KUWTP Ep. 29 | 6th December 2024 | Making and Tinkering Exhibition Day 1
Don’t play play hor, we quite zai one. Today, we presented our project to the many distinguished judges for an entire day during the first day of the Making and Tinkering Exhibition! We reported to SPMS as early as 8.30am to start setting up and preparing for the long day ahead. There were many fruitful discussions with the judges, where we uncovered more areas of improvement or development for our project, which we are immensely grateful for! For example, we had not considered the scenario that the dog does not finish the dispensed amount of food, and thus would still be lacking in calorie intake. This highlights the need for a feedback loop, where we take into account whether the dog has finished its food from the previous meal, and how it would affect the amount of food dispensed for its next meal. Another potential problem brought up was the scenario of pet owners feeding their dogs snacks throughout the day. These extra treats contain a significant amount of calories but yet is not factored in when we are calculating the amount of dry food to be dispensed. A solution to this would once again be an avenue for feedback to the algorithm, where owners are given an option to indicate how much extra calories has been consumed by the dog in the form of treats, and from there the new mass dispensed would be smaller.
Overall, we had enjoyable discussions and shared laughter with the judges. To the judges, thank you for making time in your busy schedules to visit our booth! Furthermore, we reaped the benefits of our past 6 months of hard work when our group was awarded the “Best Idea” prize! We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone (lab staff, friends and family etc.) who has supported us in one way or another through this arduous journey.
On a side-note, we would also like to apologise to the MnT lab for potentially attracting rats to the lab. Enjoy the video below of the rat-attacked food packs, where the rat created a hole through the packet and ate a substantial amount of food!