UTS International Technology Innovation Competition (HydroCity)

What is this competition about?

This competition is an innovation challenge that required the students to think about the future technology that can be used to help cities to develop better citizenship. Basically, the idea is a technology-enabled city.

How did you and the students come up with the idea ‘Hydrocity’?

We came up with the idea by going through several brainstorming sessions. Our original idea wasn’t the hydrocity, the original idea was actually something related to transportation. Suddenly, in the last minute, around 48 hours before submission, we came up with this city, a floating city.

What are the obstacles faced while coming up with this idea?

The obstacles we are facing when coming to brainstorming is that every time we have an idea, we keep arguing and testing whether the idea is good or not, whether its applicable or not and whether its doable because after you finish the proposal, you need to make a prototype, so we’re thinking something that is doable for us and we can also make the prototype, otherwise, if our proposal gets accepted and we cannot provide the prototype, it will be a shame on us. We thought that the floating city is a good idea so we tried to make the proposal and recommend it using the prototype.

What is the purpose of joining this competition? How can it benefit the students?

It can help the students to think out of the box and to think globally so they have a global perspective on what is going on in the world right now, the current development in technology and the future development of the technology that can support a city to be a smart and futuristic city. It also helps the student to be creative and dare to dream big.