UNAIR NEWS – Three female students from Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR) have won gold medal in an international event, the 2023 Virtual Mini Research & Design Competition (VIMIRED), to create a screening tool for detecting eye diseases. The three students are Dwita Rahmadini Hendri and Khairun Nisa, from the 2019 Biomedical Engineering students, and Nabilah Sabilillah, a 2023 Midwifery Professional Education student.
Team leader Dwita explained that Global Professional Diploma was the organizer of the competition. Through the main organizer, there are representatives of organizations in each country that handle it, one of which is The Innovator Generation Indonesia. He revealed that the process was quite long.
The competition
Technically, the participants register for the national selection through abstract submission to certain organization in each country. Then the qualifying participants will get Letter of Acceptance (LoA) for administrative purposes and then upload a video presentation of their innovative products.
Innovation of eye disease screening tool
For the competition themed: Scale Up Your Idea And Create New Innovation To The World, the team initiated the DearEYE product, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) based eye disease detection using a smartphone camera lens. It was started from the team’s anxiety about eye disease that is not detected early can lead to permanent blindness, which results in a decrease in one’s productivity and thus affects the country’s economy. So, through this product innovation, it functions to capture images of the patient’s retinal fundus.
“So only with a smartphone camera, we can determine eye disease in patients with diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma,” explained Dwita, a Biomedical Engineering student.
Aside from being an alternative eye screening tool, this innovation has several advantages. It is more affordable and has better portability than other screening tools. For the team, this innovation also greatly benefits rural communities because of the uneven distribution of ophthalmologists nationwide.
Team challenges
The team faced many challenges during the three months of preparation. They had to compete with students from several countries, including China, India, and Malaysia. However, fortunately, all obstacles were overcome, moreover, the team composition was quite sufficient. Dwita contributed to developing AI software using the Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) method for image recognition. Nabilah understands the condition of health screening in the field, and Nisa is responsible for the user interface and user experience aspects and hardware product development.
“We face the whole process with coordination, communication, and the same vision among team members, including collaboration with experts and practitioners in the field of eye health. I believe that achievement is not the final goal, but part of the journey to achieve greater success in the future,” said Dwita, former Secretary of the 2021 FST Prestasi Community PR Division.
Beside in VIMIRED event, which focuses on developing research & design of hardware and software products, DearEYE’s innovation has also received a special award at the Malaysia Technology Expo (MTE) 2023, which focuses on the commercialization of the product business by cooperating with two UNAIR Accounting students, Abdul Rohman, and Arfian Mulia Bagus Arijanto.
Author: Viradyah Lulut Santosa
Editor: Khefti Al Mawalia
