An artifical intelligence (AI)-powered photo and video surveillance system won the BND10,000 top prize from the Innovation Challenge hosted by the Brunei Innovation Lab (BIL).
The system, developed by startup company SkyVision, was awarded the prize at a ceremony which took place recently at the Design and Technology Building, Kampong Anggerek Desa.
The second place prize of BND6,000 was won by startup everBetter’s data dashboard for organisational key performance indicators and the third place BND4,000 prize went to Keplar’s all-in-one mobile application which aims to promote responsible stray population control programmes at industrial sites.
The announcement comes after five weeks of competition, which saw over 50 local youth form 13 startups to address 27 challenge statements put forward by seven opportunity sponsors.
These sponsors also collectively allocated an additional BND110,000 in proof-of-concept funds to bolster development of products.
BIL Chairperson Haij Amirul Shahnoel bin Md Noeh highlighted that the inclusion of genuine industry problems and provision of resources to solve them differentiate the Innovation Challenge from conventional hackathons.
“Successful teams that can convince the opportunity sponsors may continue the development of the solutions towards commercialisation. Although there are a few more steps ahead, both of these efforts are showing positive outcomes,” said Haji Amirul.
BIL General Manager Freddie Ting said subsequent editions of the challenge will be held every six to 12 months. Several startups outside the top three have also received interest from opportunity sponsors to further develop their prototypes, he added.
Throughout the programme, participants attended a series of workshops covering key aspects such as ideation and design thinking, product development, UI/UX and prototyping, financing, branding and positioning, and pitching. – Azlan Othman
