APU Computer Wizards Emerged Top 15 in Varsity Hackathon 2022

Competing with about 300 local and overseas teams comprising more than 1,000 participants, APU’s Team Alpacaverse and Team KekalFresh emerged within the Top 15 in the recently concluded Varsity Hackathon 2022, organised by Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM).

Team Alpacaverse which was made up of three Year-2 students pursuing BSc (Hons) in Computer Science with a Specialism in Data Analytics – Leo Wai Yei, Chua Rou Lin and Khor Zhen Win attained 4th Place in the hackathon. 

Five-member Team KekalFresh, also Year-2 students pursuing the above programme, as well as a Bachelor of Computer Science (Hons) (Intelligent Systems) – Ooi Zhen Wei, Teow Jing Wern Cassandrea, Chong Yi Shien, Ros Amisya Fatiha Binti Mohd Rizal and Aurelio Darren Savero, secured 8th Place.

Both Team Alpacaverse and Team KekalFresh were awarded an RM250 cash prize and a  Certificate of Participation.  

Spanned from 24th March to 3rd April, including 2 full hackathon days on 26th & 27th March, Varsity Hackathon 2022 was held entirely online. It provided a platform for undergraduates to gain new hackathon experiences by exploring the right way to solve challenges using critical thinking, learning how to validate and market their ideas, and developing a prototype.  

Team Alpacaverse's problem statement aimed to shorten the donation process within a single system. Their working prototype links all involved parties together in a seamless ecosystem that can garner a larger user base. 

This working prototype was built in Figma and named “AlpacaHelp”. It demonstrated the concept and practical application of a sustainable charity system. Interesting features in this prototype included a form that the needy can use to request help; a map that showed the nearby resource banks and people who are in need within the area; a request form that allowed anyone to set up their resource banks; and an e-commerce thrift shop marketplace. 

“This is a mobile application that connects donors, the needy, and resource centres to offer more donation channels and at the same time streamline the donation process. Besides, our team implemented an e-commerce thrift shop to ensure our platform is self-sustainable in the long run, thus able to help the needy for a longer period than other implementations could,” explained Leo Wai Yei, the leader of Team Alpacaverse. 

On the other hand, as their name suggested, Team “KekalFresh” which literally means “maintaining fresh”, built a platform that aimed to get customers connected with fresh food suppliers. 

According to Teow Jing Wern Cassandrea, the Team Leader, “Due to the lack of food accessibility and availability, transparency and hidden cost, Malaysians have been facing food insecurity and food price instability for the past few years, especially during the implementation of various Movement Control Order during the pandemic. Hence, our team has come up with KekalFresh, an engaging e-commerce platform integrated with data analytics features and intensive approaches to reduce food costs among Malaysia's low and middle-income groups.”

The team came out with a comprehensive business model along with a complete Figma prototype of the solution, which features community pick-up points, supply and demands analysis, platform insights, discounts on near-expired foods and many more to tackle the points stated above. 

Congrats to both teams as they had put all theories they learned in the classroom into practice and proved their mettle among strong competitors from across Malaysia and overseas.