This bin picking challenge is a fundamental problem in computer vision and robotics. This challenge offers students a great chance to dive into the world of robotics and artificial intelligence by developing a fully automated algorithm that can effectively sort out items in different shapes, colours, and sizes randomly placed in a bin. Participants will showcase their innovation, problem-solving skills, and technical expertise in designing a functional solution.
To obtain the first-hand information about the contest, you are encouraged to join the briefing sessions. It covers crucial details and provide important reminders for all students who are interested. Details of the briefing sessions are as follows:
Date:
- Session 1: March 5, 2025 (Wed)
- Session 2: March 12, 2025 (Wed)
Time: 2:30 – 3:30pm
Venue: Tam Wing Fan Innovation Wing One, HKU
- Date: April 9, 2025 (Wednesday)
- Time: To be announced
- Venue: Tam Wing Fan Innovation Wing One, HKU
- All HKU students are welcome to join, except existing student research assistants of the Inno Wing.
- Participants can join either in the form of individual or team of not more than 3 HKU students.
- At least half of the team members must be undergraduates.
- Teams must enroll the Challenge by 11:59pm, March 16, 2025 (Sunday).
- If oversubscribed, priority will be given to the participants / teams who attended the briefing.
- Hands-on experiences in creating fully automated algorithm
- A certificate that recognizes your achievement
- Cash prize of HK$1,200 for the winner / winning team
- A maximum of HK$5,000 for each team member of the winning team to participate in a study tour organized by Innovation Academy and / or other conferences endorsed by the Faculty, Innovation Wing, or Innovation Academy.
Participants will create a fully automated algorithm for sorting the designated items in different shapes, colours, and sizes from a random setup within a specified time. The teams are expected to complete the challenge in a live demonstration where sorting efficiency and accuracy will be evaluated. Rules of the Challenge will be announced in due course.
A series of taught and self-learning workshops will be offered to equip participants with the essential skills such as:
- How to use and control robot arm;
- How to calibrate the camera with robot arm; and
- How to implement shape recognition algorithms and develop grasping and manipulation capabilities, etc.
Participants are welcome to access our “Development Helpdesk” offered by our Student Research Assistants. More details will be announced in due course.
- Each team will have to complete the challenge of sorting the designated items from a stacked or overlapped tray according to the shapes, colours or size.
- The fastest team to complete the challenge will receive 100 marks, the second fastest team will receive 90 marks, and so on.
- For each item that a team fails to sort / place correctly, 5 marks will be deducted from the total score and so on. The total score will be out of 100, based on the completion time and sorting accuracy.
- Teams must follow all safety regulations and guidelines during the Challenge.
- The Challenge will be judged by a panel of experts or referees to ensure fairness and accuracy in scoring.
- The participating team with the highest score will be the winners of the Challenge.
| Shortlisted Projects |
|---|
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AR Glasses for Archaeologists |
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Caretaker Connect App |
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Float: Message in a Bottle to Connect with Native Speakers Worldwide |
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Get your period |
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NeuroHarbor |
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Sixth Sense |
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VRemind |
(The proposals are listed in alphabetical order. The presentation order will be announced before the pitching starts.)
| Date | Task |
|---|---|
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February 26, 2025 (Wed) |
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March 5 and 12, 2025 |
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March 12 to April 4, 2025 |
Development Helpdesk |
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March to April 2025 |
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April 9, 2025 (Wed) |
The Challenge |
- Only the shortlisted proposals will be invited to join the pitching in March 26, 2025.
- Each proposal will have 5 minutes to pitch his/her/their idea with up to 5 minutes for question and answer. The presentation and Q&A session will be conducted in English.
- Workshops will be organized in February to equip students with essential soft skills that are practical in pitching, as well as in academic and at workplace.
- Delivering Effective Presentation with Slide Deck and Video (February 8, 2025)
- Sharing by winners: How We Turned Ideas into Innovation (February 21, 2025)
- A maximum of 3 proposals will be selected as winners and awarded a cash prize of HK$1,200. The winning proposals can further obtain a maximum of HK$100K funding support from the “Funding Scheme for student projects / activities by Tam Wing Fan Innovation Fund and Philomathia Foundation Innovation Fund” for development, subject to the approval by the Innovation Academy Steering Committee.
- “The Best Presenter” will be awarded a cash prize of HK$1,000.
The pitching team who receives the highest total scores in the “Structure of Pitch” and “Delivery of Pitch” wins “The Best Presenter” award.
- 5 proposals are shortlisted and they will give a 5-minute presentation and a 5-minute Q&A via Zoom on March 2, 2022 (Wednesday).
WHALE
Project WHALE is aiming at unleashing the potential of technology to bridge the communication gap between caregiver and children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Target audiences include individuals with ASD experiencing sensory abnormalities and their caregivers. These children may not be able to express their feelings and needs while caregivers also find it difficult to correctly identify the needs of them. To ease this problem, we propose developing the sensory wristband and the caring mobile application. The key features of the sensory wristband include recording environmental data and monitoring the internal physiological and emotional states of the children with ASD. We plan to incorporate multiple sensors including Photoplethysmogram and Galvanic Skin Response Sensor to measure internal states and external environment. For the caring mobile application designed for caregiver, the app will alert caregiver when the children with ASD feel highly aroused. The highlight feature is providing personalised report specifying possible triggers arousing children with ASD through adopting algorithms to cross-reference the anomaly with environmental stimuli to locate probable causes and provide preclinical advice. Major impact is to allow caregiver to understand more about the challenges going through by the children with ASD and provide more suitable help in correct timing.
MotOral
MotOral is a mobile application that assists speech therapists in providing preventive measures of swallowing disorders for at-risk older adults. Through the app, the users could strengthen their oral motor muscles by doing exercises. Face tracking technologies are incorporated to monitor the degree of movement of muscles and provide visual feedback. Games will also be included to raise the users’ interests in using the application. User’s progress will be monitored and analysed continuously.
Smart Glove — Extension of the Tactile Sense
The tactile sense is critical for visually impaired people to sense the world, but one shortcoming is that they can not feel the object in the distance. This can cause many problems, such as pumping into the obstacles when using the hands or being less efficient in grasping the handrail on transportation. However, many on-market products focus on large-scale assisting instead of this smaller one. So, we are considering developing a glove that can transduce the distance information to vibration intensity to realize the extension of the tactile sense. Currently, we are using three pairs of ultrasonic distance sensors and vibration motors fixed on three sides of the glove to help the user sense the obstacles. Further development such as minifying the hardware, connecting to the Bluetooth, or developing AI is needed to reduce the discomfort caused by the glove and increase its functionality in assisting the users.
CityMyth
CityMyth is a gamified AR city tour guide app that aims at reinvigorating the travel industry during and after the pandemic. Different from other travel apps, CityMyth integrates customized itinerary, AR experience, and scripted game（劇本殺）to familiarize travelers with the stories behind the city and add more amusement. Our product fits the needs of several user categories under the current situation of travel restrictions. For city dwellers, they can have a deeper understanding of their own city culture and history, while having an innovative form of entertainment. For travelers, they can utilize their limited travel time more efficiently and have more engagement during the trip. Regarding technology, we make use of Augmented Reality, Bluetooth Low Energy indoor positioning to realize our features. Our product is an unprecedented combination of these elements, so we believe a fad can be foreseen.
Megahealthy; Megasports
“With the rising demand of the sports facilities and the fact that HK people care more about doing sports after Tokyo Olympics, the apps Megahealthy; Megasports is designed to offer more options of sport facilities and more opportunities for people to do sports in the pandemic.
Smart rentals: After the private sports venues/ facilities providers release the venue and the available time on the app, the users can rent the facilities and select their favourable time slots, and the app will import statistical algorithms according to the user’s sports preferences /past record of no-show and calculates the probability of users’ no-show on that day. Once the no-show probability exceeds 70%, the waitlist will be opened for other users to rent.
Smart Exercise Stations: Users can choose the level of difficulty according to their own techniques and backgrounds of doing the sports. The users can imitate the elements on the photo, take a photo of themselves and upload it to the apps. AI algorithms will automatically calculate the similarity rate of the same photo posture and the athlete’ posture, and then give the users points. Their achievements can be shared in social media platforms.
AI Coach: The users first answer questions about their sports background and techniques according to the system instructions, and then can upload photos of their skills. AI will automatically generate technical suggestions and practice goals which are suitable for the user’s level. “
Learn more about previous Pitching Contests
