Wired PR Lifestyle Story

[This is a sponsored article with Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd.]

Malaysia’s MYHackathon 2020 competition organized by Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd is over.

Out of that, 18 winners came out, as the digital solutions for improving public services were quite impressive to win the share of the grant awards.

Notable performers included NEUON AI and Ozel. Their submissions were highlighted and received special recognition from Science, Technology and Innovation Data ’Minister Sri Dr Adham Baba at the MYHackathon 2020 Graduation Day ceremony held on 1 December.

To help you fully appreciate what the two winners have achieved this year, we spoke to Mohd Noor Hisham bin Abdul Bari, Cradle Fund’s Stakeholder Engagement & Partnerships Manager.

Fill in the gaps and also the holes

Malaysian roads, especially in less developed areas, are full of potholes. To deal with this, NEUON AIThe RoadPlus platform uses AI to detect road damage, and the speed at which it does so can fix potholes within 24 hours.

According to the Sarawak-based company, this solution eliminates traditional manual inspection processes that require a lot of paperwork and human resources. RoadPlus is reliable enough to be used by the Sarawak Department of Public Works (JKR) for road maintenance.

The MYHackathon platform enabled the team to carry out a number of pilot projects with federal and state road concessions. RoadPlus is now officially up and running and is being used well by JKR.

They have also deployed more than 10 Road Maintenance Units (RMUs) in Sarawak since September and have raised a staggering RM2 million in funding.

In addition, the guide received at the event ensured six Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) at Expo Dubai 2020.

With these achievements, NEUON AI was duly awarded the Best Commercial Project Award at the MYHackathon 2020 Graduation Day.

“NEUON AI was recognized for a high-value MOU signed at Expo Dubai 2020. A team that has just embarked on a MYHackathon trip to sign up for an international MOU is very valuable to Cradle,” Hisham shared.

He added that the group had managed to sign with partners in China and Malaysia, which further strengthened the brand’s commercial value.

RoadPlus does not belong to the group first attempt Enter AI, however; Since its inception in 2018, it has been working on a variety of products.

There’s NEUON-BOX, an interactive advertising platform that uses AI facial recognition to help companies place better ads; and GoTani, a platform for managing farms that use precision agriculture and AI technology, to help farmers easily collect data on their crops.

Available for deaf learners

A person’s spiritual beliefs can be crucial in shaping who he or she becomes, which is why children learn religion from their parents first, then from school. Unfortunately, not all children have the same learning opportunities.

A 2021 study The International Journal of Research in Progressive Education & Development, published in Progressive Education & Development, agrees that people with hearing impairments are part of a Malaysian disabled community that does not have access to adequate Islamic education.

To address this issue, Special He created iskanDAR, a series of interactive books and applications on basic Islamic learning that children can learn with the help of augmented reality (AR).

Ozel is a social enterprise whose mission is to help children with disabilities with different needs. One way to do this is to buy one of their educational products and give a unit to those who need it.

Thanks to IskanDAR, Ozel founder Ruzaimi Mohamed received the Best Social Impact Award on MYHackathon 2020 Graduation Day.

“The solution developed by Ozel is very niche and has the added weight of social impact because it helps the deaf disabled,” Hisham said.

This year, Ozel launched a three-year pilot program that downloaded 62 users for the additional application and a worldwide user base that reaches countries such as Germany, Kuwait, India and Iraq.

“Ozel was recognized by the Ministry of Entrepreneurship as a company with a social impact this year, and they are one of the solutions that aims to turn society around,” Hisham added.

The company also has another product in BIMO mode. It is a similar tool for deaf children to teach sign language; and along with IskanDAR, Ozel hopes that these children with limited access to regular education will learn and acquire their religion properly.

The Ozel project was selected to be implemented as part of the Aspirasi Keluarga Malaysia (AKM) initiative in collaboration with the Johor State Department of Education (JPNJ) and the Johor Deaf Association (SDJO).

Cradle Fund-sponsored success

The Cradle Fund, an agency under our local Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI), is responsible for restoring the resilience of startups. Therefore, the MYHackathon 2020 is an effort and has been implemented as part of the National Economic Recovery Plan (PENJANA).

That’s why the winners of the MYHackathon 2020 have more funds to flesh out the products in their box; but their successes did not come without help.

“It’s not just about the money, it’s also about the experience and the knowledge that Cradl can give to the winners,” Hisham said.

He explained that through the program, the winners learned how to manage their money, market their technology and sustain their business.

However, this does not mean that the winners will not succeed on their own; rather, the additional funds and guidance provided by Cradle allowed them to track their progress quickly.

Hisham believes that NEUON AI is a strong entrepreneur and would nevertheless find a way to reassure investors, but his participation in MYHackathon accelerated the process by a month or two.

Meanwhile, even though Ozel’s motives are noble, it would be difficult for them to carry out the request.

“The creator wants to develop an app that helps people, but after the event he realized that there is a lot more to building his startup,” he said.

With this new knowledge, Ozel can empower more disabled communities around the world with its educational products.

Hisham added to what MYHackathon 2020 has to offer that some of the winners had an entrepreneurial spirit from the start, but the event showed how difficult it is to be a startup and how to build their business.

• For more information on MYHackathon 2020 or upcoming events, click here here.
• You can read more about the Cradle Fund here.

Featured Image Credit: Cradle Fund