Riding high from winning the inaugural MyTRIZ Competition 2012, Team KNIGHT from Tunku Abdul Rahman University College returned with their improved version of the mechanical exoskeleton suit to the MyTRIZ Competition 2013 looking to continue their winning streak.
But the competition in 2013 was not easy. The interest level amongst the local teams had gone up and was made more challenging with the inclusion of regional Asia teams into the competition. The number of entries doubled from 34 teams in 2012 to 71 teams in 2013. Regional contenders from countries such as Taiwan, India, Australia, Iran, Thailand, Philippines and Indonesia made their presence felt.
The competition kicked off in May 2013, allowing the teams 3 months to prepare their submissions before the deadline of 31 August 2013. Seven local teams and one regional team made it to the finals at Golden Sands Hotel, Penang on 29 November 2013. The local teams were Break Through from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia; Cielo, Green Ocean, Knight and TTL Brainstorm from Tunku Abdul Rahman; and, LEDAR and University TRIZ Malaysia from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. The regional team was SawaddeeTRIZ from Thai-Nichi Institute of Technology Bangkok.
Problems presented during the final of the competition ranged from the effort to reduce the casualty rate of highway accidents and finding ways to increase the efficiency of wind turbine ventilation, to figuring out a way to improve the maintenance process of gas pipelines. The judging criteria were based on TRIZ process flow, application of TRIZ tools, innovation in solutions, and presentation quality.
Tremendous thanks to the judges namely Dr Mark Barkan from International TRIZ Association, Mr. Anatoly Guin from Education for a New Era, Mr. Tito Vemuri from General Electric, Mr. Tanasak Phenghua from The Inventor Development Co. Ltd and Dr. TS Yeoh from MyTRIZ; for their willingness to evaluate the proposals, observe the presentations and make the hard decisions. With their support, they made the events even more amazing. Many thanks also to Mr. T. J. Yeoh, Mr. Karnail Singh and Ms. Song Chia Li from Intel Malaysia for their preliminary judging support.
Following the tradition started during the inaugural competition, the participants and supporters were given the opportunity to ask questions, debate and select their preferred winners. As predicted, the teams selected by the mass accurately matched the judges’ decision on the winning team.
With an interesting presentation approach and the solution to improve the combustion activity of car engines, Team University TRIZ Malaysia represented by Mr. Zulhasni Abdul Rahim and Professor Dr. Nooh Abu Bakar edged the rest of teams to win the Grand Prize of RM 8,000 in the MyTRIZ Competition 2013. Team Knight came in as the first runner-up with RM 5,000 followed by Team SawadeeTRIZ as second runner-up with RM 3,000. The rest of five teams received the merit prize of RM 1,000 each.
Mr. Tito Vemuri, who was one of the judges, very wisely noted that, “The ability to win a competition is a function of impactful problem solved and the experience plus exposure of the person or team.” The winning teams should not expect the next competition to be easy. They must be ready to face increasingly stiffer competition in the years to come.
MyTRIZ would like to thank Intel Corporation, Multimedia Development Corporation, and Institution of Mechanical Engineers Malaysia for their support and generous contribution to the Competition. Last but not least, MyTRIZ would like to thank Dr. TS Yeoh, TJ Yeoh, Tan Eng Hoo, Ashley Cheah, Issac Lim and Khoo Soo Kuat for successfully organizing the competition.
