Deciding on the Categories
- Ang Yong Xiang Adwin
- Oct 15, 2018
- 4 min read
To me, it is not about selecting the easiest category that I think I can accomplish with a simple idea and do well in terms of grades for the project. It is about selecting an idea that I believe in and will motivate me to persist throughout from start to finish.
First I had to look at all the categories available to me.
Smart City for the Elderly
Innovative Solutions for Social Interactions
Smart Mobility
Healthy Living
Smart Campus Solutions
Saving life in Flu Pandemic
Requirements
I thought of certain requirements that were needed when it came down to the selection of my categories and the ideas that I will come up with.
Potentially make use of QR code
Referenced from WeChat as my experience with WeChat in China has been nothing but great and is an area that I would like to explore and implement into my project.
Identify target audience
It is not good to target everything
Have a specific market
Be more specialized
Support external apparatus
It can be things like sensors or phone cameras etc.
The idea must be able to differentiate itself from other products in the market
It is hard to come up with concepts that are completely innovative compared to the very wide variety of products in the market currently.
Therefore, there must be certain defining features that will make the idea unique
Narrowing Selection of Categories
There were three that stood out to me, that I decided to give them some thought process.
Smart City for Elderly
What do we expect in a smart city?
Automation
Automate the daily task such as taking medicine
Convenience
Ease of Information
Reminders
What are some problems Elderly could have?
Need to rest
Cannot have too much movement
Prone to Injuries
Smart Mobility
APIs: OneMap (Quite Versatile better alternative than Google Map), DataMall
App to refer to: SG BusLeh, EzLink, DiDi
-Ez-Link Card reader
Link:
Target Audience: Students, Working Adults, Drivers
What do you define as smart?
Automating certain task
Movement
Public Transport route
Identify Common patterns (Machine Learning)
Frequent Path
Mode of transport
What is mobility?
Movement
Walk
Transport
Bicycle
Grab/ Ryde
Taxi
Bus
What are some problems they face?
For Drivers
Having to pay for ERP
Traffic Jam
Finding a location to park their cars (OneMap supports this)
For Students and Working Adults
Keeping track of the MRT Maintenance
Bus Route changes
Keeping track of Ez-Link card balance
Saving Lives in a Flu Pandemic
This category can be broken down into two parts
Source:Flu Pandemic
Outcome:Saving Lives
The more appropriate way to analyze the challenge would be to start from the source as without the source there will not be need for the outcome.
Definition of Flu Pandemic
A pandemic is the WORLDWIDE spread of a new disease.
How a Flu Pandemic occurs
"An influenza pandemic occurs when a new influenza virus emerges and spreads around the world, and most people do not have immunity. Viruses that have caused past pandemics typically originated from animal influenza viruses.
Some aspects of influenza pandemics can appear similar to seasonal influenza while other characteristics may be quite different. For example, both seasonal and pandemic influenza can cause infections in all age groups, and most cases will result in self-limited illness in which the person recovers fully without treatment. However, typical seasonal influenza causes most of its deaths among the elderly while other severe cases occur most commonly in people with a variety of medical conditions.
By contrast, this H1N1 pandemic caused most of its severe or fatal disease in younger people, both those with chronic conditions as well as healthy persons, and caused many more cases of viral pneumonia than is normally seen with seasonal influenza.
For both seasonal and pandemic influenza, the total number of people who get severely ill can vary. However, the impact or severity tends to be higher in pandemics in part because of the much larger number of people in the population who lack pre-existing immunity to the new virus. When a large portion of the population is infected, even if the proportion of those infected that go on to develop severe disease is small, the total number of severe cases can be quite large.
For both seasonal and pandemic influenza, the highest levels of activity would be expected to occur in the usual influenza season period for an area. (In the temperate climate zones, this is usually the winter months, for example). But as was seen with the current H1N1 pandemic, pandemics can have unusual epidemiological patterns and large outbreaks can occur in the summer months."
Breaking down the long text into key areas to focus in:
Source of the problem:
A Flu Pandemic occurs when a new influenza virus emerges and most people do not have immunity.
Often come from animals
Can be seasonal
Affected Groups:
Infections can happen in all age groups
Most death occurs amongst the elderlies
Severe case for other age groups would be a variety of medical conditions.
Special Case (H1N1)
-Younger people are the most affected by H1N1
-Those with chronic conditions and even healthy people are affected
How to Save Lives in a Flu Pandemic
There will be two types of people directly involved when there is a flu pandemic that I believe we can target
Medical Personnel and Citizens. Medical Personnel are the ones who are on the field trying to combat this pandemic whereas the citizens are people who may or may not be affected by the flu.
Target Audience
Therefore, the target audience would be Medical Personnel and Citizens
Saving Lives can be done in many ways, it is actually quite vague as to how we can save lives. Increasing efficiency and effectiveness of cure, prevention and limiting spread, spread awareness etc. etc. etc.
So what are the ways that I should target in order to save and impact as many lives as possible?
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