YOUTH EARTH SUMMIT 2021- UoW DUBAI

1. Introduction:

University of Wollongong conducted the Youth Earth Summit which was aimed at promoting and motivating us students to engage in scientific research on current environmental issues facing the UAE community.

The sub-themes of the competition were:
1. Tech Enabled Food Production (inputs, farming and harvesting).
2. Innovations in post-harvest value chains (storage, processing, transportation).
3. Disruptive retail (packaging, distribution, consumption)

Our team focused on the Innovation in post-harvest value chains & our team name was ‘STOREX’

Ms. Poonam and Ms. Meagan were guiding us throughout the competition. 

2. Before the Competition:

We had to submit an abstract in 100 words of what our idea is. Our project focused on two parts: 
1. In storage: the quality of food crops in storage can be maintained using drones and 3-D mapping of the warehouse. Through the help of VR, we can completely change the inspection of harvest in storage. Drones fitted with 360-degree cameras can be used to view the facility from a remote location.
2. Management of output: Using Block Chain and Machine Learning, we can bring in farmers to play in the cycle between retailers and suppliers. Using block chain, due to distributive ledger properties of block chain it will be a transparent system where both farmers and suppliers can see what is happening with the produce ensuring better remuneration of farmers and better quality for suppliers and retailers. Block chain will also enable us to predict demand and will enable us to order and store the right crops and quantity during the right time of the year.

3. Day of the Competition:

The competition was held on 22nd May 2021, from 8:30am to 2:30pm, in Cisco WebEx. At the starting there was a session for introducing the judges and telling us about the competition in detail. After that we were sent to our respective groups based on our chosen sub-theme. 
Our allotted time for the presentation was 10:20 to 10:40.

We started our presentation by telling who we are, and moved onto our topic; about what the conventional warehouse is and what are its problems. Then we proposed our solution, about 3D Mapping and Drones in warehouses, Block Chains and Machine Learning in managing the output, and last but not least why it should be implemented in UAE. 

Closing Ceremony: At 2:00 the presentations were over and we were called back to the main session for announcement of the results. The jury awards were there for one team from each category and there was an Audience Choice Award for one team given via polling for their favourite presentation overall. The three winners from each category were announced and then they moved to the audience choice award.

We jumped in seeing our team name popping up on the screen with a thumping 108 votes and we won the Audience Choice Award. The audience choice winners will be hosted at ICBA to experience a unique adventure that includes hands-on Halophytic Kitchen Lab and tree planting activities!!!

                           Team Members:

                      1. Omkar Ganesh                12E
                      2. Abel Makil                        12
                      3. Abhiram S Smitha           12B
                      4. Mehul Antony                  12E
                      5. Taha Shabbir                   12F
    Mentors: Ms. Poonam & Ms. Meagan