Monday 30 May 2016

Top 4 Team: EpeXa - The Tempilator

Group Members from 106:
Violet Ong, Gareth Tan, Woo Yan Seun, Fleming Siow, Edric Chan




"A Smart Nation. A Better Tomorrow."

The story of the 2003 outbreak of SARS is familiar to many older students and Singaporeans. SARS is a highly infectious illness that first emerged in China in 2002. In less than a year, cases were identified in 26 countries, demonstrating how fast an emerging infection can be spread by international air travellers.



Sars killed 774 people worldwide. It was a scary and sad moment for Singapore and our country lost 33 lives. Since then, temperature taking becomes the first line of defence whenever there is any outbreak of infectious diseases for Singapore. 


All schools have to conduct temperature-taking exercises from time to time since the SARS outbreak in 2003. This is a good preventive measure but it can be time consuming as the schools need to ensure that all the students need to have a working thermometer. Teachers also have to manage the temperature taking process to ensure accuracy and hygiene.






Our team has come up with a solution that will address some of these problems. It is the tempilator. 

Our inspiration for the Tempilator is drawn from the optician’s eye check up headrest. This is an important component in the Tempilator as this headrest helps with the accuracy of the temperature taking.


The Truss Bridge inspiration helped us to create a more stable holder and base. 

We hope to encourage young students to take their own temperature using the Tempilator. This will reduce the hassle of monitoring their temperature taking as you can see in this image. 




To make the Tempilator more child- friendly and attractive, cute cartoons can be screened to encourage them to use the booth. The cartoon also attracts their attention which will prevent them from moving their heads.

As shown, this is an example of how Tempilator should be used. It is easy to use and does not cause a hassle.

The holder in the headrest stabilizes their heads and there will be a pressure plate that will trigger the head thermometer to take the temperature. If the thermometer is broken or runs out of battery, it can be easily taken out and be replaced.



Imagine a small boy called Tom. Tom enters the classroom and goes to the Tempilator for his temperature to be taken. He places his head on the headrest and the pressure plate is triggered and his temperature is taken. A teacher can give Tom a cookie as a reward for being socially responsible.
What happens if Tom is sick? A red light will light up when Tom has a fever. The teacher will attend to Tom immediately.






Top 4 Team: Quadrifoglio (First Prize)

Group Members from 105:
Cephas Koh, Enzo Tan, Isaiah Leong, Ang Wei Lun



"We light up your world."

Currently, there are many challenges involved in changing a light bulb. We will talk about some of these problems now.

For example, some lightbulbs are difficult to change because they need to be unscrewed in order to replace new ones. This can pose a problem because it involves climbing up a ladder or a chair, looking up into the ceiling and turning the body away from the ladder at an awkward angle. This may result in the person falling off and injuring himself or herself.



A new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that falls remain a leading cause of death and nearly half of those deadly falls have been from ladders.Workers who are six feet or more above lower levels are at risk for serious injury or death if they should fall.The study, published in the most recent Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, found that falls remain a leading cause of unintentional injury mortality nationwide, and 43 percent of fatal falls in the last decade have involved a ladder.




Consequences

Adapted from: http://ehstoday.com/construction/cdc-there-s-nothing-easy-about-falling-ladder

Another problem with light bulbs now is that it is very vulnerable to blackouts because that’s where they get their power from. In Java and Bali, Indonesia, August 18, 2005, a failure in an electrical transmission line between Cilegon and Saguling in West Java cut electricity supplies, leading to a massive 5,000 megawatt shutdown. Jakarta, the capital of the fourth most populated country in the world, lost power, and half of the Indonesian population — 100 million people — were without electricity for almost 11 hours. Panic, confusion and distress. This is what the Indonesians felt. Blackouts, which often cause inconveniences to the public, can be both annoying and disruptive. In the dark, people are not able so see, therefore increasing the risks of injuries. But with Magnelight, we won’t even realize a blackout anymore due to a rechargeble battery. The magnelight can run on for up to 5 hours just relying on the rechargeable battery. You must be thinking, then how are we going to know there is a blackout until the 5 hours run out? Well you have other appliances don’t you? Now you can fix the power box not in darkness but in light!A conventional light bulb that is made of glass can send sharp glass shards everywhere in a breakage making it a safety hazard.
Our innovation Magnelight is also made out of recycled hard plastic, making it harder to break if it drops. It is both safe and environmentally friendly.







Another problem is that some lighting fixtures are very high on the ceiling and even with a ladder, you may not reach it. Hence, you will need to waste money to engage an electrician to change the bulb and you would need to move your furniture.

But with Magnelight,  you can change light bulbs at any height but still remain in the ground. It is brought to the socket with the X-pandeble stick, as seen on the left, which can be extended to almost any height, so you would not need to care about high ceilings with the X-pandeable stick!

We first got the main frame from a Mi TV box, which is the main module. You may have also noticed, in the second and third stages of Magnelight, that there are 2 3M stickers on both the light bulb and the main module. These 3M stickers are extremely reflective and sticky. If you were changing the lightbulbs at night, you would still be able to see the two stickers and align them accurately.


MagneLight

With all the improvements from the current lightbulb Magnelight is safer, more convenient and can be changed within 1 minute while a conventional light bulbs take 5 minutes. This would help the elderly as they usually prefer to bear with the darkness than change the bulb especially when they live alone. Singapore is a developed country and we have an ageing population who will mostly be living alone when their children move out. Magnelight will give them the ease to live independently without worrying of changing light bulbs when they fuse as they can always do it themselves.

Parts used to make the MagneLight









Top 4: Team Invincible Barriers - The I.Wall


Group Members from 104:
Yew Chin Siang, Chloe Wong, Tan Chuan Jie, Joshua Lee



Makes your car’s journey a little smoother!”


According to the research on the 10 worst cities for traffic congestion, the two most congested cities are in Eastern Europe, Moscow and Istanbul. Four of the most congested cities are in China, three in Latin America and one is in Western Europe as shown in the chart. Traffic jam emits a lot of carbon monoxide which is very harmful to the environment and thus accelerating the greenhouse effect in global warming.







Not only is this frustrating, in the long run, this will slow down the economic growth of a country as time and money are wasted. This photo of the Woodlands causeway is a good example of such a situation.





Our idea for the I.Wall is to create a movable barrier that can create an extra lane for the traffic jam road whilst using the empty lane of the road in the opposite direction. The mechanism will involve gears which will move the barrier sideways just like the train tracks. 



Have you seen a zipper machine in the US? The machine is in the process of moving the temporary concrete median barrier over one lane. This is done to close one half of the bridge so that deck replacement operations can take place on the closed half, while one lane each way with a center emergency lane operates on the other half.




Have you seen how a train track changes it course by shifting the tracks using a gear system? Our solution is similar to that except that we are unable to move to the road, so what do we do?

We move the barriers instead!





This is the sketchup model of our idea. It shows how the I.Wall operates and how it can solve the problem effectively. You can see that there is a jam on the right lane and the opposite lane is very light in traffic. The I.Wall will be activated to shift to the left and now 3 lanes are created on the right. The traffic congestion can be now eased.





The I.Wall will move slowly towards the unjammed side of the road. One side of the barrier will tilt slightly before the entire barrier is shifted completely. There will also be an alarm which will alert drivers that the barrier is going to move and that they should shift to another lane.  This way, it will make it safer for the drivers to see and switch their lane to avoid accidents. Once the barrier is fully shifted towards the unjammed side, more lanes will be freed up for the cars on the jammed side.


















Top 4: Team Electric Cleaners - Water Turbine

Group Members from 104:
Goh Cheng Yang, Reiner Goh, Rae Kuan





"Protect the environment a step at a time. "



The first problem is global warming and the second is lack of access to clean water in some countries. To understand how our product can help to solve these 2 problems better, let me ask a few questions:

What is global warming? What are the causes of global warming and what is the impact of global warming?


Global Warming is the increase of Earth's average surface temperature due to effect of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels or from deforestation, which trap heat that would otherwise escape from Earth. Global warming is happening as we speak. In the past century, the earth’s temperature rose by 0.7 degrees. That is roughly 10 times faster than average.

If we ignore this, the temperature will keep rising. This can lead to drastic consequences like what we already have been experiencing. Our product helps to reduce the burning of fossil fuels for electricity usage using water turbines.
According to this table from United Nation website, we can see that the rural areas still in Africa still lack the provision of clean water in 2012.


Our product addresses the problem of clean water through filtration.





The Water Turbine consists of a filter and an electricity generator, which generates electricity through the movement of water.The Water Turbine will be used in households as the power generated by it can only power small appliances that use less electricity.The water can come from the bathroom,toilet and the sink,just to name a few. Water will enter the mouth of The Water Turbine, then gets filtered to become cleaner. Then, the water will spin the turbine to generate electricity, which could be used to power electrical appliances such as lights,television and the telephone. After that, the water will be sanitised by the UV rays before it is collected and used. Our product saves electricity by using the water turbines to generate free electricity, and at the same time does not pollute the environment. Water enters… the water gets filtered off big particles… the small particles get filtered at the main filter… the clean water gets sanitised by the UV rays, and spins the turbine, and the turbine generates electricity. Then the clean water comes out, safe for usage.










Tuesday 24 May 2016

Transcript of the speech by Prof Wood

Speech – Guest of Honor
Prof Kristin L. Wood
May 18, 2016

School of Science and Technology (SST)
Singapore

SST-3M InnoScience Challenge, 2016

Principal Linda Chan, Distinguished Management Team of SST, Faculty, Students, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is an absolute pleasure to serve as the Guest of Honor for this year’s SST-3M InnoScience Challenge. This Challenge embodies the fabric and soul of SST and Singapore. Since its inception in 2010, SST has embraced:

“Imagination and Innovation”
“Flaming Curiosity and Inquiry”

and the Applied Learning Approaches represented by SST’s Hexagons element of

“Active and Relevant”
“Authentic”
“Community Focused”
“Integrated”
“Learner Centered” and
“Process Focused”

As a Head of Pillar for the Singapore University of Technology and Design (or SUTD), we share this lineage with SST and value a transdisciplinary approach to create the next generations of technically grounded leaders for Singapore. In the context of the SST experience, the theme of InnoScience 2016 is   

“Livable Cities: Smart Nation, Smart Solutions”

Can you imagine a more important theme? To place this theme in context, let’s briefly explore some numbers about cities.

  • By 2050, 70% of the world’s population will live in large cities
  • In 2012, large cities made up 33% of the world’s global population, but produced greater than 55% of global economic output
  • The world’s population grew from 2.5 billion in 1950 to 7.0 billion today, and is expected to grow to 9.10 billion by 2050
  • In 1990, there were 10 “mega-cities” with more than 10 million inhabitants. In 2014, there were 28 mega-cities worldwide
  • In 1950, 5% of the world’s population were 45 years of age and older
  • In 2000, 7% of the population were 45 years of age and older
  • And in 2050, the percentage is expected to increase to 16%


Clearly, aging cities are key issues, where Singapore percentages are even higher than international averages.

These numbers related to cities tell a story.  But they also engender a number of questions for now and the future:

  • “How will healthcare change for the escalating age of city populations?”
  • “How will technology change and by used to foster urban environments, families, and daily experiences?”
  • “What transformations will be needed in personal transportation, energy harvesting and distribution, water collection, storage, and delivery?”
  • “How do we engage the experience and wisdom of the elderly to add creative value to our city’s productivity?”
  • “How will the ideas of community and workplace change as cities grow?”
  • and “How do we address the environmental impact and sustainability of our world’s resources?”


 These questions are difficult, but they are also quite exciting. We have the opportunity to innovate and transform people’s lives.

It will take all of us to realize this innovation and transformation, especially our youth.

And this is why we are here today. The young men and women of SST have presented their ideas for designing a better and smarter world.

We have seen ideas ranging from
-          energy harvesting,
-          to clean water,
-          to healthcare devices,
-          to aids for a better life, and
-          to systems for improving transportation congestion

I loved hearing from the students and seeing their passion realized through technology. We have experienced the students’ love for Singapore, and the city and Smart Nation that Singapore represents.

In the words of Mark Twain,
“You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.”

Let’s be thankful for having the students’ imagination infect us all and bring our eyes into focus.

Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to take part in InnoScience 2016.

Congratulations to all the student teams and especially the finalists.


Thursday 19 May 2016

...and we have a winner!

Straits Times news article of the winning team: http://str.sg/4oz7

The article attached:


Wednesday 18 May 2016

Best presenters

The team of judges have decided to award the Best Presenter award to NOT one, but TWO presenters. They are (in alphabetical order):
  • Goh Cheng Yang (from Team Electric Cleaners)
  • Isaiah Leong (from Team Quadrifoglio)
Congratulations to both!

Isaiah Leong, 105
Goh Cheng Yang, 104