St Catherine’s resident wins UWA Student Innovation Challenge

St Catherine’s College is celebrating the success of one of its residents, University of Western Australia’s (UWA) Master of Information Technology student, Jiaranai Keatnuxsuo. Along with UWA Master of Data Science student, Alastair Parker, together they have won the 2018 UWA Student Innovation Challenge with their creative solution to on-road driver inattention safety.

Working in teams over the duration of a weekend, 12 student teams were presented with a range of issues and encouraged to devise broad problem resolutions to realise a bold new vision. 

With a growing number of road fatalities and injuries being caused by driver inattention, the student team explored the impact of mobile phone use while driving.

Their winning solution focused on their design thinking process and validated problem solving and was evaluated by judges from Bloom, RAC, Commonwealth Bank (CommBank) and UWA Innovation Quarter Exchange (IQX). 

“We learnt so much from the competition, but the design thinking process is what really elevated our solution.” Said Jiaranai. 

“Thinking laterally and honing the scope and scale of our problem, we were able to test the understanding from users, and build our prototype. Our value proposition hinged on positively incentivising drivers to avoid using their phones on the road, than negatively punishing with a fine system.” Said Alastair.

The student’s $10,000 prize includes a trip to Sydney to visit the CommBank Innovation Centre as well as networking opportunities with the RAC.

Media references
Lauren Humfrey (St Catherine's College, UWA) (+61 8) 9442 0591
 

Photo credit: Angela Reimers