23 July 2014
When we first registered for the Singapore Geospatial Challenge 2014, we were determined to not only to develop the best solution for the challenge but also take this opportunity to enhance and expand our capabilities. We felt confident and looked forward to the competition as we had participated in various competitions and hackathons where we had accumulated many lessons from the successes and failures.
Design thinking process
This competition was tied together with our Final Year Project and focused on the technical area of geospatial technology. The Final Year Project is a 3rd year core module of the Diploma in Information Technology (
DIT) that we are pursuing. We had an advantage to ideate and choose a topic. We finally converged on the persona of the backpacker tourist by using Design Thinking processes – this persona was familiar to us as many of our friends travel in this fashion.
Competition
The competition challenge statement will be released after we have finalized our project idea due to the different timeframe for our FYP and competition. We hoped to leverage on our FYP idea by preparing in advance but there was uncertainty. Luckily, after analyzing the statements on the release day, we found a challenge that is similar to our problem statement: How can we get people to experience and understand the rich heritage and modern quirks of the Bishan, Toa Payoh and Thomson estates.The flexible application framework we have built for our FYP in anticipation for the challenges allowed us to quickly adapt it for use for the competition.
On the judging day of the competition, we presented our project to the judges. Judges were from local startups and government agencies and the interaction with them was very enlightening as the questions posed were very thought-provoking. We were also given the opportunity to wear the SP blazer, and we felt honoured to have represented SP and do our school proud.
Lastly, the most important moment of the competition was the showcase cum prize ceremony where we got to interact and get feedback from potential users, network with university professors and start-up companies. We were quite excited that we got to be interviewed by a reporter for an article that was published on LianHe ZaoBao – we had no clue that the reporter was covering the event!
Our reflections
Overall, we felt that what we have received and acquired is more than just the Distinction Award for the App category for the challenge, but the journey we had gone through to reach our destination. The journey is what makes the destination worth it as we have all learnt valuable lessons in our journey together.
Winning the Distinction Award
Lianhe Zaobao article
This article was written by Loh Fuxing, Koh Xiaowei, Joel-David Wong Jun Jie, Tan Kuo Chye
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