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MaritimeONE Digital Challenge 2022: A Splash of Curiosity, Innovation and Collaboration

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New ideas are the fuel that keeps the ever-changing maritime industry moving, and they were certainly in high supply at the MaritimeONE Digital Challenge 2022 (MDC 2022).

This year’s edition saw 141 tertiary students across 40 registered teams submit their ideas to solve the maritime industry’s challenges at the nexus of business and technology. Three teams from the National University of Singapore (Team S16), the Singapore University of Social Sciences (Team Visibilité) and Nanyang Polytechnic (Team Alpaca) stood out from the crowd with their solutions that set out to optimise shipping routes, enhance warehouse operations and improve workplace engagement respectively. 

Their victories required a mix of curiosity, innovation and collaboration to impress judges from RightShip, A.P. Møller – Maersk and PSA Cargo Solutions, who were this year’s challenge partners. To understand more, we spoke to the teams to hear about their experiences at this year’s competition. 

 

Curiosity: Getting connections right with RightShip City

To support RightShip’s shift to a hybrid workplace across four continents, the maritime digital solutions provider sought new ideas on forging meaningful relationships and networks between their global employees.

 

Pictured (Left to right): Daevon Yap, Eve Lim, Senior Minister of State for Transport and Finance Mr Chee Hong Tat, Tan Guan Qun and Naomi Chia

Team Alpaca, consisting of Daevon Yap, Eve Lim, Tan Guan Qun and Naomi Chia from Nanyang Polytechnic, submitted the winning solution, RightShip City, a gamified social media community.

“With RightShip City, we want to help employees combat feelings of isolation and build personal connections regardless of their country or department. At the end of the day, we wanted RightShip’s employees to be a happy and productive workforce with a sense of belonging to the company.”

– Team Alpaca

Ever a proponent of innovative approaches to tackle industry problems hands-on, the students were introduced and encouraged to join the competition by their lecturer at Nanyang Polytechnic.

Almost immediately, Team Alpaca jumped at the idea and assembled a multi-disciplinary team. It began with Business Management student Eve, who used her human resources knowledge to conceptualise the idea. Game Development and Technology students Daevon and Guan Qun were roped in to drive the solution’s software development, working together with Digital Game Art and Design student Naomi to produce the game’s visuals.

Team Alpaca’s solution, RightShip City, contained many gamified features such as in game currencies.

Tapping on their combined skillsets, knowledge and resources, the four then experimented on various gamification methods, researched game psychology and even engaged with RightShip employees to understand their needs. This approach manifested in gamified features such as guild systems, team missions, in-game currencies and even a change management plan to improve adoption.

This innovative approach was what impressed RightShip’s judge, Mr Steen Lund, Chief Executive Officer of RightShip.

“It was an enjoyable and heartening experience for us to get a peek into the minds of the generation that will make up our future workforce. Their ability to think creatively, take on feedback and genuine desire to do good brings comfort that we are indeed in safe hands.”

– Mr Steen Lund

Mr Steen Lund (in blue blazer), seen here with guest of honour Senior Minister of State for Transport and Finance Mr Chee Hong Tat (in purple shirt), was impressed by Team Alpaca’s innovative approach.

Likewise, the competition’s experience was an enriching one for Team Alpaca.

“We came to understand that the maritime industry is truly the backbone of the global economy and international trade. It’s truly impressive. Now, we are certainly more interested in seeking career opportunities in the maritime industry.”

– Team Alpaca

Innovation: A green and efficient journey with Freightscanner

Receiving cargo efficiently and sustainably helps PSA Cargo Solutions to run their 60 deep-sea, rail and inland port terminals smoothly. The company thus challenged students to develop a multi-modal shipment route engine to identify optimal shipment routes.

Pictured (Left to right): Darryl Chan, Senior Minister of State for Transport and Finance Mr Chee Hong Tat, A. Muhammed Madhih and A. Guhanavel.

Team S16, which comprised National University of Singapore students Darryl Chan, A. Guhanavel, and A. Muhammed Madhih, saw this as the perfect opportunity to push themselves beyond academia to solve real-world problems with the winning solution Freightscanner.

“As data science students, we wanted to understand how we could apply data science to the maritime industry. We thus designed Freightscanner, a data-driven, one-stop booking application with a friendly user interface to enable users to book intermodal shipments.”

– Team S16

Drawing on their data science expertise, the trio underpinned their solution with an algorithm that would propose optimal routes based on critical factors such as time efficiency. To provide accountability, the team developed a “white box” model algorithm which is based on a logic that can be easily interpreted and understood.

Team S16’s winning solution, Freightscanner, provided users with key information on the best routes available.

The solution also incorporated key sustainability practices by recommending the lowest carbon emitting routes by calculating the carbon footprint of each possible journey. This was powered by their algorithm, which would balance out shipment times with carbon emissions.

“By being transparent with our calculations and showing the data, users will be aware of how each decision made can impact the society, economy and timing of the goods shipped.”

– Team S16

This new approach was what caught the attention of judge Mr Eddie Ng, Head of Digital and Data Strategy at PSA Cargo Solutions.

“We have also gained fresh perspectives from them in tackling some of the challenges faced by the industry, which will augment our continuous efforts in developing innovative solutions to enable agile, resilient and sustainable supply chains.”

– Mr Eddie Ng

Mr Eddie Ng (2nd from left), seen here with Senior Minister of State for Transport and Finance Mr Chee Hong Tat and Team S16, was impressed by the team’s approach.

The experience in MDC was also an eye-opening experience for the trio.

“Participating in this challenge has demystified our assumptions about the maritime industry – Maritime is indeed transforming to stay ahead of new challenges such as digitalisation and productivity in the post-covid era.”

– Team S16

Collaboration: Warehouse Operations – Team Visibilité

Technology helps A.P. Møller – Maersk manage their 3 million square meters worth of warehouses around the world. To this end, the logistics provider challenged students to design a workplace application that could enhance visibility over end-to-end warehouse operations and optimise resource allocation.

Pictured (Left to right): Kavimashathini Ganesan, Caroline Koh Yuan Ting, Senior Minister of State for Transport and Finance Mr Chee Hong Tat and Foo Chuan Yu.

Team Visibilité, comprising Supply Chain Management students Caroline Koh Yuan Ting, Foo Chuan Yu and Kavimashathini Ganesan from the Singapore University of Social Sciences, proposed the winning solution, Warehouse Control Tower.

“With the Control Tower, employees can better understand and tackle any critical issues in real real-time. The application will contribute to better user satisfaction and solve maritime and logistical problems, while requiring little to no transition period for new users.”

– Team Visibilité

The team was guided by the key principle to create an easy-to-adopt, personalised and scalable solution. With this common understanding, the group actively collaborated to bring together many ideas and landed on the winning solution.

Team Visibilité’s solution digitalised key warehouse processes and provided vital information through dashboards.

The trio’s consolidated knowledge of supply chain processes also came in handy and contributed to improving the user experience of their solution. For example, they applied their knowledge to ensure that users only need three touch points to accomplish tasks such as barcode scanning and accessing resource allocation dashboards.

It was their collaborative approach that impressed Mr Siddarth Ravinder, Head of Continuous Improvement for Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, A.P. Møller – Maersk.

“It was heartening to see a whole lot of diversity in the type of solutions that the students came up with to solve the same problem. I was really overwhelmed with the amount of knowledge students already possessed about warehousing the distribution without actually stepping into the physical realm.”

– Mr Siddarth Ravinder

A.P. Møller - Maersk Singapore’s Managing Director Mr René Piil Pedersen (second from left) and Mr Siddarth Ravinder (in blue blazer) speaking with members of Team Visibilité.

The MDC 2022 experience has also expanded the trio’s perspectives towards maritime.

“This experience has widened our knowledge of the maritime industry. There is so much potential for the industry in terms of tech-based solutions, which should be coming in the future years.”

– Team Visibilité

Making a Splash

The three teams’ innovative solutions signal a bright future for maritime, showing that great ideas can come from anyone regardless of their academic background.

If you’re an aspiring student keen to make an impact on maritime, you’re just in luck. There are plenty of maritime internship opportunities available today. Check out our MaritimeONE Connect Career Portal to discover them now!

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