Workshop on “Humanitarian Technology with Sustainable Development” Organized by IEEE BDS HAC.

A workshop was held on Humanitarian Technology with Sustainable Development at ECE Building BUET on 25th April, 2018. Professor Dr .Shaikh Fatah, Education Chair, IEEE Humanitarian Activities Committee conducted the workshop. The workshop was organized by IEEE Bangladesh Section and IEEE Humanitarian Activities Committee whilst being hosted by IEEE BUET Student Branch.

About 42 enthusiastic participants from 5 universities were present. Rakibul Islam Chowdhury, IEEE Bangladesh Section HAC Coordinator first shed light on the mission and plans of 2018 of IEEE BDS HAC. He also introduced the HAC subcommittee with the audience. Then Dr. Fattah started his session with the introduction to humanitarian technology and described each of the 17 sustainable development goals of UN.

In the next part he shed light on the funding opportunities available in IEEE HAC and SIGHT. In the interactive session, attendees were divided in small groups where they were encouraged to apprehend problems in their respective local communities and providing its solution based on humanitarian technology. Members from 11 such teams presented their technology. Respected trainer provided feasible exhortation on management and sustainability of each proposed prospective projects.



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Visit Official Facebook Page of IEEE BDS HAC

 

SS12 ASIA- AGE OF INNOVATION: Project Competition and Maker Fair 2017

SS12 is a Coding and Making Challenge jointly organized by Madras IEEE Education Society, Project Possibility and REAL Breakthrough. It is hosted in partnership with different IEEE sections, Universities and leading technology industry companies. The challenge is conducted to recognize the best social innovation application on the theme given:

EDUCATION THROUGH INNOVATION: INNOVATE, DEMONSTRATE AND EDUCATE

This international student project competition encourages innovative students to take up the initiative of making their application as a prototype model, demonstrate it and educate themselves through this innovation. The students are advised to interact with a community for which the innovation is intended and understand the issues clearly and work out the model. The final product developed should have an added help and support module for the users.

Under this, the projects can be Mobile Apps or Computer Based or IoT based pertaining to the following:

  • Agriculture and environment
  • Healthcare
  • Assistive systems for people with disabilities
  • Games and entertainment
  • Clean water and energy
  • Disaster management
  • Women safety
  • Others

One of the local rounds of SS12 Project Competition 2017 was organized jointly by IEEE Bangladesh Section, Humanitarian Activities Committee of IEEE BDS and SIGHT-FLASH Bangladesh Section and hosted by IEEE UIU Student Branch. Local final was held on 7 July , 2017 at United International University.

In the competition 23 teams from different public and private universities participated and showcased their projects which were related to humanitarian technology. Prof. Dr. Shaikh Anowarul Fattah, Chair (2017) of IEEE EMBS Bangladesh Chapter Nominations and Appointments Chair (2017) of IEEE Bangladesh Section, Prof. Dr. Celia Shahnaz, Vice-Chair (Activity) of IEEE Bangladesh Section, Dr. Engr. Muhibul Haque Bhuyan, Associate Professor and Chairman, Dept. of EEE , South East University,  Dr. Reduan Hasan Khan, Head of Internet of Things (IoT) , Grameenphone Ltd., Azfar Adib, Lead Engineer, Grameenphone Ltd., Dr. Md. Zuniad Baten, Assistant Professor, BUET were present as the honorable judges in the event.

Team Odommo Bangla from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology became Champion. The title of their project was Writing Assistance for physically disabled person.

Team HyperDrive from Khulna University of Engineering and Technology became 1st Runner-Up. The title of their project was An Improved Low-Cost Nose Tracking Cursor Control With Some New Features.

Team MekTek Beta from Khulna University of Engineering and Technology became 1st Runner-Up. The title of their project was Color for Blinds.

Besides these three teams, there were also three teams who received honorable mentions. Those are Team Hephaestus from Army Institute of Business Administration (AIBA), Team Buet Octatron from Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology and Team Polaris from Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology.

SS12 ASIA- AGE OF INNOVATION: Project Competition and Maker Fair 2017

SS12 is a Coding and Making Challenge jointly organized by Madras IEEE Education Society, Project Possibility and REAL Breakthrough. It is hosted in partnership with different IEEE sections, Universities and leading technology industry companies. The challenge is conducted to recognize the best social innovation application on the theme given:

‘EDUCATION THROUGH INNOVATION: INNOVATE, DEMONSTRATE AND EDUCATE.’

This international student project competition encourages innovative students to take up the initiative of making their application as a prototype model, demonstrate it and educate themselves through this innovation. The students are advised to interact with a community for which the innovation is intended and understand the issues clearly and work out the model. The final product developed should have an added help and support module for the users.

One of the local rounds of SS12 Project Competition 2017 will be organized jointly by IEEE Bangladesh Section, Humanitarian Activities Committee of IEEE BDS and SIGHT-FLASH Bangladesh Section and hosted by IEEE UIU Student Branch. Local final will be held on 7 July, 2017 at United International University.

Under this the projects can be Mobile Apps or Computer Based or IoT based pertaining to the following:

  • Agriculture and environment
  • Healthcare
  • Assistive systems for people with disabilities
  • Games and entertainment
  • Clean water and energy
  • Disaster management
  • Women safety
  • Others

Click here for more about SS12 Project Competition and Maker Fair-2017 and how to participate.

Humanitarian Idea Contest 2017 Result

On 13th May, 2017, IEEE Bangladesh Section Humanitarian Activities Committee (IEEE BDS HAC) in collaboration with SIGHT FLASH-Bangladesh Section has successfully organized the final round of Humanitarian Idea Contest 2017. The event was being hosted by IEEE Daffodil University Student Branch.

IEEE BDS HAC launched the event on March as its first big event. Humanitarian Activities Committee of IEEE Bangladesh Section and  SIGHT FLASH  group have taken   year long initiatives to involve students  developing humanitarian technology throughout the year . After receiving around 80 ideas from different universities of Bangladesh and through blind review of the ideas, 10 ideas were selected preliminarily. The final round of the idea contest was consist of that top 10 ideas. Chowdhury Akram Hossain, Secretary IEEE Bangladesh Section, Md. Sheak Rashed Haider Noori, Dept. of CSE, DIU and Md. Zakaria Haider, Humanitarian Activities Coordinator, IEEE Bangladesh Section acted the role of judges in the event. After an intensive presentation round top 3 teams were selected . These top teams will be provided proper guidance in upcoming months so that at the end these students can develop quality projects based on their ideas.

Champion: Team Warriors of Dorne

University :  University of Dhaka

Project Name : FoodAlytics

Presence of harmful concentrations of formalin  in food items is a serious issue and a rising cause  of concern amongst citizens of Bangladesh. Lethal  doses of formalin are now present in most food items  including fruits, fish and vegetables. However, lack  of reliable and inexpensive testing equipments and  inconsistent monitoring by concerned authorities means that it is up to the citizens to take actions themselves.  FoodAlytics,  an innovative solutions that package consists of a portable formalin sensor that you can clip to   smartphone like those portable smartphone camera lenses. An Android application then performs detailed mathematical analysis on the data and plots graphs,  charts and shows whether the concentration of formalin in the particular food item is within safe limits.

1st Runner Up: Redshift

University : Islamic University of Technology

Project Name: Aware

“Aware” aims at making the life of a hearing-impaired person easier and much safer. It is a real time vibration feedback device that detects the presence of sound, locates the direction  of its source and alerts the user of it. Starting from fire alarms, car horns, calling bells there are innumerable ways people use sound alerts in daily life. Our device is aimed not for speech or language  recognition but to make the user more aware of his surroundings. The device is meant to be very cost efficient and easy to use. It comes in  the form of a simple wrist-band. Lastly, the technology: several audio sensors, connected with a small microcontroller,  allows the device to detect sound intensity and direction. Mini vibration motors fitted into the wristband  vibrates at different intensities and patterns providing the user instant feedback.

2nd Runner Up: Heptacore

University : Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology

Project Name :Heptacore

In the immediate area of conflict, the primary aim is to prevent human casualties and ensuring access to the basics of survival. This project  “NURSING BOT” is designed to assist the health care of the people in conflicts.  This nursing bot is equipped with both injecting and withdrawing abilities. When necessary, it  can withdraw blood for diagnosis purposes or inject medicines in the patient’s body. The most important step of this prototype is the vein detection. Since the visibility of the vein under normal light is very low, Near Infrared imaging techniques was used . There is always a possibility that the patient may move after the alignment is done. So to prevent errors  in injecting, we took continuous live video feed. If the needle starts moving towards the patient’s hand  and the patient moves, the algorithm detects the changes and keeps aligning till it touches the skin. For injecting medicines, it may require vein detection depending on the type of medicine is injected. Feedback system is necessary in all cases. Our aim was to make this nursing bot, cost effective and compact in size. And these make it versatile and widen its application domain.

Humanitarian Technology Awareness Session — Dhaka University

IEEE BDS HAC successfully co organized a Humanitarian Technology Awareness Session for IEEE Student Branch DU on 23rd April 2017 at the Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, University of Dhaka. The session was conducted by Md Zakaria Haider, Humanitarian Activities Coordinator of IEEE Bangladesh Section, who talked the different steps required to nurture an idea into reality using his own experiences as examples while relating the goals of IEEE BDS HAC in the process.

Humanitarian Technology Awareness Session — Varendra University

As a part of creating awareness and involving non student branch members of IEEE Bangladesh Section with humanitarian technology, IEEE BDS HAC has organized one of their ongoing awareness sessions in Varendra University , Rajshahi on 9 april , 2017. Dr. Nurul H. Choudhury, Pro Vice Chancellor of Varendra University inaugurated the program.

Three representatives from IEEE BDS HAC , Md Zakaria Haider (Humanitarian Activities Coordinator), Walid Bin Habib (Treasurer) and Tasnim Binte Shawkat (Publicity Coordinator) conducted the session. Md. Zakaria Haider and Walid Bin Habib discussed about different ongoing activities of IEEE BDS HAC and the way of taking a project from idea to implementation. More than 60 enthusiastic students from ECE department attended the program.The discussion was followed by very informative and interactive question and answers sessions.

IEEE BDS HAC would like to acknowledge the help and support from the respected faculty members of ECE Department.

Concluding the events, Muhammad Sajjadur Rahim, Coordinator, Dept. of EEE thanked the speakers, guests and participants for their active participation.

Humanitarian Technology Awareness Session — RUET

On 9th April 2017, IEEE RUET Student Branch hosted an event entitled ‘Humanitarian Technology Awareness Session’ for promoting humanitarian technology among the students, supported by IEEE Bangladesh Section HAC. The program was a successful one with more than 40 participants. Inspiring and motivational speeches were given by the honorable speakers —

 

Md Zakaria Haider, Humanitarian Activities Coordinator , IEEE Bangladesh Section and

Walid Bin Habib, Treasurer , IEEE BDS HAC Team .

Later on the speakers received some gifts as a token of gratitude. Exciting promotional kits were given among the participants.

Finally, Heartiest thanks to all of you for your nice cooperation and presence to make our event a successful one.

Professional talk on “Smart City – A Citizen Perspective”

On 4th April, 2017, IEEE Bangladesh Section , IEEE SIGHT Group FLASH and Dept. of EEE jointly organized a professional talk on “Smart City – A Citizen Perspective“.The event was inaugurated by an opening speech by Dr. Celia Shahnaz, Professor , Dept. of EEE , BUET and Coordinator , SIGHT FLASH-Bangladesh Section . This was then followed by the keynote session, led by Mr. Bhudeb Chakravarti, Senior Member, IEEE, Honorary President, Centre for Development of Excellence and Chair, SIGHT, IEEE Hyderabad Section, India.


Mr. Chakravarti is pioneer in designing development plan for smart city initiatives in India. Every city worldwide is trying to become smart and intelligent. Though the term ‘Smart City’ is being used as use of modern technology to provide luxury and comfort to the citizen as promoted by the Tech Vendors, 
actually it is the evolution of a city to provide a safe, efficient and interactive environment to all of its citizens. He is recognized as a leader in the development and implementation of e-Governance projects and has a decade of experience in conceptualization and design of e-Governance initiatives for various government departments.He briefly described various aspects of smart city that focuses on citizen perspective.

The discussion was followed by very informative and interactive question and answers sessions. Concluding the event, On behalf of IEEE Bangladesh Section Dr. Celia Shahnaz -Vice Chair (Activity) and Md Zakaria Haider – Humanitarian Activities Coordinator presented the keynote speaker with tokens of appreciation and thanked the speakers, guests and participants for their active participation.