Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL) has reaffirmed its excellence in science and technology by winning multiple awards at the 6th Digitalised International Invention, Innovation & Design Competition (DIID) 2024.
Leading the charge, Ts. Dr. Mohd Aliff Afira Sani from UniKL Malaysian Institute of Industrial Technology (UniKL MITEC) received the Merit of Distinction and Best of the Best awards in the Professional category for his groundbreaking research on the “Agri Drone – Deep Learning Models for Crop Leaf Disease Detection on Real-Time Drone Monitoring.”
Dr. Mohd Aliff’s innovative project aims to revolutionise the oil palm industry by developing a system capable of early detection and monitoring of plant diseases such as Anthracnose, Bagworm, Curvularia leaf spot, and Pestalotiopsis.
Utilising a custom-built drone equipped with autopilot and advanced computer vision algorithms, including Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN), the system combines object recognition (YOLOv3) with image classification (VGG16 and AlexNet) to accurately identify and locate diseases, enabling farmers to respond swiftly and improve crop yields.
The research demonstrated the superiority of the VGG16 model, achieving an impressive F1 score of 99.2% compared to AlexNet’s 98.5%.
The study also highlighted the effectiveness of the custom drone’s construction, flight path, and disease detection capabilities in real-world oil palm plantations, showcasing its potential to enhance disease management and boost industry productivity.
The accolades did not stop there for UniKL MITEC as Ts. Dr. Ernie Mazuin Mohd Yusof secured a Gold medal for her research on Hydrogen Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles, while Ts. Dr. Noor Huda Ja’afar earned a Silver medal for her Sensor-Based System for Surgical Skill Assessment.
Additionally, Dr. Rafidah Ali received a Bronze medal for her work on “Analysis Simulation Data Time Series of Tourism Using Pre-Processing Method and SVM Model,” and Ts. Dr. Siti Nor Zawani Ahmmad also won the Bronze for her “Waiter Robot Based on Artificial Intelligence” project.
DIIID 2024, organised by UiTM Johor Branch in collaboration with the University of Lampung, Indonesia, under the theme “Innovate for Sustainability: Shaping a Brighter Future,” saw participation from over 90 contestants from Malaysia and abroad.
The competition, held in a hybrid format, underscored the importance of innovation in driving sustainable solutions for a better future.
