Five teams battled it out to showcase sustainable innovation solutions that address societal concerns and challenges
SINGAPORE – Mapletree Investments Pte Ltd (“Mapletree” or “the Group”) and Singapore Institute of Technology (“SIT”) successfully concluded the third edition of The Mapletree Challenge Grand Final. Two teams of SIT students – RADnovation and The Gastronauts – impressed the judges with their sustainable innovation proposals and emerged joint champions among the five finalist teams from SIT. The two winning teams each walked away with a cash prize of $5,000 and the winners’ trophies.
Team RADnovation, comprising six Year 2 Mechanical Engineering students, created a portable rehabilitation device that allows patients to perform exercises from home. The Gastronauts, made up of five Year 2 Food Technology students, proposed to repurpose spent coffee ground to grow oyster mushroom in a growing kit.
The Mapletree Challenge Grand Final was held at Mapletree Business City on 5 May 2022. Guest-of-Honour Ms Low Yen Ling, Minister of State, Ministry of Trade & Industry and Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth graced the event and presented the awards to the top three winners.
SIT President Professor Chua Kee Chaing said, “We are delighted to continue partnering Mapletree to inspire another batch of SITizen thinking tinkerers who will potentially make meaningful contributions to society. The Mapletree Challenge complements the University’s pedagogy perfectly in that it enables our students to use their knowledge and skills to innovate and address problems of concern to society.”
Mr Edmund Cheng, Mapletree’s Chairman said “The Mapletree Challenge has continued to support SIT students in their entrepreneurial journey for the third year running. We are glad to see SIT students constantly innovating and coming up with new ways to live sustainably. It is our hope that The Mapletree Challenge will inspire them to dream big and make a difference in today’s world through their innovations.”
This year’s Challenge with the theme, Improving Our World through Sustainability and Innovation, saw the participation of 120 SIT students in a series of face-to-face and virtual training and mentorship programmes in the preparation stage of the Challenge. From January to May 2022, these participants attended six masterclasses on personal leadership, value pitching and financial literacy; a forum discussion on entrepreneurship and sustainable innovation by leading young entrepreneurs; as well as small group mentorship from industry experts on their entrepreneurial ideas. More information about The Mapletree Challenge is detailed in Annex 1.
Ten teams were selected to compete in the semi-finals, with five teams progressing to the Grand Final to vie for the Mapletree Gold, Mapletree Silver and Mapletree Bronze awards, which included cash prizes of S$5,000, S$3,000 and S$2,000 respectively. Winners may also get the opportunity to receive support for prototyping their idea.
Some of the ideas presented by the other teams include a sustainable water generation equipment that converts oxygen into water using solar energy, a mobile app for cyclists, and producing fish fingers from locally sourced ingredients with the lowest carbon footprint.The full list of winners is in Annex 2.
First launched in 2018, the Mapletree Challenge is a series of programmes that aims to promote entrepreneurship innovation, problem-solving and presentation finesse among SIT undergraduates. By providing a platform for them to present their business ideas, the Challenge hopes to inspire students to become future sustainable innovators.
The two Mapletree Gold teams – The Gastronauts (in white) and RADnovation (in black) – with MOS Low Yen Ling at The Mapletree Challenge 2022 Grand Final.
The top three teams of The Mapletree Challenge 2022 with MOS Low Yen Ling and senior management of SIT and Mapletree.
Exchange of token of appreciation between Mr Chua Tiow Chye, Deputy Group Chief Executive Officer, Mapletree (left) and Prof Chua Kee Chaing, SIT President (right), witnessed by MOS Low Yen Ling (centre).
Annex 1
The Mapletree Challenge 2022 in its entirety comprises the following components:
- Masterclass sessions (January 2022 to March 2022): About 120 students took part in six masterclass sessions on personal leadership, value pitching and financial literacy conducted by experienced industry experts. Students also attended small group mentoring sessions led by mentors from Compass@Campus – a group of experienced industry leaders, business executives, entrepreneurs and professionals, to deepen their learning.
- The Mapletree Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum (19 March 2022): panel discussion focused on entrepreneurship and innovation held in Resort World Sentosa with the following leading local young entrepreneurs sharing their entrepreneurship journey:
o Mr Eugene Yeo, Serial Entrepreneur and Ex-CIO MyRepublic
o Mr Farhan Firdaus, Partner, Venture
o Mr Logan Tan, Co-Founder Eezee Logistics
o Ms Simarna Singh, UN Youth Ambassador and Social Entrepreneur - The Mapletree Challenge Semi-Finals (22 April 2022): innovation pitch competition held in SIT with 10 teams vying for the top 5 spots in the Grand Final.
- The Grand Final (5 May 2022): five selected finalist teams pitched their business plan to a panel of judges in a 10 to 15-minute live presentation.
Cash prizes for Grand Final participants:
o Mapletree Gold Award: $5,000
o Mapletree Silver Award: $3,000
o Mapletree Bronze Award: $2,000
o Consolation Prizes: $1,000 for selected teams
The judges for the Grand Final are:
• Ms Joanna Lee, Director of Retail Management Systems, Mapletree Commercial Property Management
• Mr Neo Bock Cheng, Head of Partnerships, Global Commercial Banking, OCBC Bank
• Prof Ho Yew Kee, Associate Provost (SkillsFuture) & Cluster Director, Business, Communication and Design, Singapore Institute of Technology
Annex 2: List of Winners
| Prize | Winning Team & Members |
| Mapletree Gold (S$5,000 cash) | RADnovation Rehabilitation process can be stressful for patients who need to commute to a healthcare facility regularly. Team RADnovation hopes to bring convenience and relieve to patients from the comfort of their homes with the creation of a portable rehabilitation device. The device allows patients to perform exercises from home and the performance indicators can be tracked remotely by the physiotherapist or occupational therapist through data transmitted from the device to an online platform. The remote tracking function of the portable device can detect if the patient is doing the physical activity correctly or are skipping their rehabilitation sessions. Team RADnovation hopes to create a prototype of the device and do test trial runs in rehabilitation centres and hospitals.Team members: – Claire Chia Hui Shi, Mechanical Engineering, Year 2 – Alexander Quah Zhi Wei, Mechanical Engineering, Year 2 – Sng Shan You, Mechanical Engineering, Year 2 – Leow Xue Zi, Junise, Mechanical Engineering, Year 2 – Ramasamy S/o Subramaniam, Mechanical Engineering, Year 2 – Willie Goh Jia Wei, Mechanical Engineering, Year 2 The Gastronauts Spent coffee ground is a natural and sustainable resource that is packed with rich nutrients and can be repurposed and used for the production of biodiesel. The Gastronauts proposed repurposing spent coffee ground into growth substrate for oyster mushroom. This would be packaged into an oyster mushroom growing kit which typically takes a week to grow the mushroom. The proposed kit aims to help reduce wastage of coffee grounds and encourage self-sustainability by growing our own food.Team members: – Rita Tay Ru En, Food Technology, Year 2 – Chua Yuan Shen Raphael, Food Technology, Year 2 – Loh Jia Hao Sean, Food Technology, Year 2 – Lam Yun Jia Nurice, Food Technology, Year 2 – Tan Yi Shan, Food Technology, Year 2 |
| Mapletree Bronze (S$2,000 cash) | BikePass By 2030, Singapore’s cycling path network will be expanded to 1,320km. Team BikePass proposed to develop a mobile application to promote cycling with a host of functions and services for greater convenience to end users.Team members: – Ng Hian Hong Aaron, Computer Engineering, Year 2 – Ong Jun Sheng, Computer Engineering, Year 2 – Keith Yeo, Computer Engineering, Year 2 |
| Consolation Prizes (S$1,000 cash for each team) | GoldenBitez Local food production is important to reduce our reliance on food imports. Team GoldenBitez sees the potential to work alongside with local farms to sustainably produce tasty and healthy fish fingers with the smallest environmental footprint possible. The plan is to rear African Catfishes in a local farm and have it processed and packaged in a food production facility (eg. SIT Foodplant). The product stands out from other frozen food competitors as it is free from added preservatives and artificial flavouring.Team members: – Aaron Siow, Food Technology, Year 3 – Rachel Loh, Food Technology, Year 3 – Benjamin Tay, Mechanical Design and Manufacturing Engineering, Year 3SIThinkers Tapping on the high humidity levels and sunny climate in Singapore, the team hopes to create a sustainable water generation equipment which converts oxygen into water using solar energy. ‘Air Aqua’ would facilitate water consumption on-the-go with the fitting of this equipment on electronic billboard displays at bus stops. Water vapour which flows into the system condenses into water droplets which is accumulated in an internal storage tank. This allows the end users to fill up their bottles via a water discharge outlet connected to the storage tank. The discharged water is safe for consumption.Team members: – Tan Min Er Kelly, Hospitality Business, Year 2 – Tan Yu Ting Grace, Hospitality Business, Year 2 – Tyu Ker Yu, Mechanical Engineering, Year 1 – Davis Zheng Yang, ICT (Information Security), Year 2 – Ang Pheng Siang, Computer Science in Interactive Media and Game Development, Year 3 – Unicia Goh Ke Xin, Pharmaceutical Engineering, Year 2 |
