Everyone has a part to play in building a better world, so Huawei empowers youths to become social innovators through the annual Huawei ICT Competition.
Last year’s edition saw team Jinko Chino from the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) College East winning the innovation track of the global competition. Trained at Huawei ICT Academy, the three students in the team developed an AI-powered Mobility Traffic Crossing System to help address the needs of Singapore’s greying population.
Jinko Chino’s system builds on the Green Man+ initiative by Singapore's Land Transport Authority (LTA). Under the LTA initiative, older adults and persons with disabilities (PWDs) can tap their special concession card onto a reader above the push button of pedestrian crossings fitted with Green Man+ to extend the green man time by up to 13 seconds. The issue is that the extra time might not be enough for some elderly and PWDs, making it difficult for them to cross the road safely.
Team Jinko Chino mounted Huawei Smart Cameras on traffic lights and used Huawei Cloud and its ModelArts AI development platform to train the AI-powered Mobility Traffic Crossing System to detect in real-time the mobility aids commonly used by older adults and PWDs. Through extensive testing, the team found that the system could detect wheelchairs from test images with 83% accuracy and had a mean average precision of 84.9% from walking aids.
Additionally, the AI-powered Mobility Traffic Crossing System can track and extend crossing times for pedestrians requiring more time to navigate pedestrian crossings safely. It will also automatically enable audio alerts if its AI model detects visually impaired pedestrians.
Commenting on his experience participating in the Huawei ICT Competition, Jinko Chino team member Eldon Tay Li says: “This learning experience had a profound impact on me. I was allowed to learn about the future of ICT technologies and assess my knowledge and skills beyond my comfort zone. It gave me newfound confidence in my abilities to design a better and safer place for differently abled people.”
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Solving real-world problems with AI
To spur more youth-led social innovations, Huawei calls for applications for the eighth iteration of the Huawei ICT Competition. It is open to Huawei ICT Academy students worldwide and those currently enrolled in higher educational institutions.
With the theme ‘Connection, Glory, and Future’, the competition aims to build a strong ICT talent community by working with governments, universities, training centres and industry businesses. It promotes equity in education and digital inclusion by providing students a platform to compete and exchange ideas, enhancing their ICT knowledge and practical skills.
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The Huawei ICT Competition 2023-2024 will see the debut of the AI Innovation track, which challenges participants to design a solution that generates social and commercial value. They must do so using Huawei AI’s technology or combining AI with complementary technologies such as OpenHarmony, the Internet of Things, big data, cloud computing, and mobile Internet.
The solution needs software or integrated hardware-software that solves specific real-world challenges in industries or society. Preferred use cases target the energy, manufacturing, transportation, logistics, healthcare, campuses, cities, and agriculture sectors. For example, participants could develop smart systems for urban lighting, greenhouses, or inbound and outbound logistics.
Interested students can register for the Huawei ICT Competition 2023-2024 at https://bit.ly/3Fbyk5q until November 24, 2023.
Committed to developing talent
Recognising the importance of having adequate ICT talent to drive the digital economy, Huawei has partnered with nine local Institutes of Higher Learning to equip students with tech skills through the Huawei ICT Academy. The academy develops theoretical and practical courses covering the latest technologies, encouraging students to work towards Huawei’s ICT technical certifications. This helps develop technical professionals naturally inclined to solve issues in businesses or society using technology.
Over the past four years, the academy has trained over 2,000 students in Singapore and certified more than 30 lecturers. “We are always committed to nurturing local young talents and will continue to work closely with like-minded local partners and educators in Institutes of Higher Learning through industry partnerships and collaborations to build a more sustainable and inclusive city-state, making Singapore the best home for everyone,” says Foo Fang Yong, CEO of Huawei International.
Apart from the annual ICT competition and academy, Huawei also organises the Huawei Innovation Training Camp and Huawei ICT Talent Job Fair to improve awareness of the value of talent and ensure sustainable talent development.
