American University in Cambodia bags edotco design competition

• Twenty teams from all over Asia participated in the competition
• Challenge organised with University Community Transformation Center

edotco Group, a telecommunications infrastructure services company, has announced the winners of the edotco Infrastructure Design Competition 2021, which attracted more than twenty teams from all over Asia. 

The winning team was the American University Phnom Penh (AUPP), based in Cambodia, the company said in a statement.

With the theme "Infrastructure for Tomorrow: Designing the Future", the competition called for university students to design what they think are the next generation communication towers.

According to Edotco, the ninety-day challenge was organised in collaboration with the University Community Transformation Centre under Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia ('UCTC-UKM'), and opened to Year three, Year four, and postgraduate engineering students.

The countries that participated were Malaysia, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Japan, Korea, and China. 

The design challenge comes with real-world implications where the students' design proposals could potentially be deployed all over the Asia region, it said.

Five teams were selected for the final pitching session which was held virtually.

The top three winners took home prize money of US$2500 (RM10,500), US$1500 (RM6,300) and US$1000 (RM4,200), respectively.

The other winners were:

• 2nd place – University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan
• 3rd place - Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology, Bangladesh

Speaking on behalf of his team, Usphea Sophaneth, team lead from AUPP said it had been a wonderful journey and most certainly rewarding to win the competition. 

“The past 90 days have been grueling and challenging, with many hours spent doing research and brainstorming to develop an innovative and sustainable design,” he said.

A panel of judges from edotco and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia evaluated the submissions based on innovation, creativity, environmental friendliness, and execution, the company said.

According to edotco, the emphasis on green engineering is important in the design as it will help develop a healthy environment and an enriched community in the areas surrounding the tower sites.

Adlan Tajudin (pic), chief executive officer of edotco Group said, “As a regional tower company, we acknowledge the importance of nurturing innovation and cultivating the importance of sustainability amongst the youth.

“Through this competition, we hope to provide aspiring youths across Asia with a platform to engage with experienced leaders, gain industry knowledge and attain technology exposure while applying their skills to create innovative solutions,” he said.

Tajudin said he was impressed with all the designs submitted and hope the competition encourages our youth to continuously embed an innovative thinking mindset in whatever path they wish to endeavour in the future.

This competition is edotco's ongoing efforts to foster a future-ready workforce capable of building next-generation technologies for the telecommunication industry, it said.

The effort is also aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals 4 to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities, it added.