International: Third Place, Future Impact Challenge
Grade 11
I earned Third Place in the Future Impact Challenge, where my team received a $500 prize.
Our team developed IntelliOre, an AI-powered safety platform designed to improve workplace safety in the mining industry. The platform uses Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) to analyze machine data and predict potential equipment failures, while Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) analyze images of workers to verify whether they are wearing proper safety equipment. By flagging risks before accidents occur, IntelliOre gives workers and site managers clear alerts to help them make safer decisions.
In the first round, I helped conduct field research through surveys to gather feedback from potential users and evaluate IntelliOre's ideas. Our team also put together an overview of the product, covering its technology, market analysis, and growth strategy, and published a blog article that introduces our implementation plan and our research on the technological feasibility of the solution.
In the second round, we created a product demonstration video showcasing IntelliOre prototype interface. I also conducted interviews with an industrial engineer in the mining industry and surveyed potential customers to gather user feedback and validate IntelliOre. These insights helped us refine IntelliOre with real-world industry perspective.
In the final round, we presented IntelliOre to a panel of judges and fielded questions in a live Q&A session. Afterwards, the judges praised our strong understanding of the market opportunity and competitive landscape, and noted that bringing in expert feedback through collaboration with an industry engineer demonstrated a level of maturity beyond many teams at our stage.
The most challenging part of the competition was responding to the judges' questions, many of which extended beyond the technical aspects of our solution to focus on real-world implementation, including government regulations. Through this experience, I realized that building successful AI products requires regulatory considerations in real-world mining environments.
