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DST students’ FYP: Self-driving shopping cart and more

Published on 24 April 2017

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Hands off and the shopping cart will follow you? Three students from the Computer Science and Technology Programme made easy shopping no longer a dream.

Hu Ruihua, Liu Zhaozhao and Wu Jianqiu designed a shopping cart which can recognise and trail its owner automatically. “Implemented with the Camshift tracking algorithm, the shopping cart carries the Minnow Board Turbot embedded platform. Additionally, the Kalman filter optimises the precision of tracking,” they said.

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Hu Ruihua, Liu Zhaozhao and Wu Jianqiu design a self-driving shopping cart

The cart is also installed with a binocular camera which can seek the depth of field and estimate distance between the cart and customer to avoid obstacles.

The invention was introduced at UIC’s 5th Undergraduate Science and Technology Poster Presentation on 19 April. All the 62 posters on display were selected from among the Final Year Projects of the graduating students from the Division of Science and Technology.

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DST students present their projects to the viewers and judging panel members

Lin Yuxuan of the Statistics Programme seized the Division Best Poster Award. Finding the limitations of Threshold Accepting Algorithm, she tuned it to a valid and efficient version under Mixture Discrepancy in order to measure the uniformity of a uniform design. The research results show that the modified algorithm can generate uniform designs exceeding those on record.

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Lin Yuxuan and her supervisor Prof Fang Kaitai

Environmental Science student Situ Jian studied the ecological community and physical conditions of seagrass bed (Halophila beccarii Asch) at Tangjia Bay in Zhuhai. Situ told the viewers that seagrass accelerates global nutrient cycle and provides habitats as well as food for various marine creatures. However, the seagrass bed of Halophila beccarii Asch at Tangjia Bay, which is the only identified one in the west coast of the Pearl River Estuary, underwent around 70% reduction as opposed to the previous record conducted by another research team in 2009.

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Judging panel member Axel Rau, managing director of Foodawa Food Technology, was impressed by the students’ effective and logical presentations, adding that he learned new research topics in his field of profession from their projects.

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Judging panel member Axel Rau speaks highly of the Poster Presentation

UIC President Prof Ng Ching-Fai remarked that the poster presentation could help students “better appreciate the hard work of others, maintain a fascination with the academic and the real world, as well as learn how to explore and gain more hands-on experience.”

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President Ng Ching-Fai encourges the students to interact with fellow students as well as visitors 

At the end of the day, the judging panel decided the essential technical awards: the Best Poster Award (in division level) and the Outstanding Poster Awards (in programme level).

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Dr Richard Burchett, Assistant Professor of the Applied Psychology Programme, serves as chairman of the organising committee of the Poster Presentation 

List of the 5th Poster Presentation Awards

The Best Poster Award (Division level)
• The Tuning of the Threshold Accepting Algorithm for Generating Uniform Designs under Mixture Discrepancy, by Lin Yuxuan (STAT), advised by Prof Fang Kaitai

The Outstanding Poster Awards (Programme level)
• Resiliency as a Mediator between Maternal Parenting Styles and Students' Achievement Motivation, by Fan Xingyan (APSY), advised by Dr Ghee Ho
• A Study on Factory Management Information System, by Lan Yupeng (CST), advised by Dr Jeong Seon Phil
• Preliminary Study on the Ecological Community and Physical Conditions of Seagrass Bed (Halophila beccarii Asch.) at Tangjia Bay in Zhuhai, China, by Situ Jian (ENVS), advised by Dr Tsim Sui Tai
• Suitable Risk Measurement of the Chinese Stock market High Volatility, by Liu Feitong (FM), advised by Prof Ng Kah Hwa
• Effects of UV-C Light Exposure and Refrigeration on the Phenolic Contents and Antioxidant Profiles of Subtropical Fruits (Litchi, Longan, Ramnutan) in Different Fruit Forms (Whole, Dehulled, Destoned), by Li Peilong (FST), advised by Prof Xu Baojun
• The Tuning of the Threshold Accepting Algorithm for Generating Uniform Designs under Mixture Discrepancy, by Lin Yuxuan (STAT), advised by Prof Fang Kaitai

Outstanding Performance Certificate
• All Presenters

The Student Choice Poster Award
• Using the Eye-tracking Paradigm to Explore Attention Bias towards Smoking Cues among Non-smokers with Different Preference Levels of Smoking, by He Jianyun (APSY), advised by Dr Ghee Ho

Photographer: Zheng Jinglin (CCM, Year 4), Zhou Chunmei
Editor: Deen He
(from MPRO, with special thanks to the ELC)

Updated on 8 September 2020