CoronAI Wins Bronze Medal In iVEDIIC 2023

Using AI and machine learning to aid and respond to inquiries about COVID-19 symptoms, prevention, and treatment, as well as to provide updates on the most recent information and advancements pertaining to the pandemic.

Those behind Team CoronAI’s COVA-Bot design, (from left) Wong Wei Zhangw, Wu Ka Lok, Yip Kar Fai (team leader), Mohamed Muhsin Sultan, and Ng Li Sheng, display the Bronze-winning certificate from the competition.

The field of healthcare is being rapidly transformed by the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI). AI in healthcare has the potential to enhance patient outcomes, save costs, and simplify clinical operations. The use of AI in healthcare is extensive, including everything from drug development to medical imaging to patient monitoring and individualised treatment programmes.

At Asia Pacific University of Technology and Innovation (APU), one of the focus areas is on creating cross-disciplinary research initiatives and projects that leverages on computing technology enablers like data-science, computer vision, artificial intelligence and extended reality that will tackle a range of applications related to healthcare systems covering areas such as medical informatics, medical administration, diagnosis and improving physician-patient communication. This is to ensure that our students not only learn the use of AI but also its application in a wide-ranging field including medical and healthcare innovation.

One of the prime examples is during the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, pandemic which rapidly spread throughout the world and is even now mutating and creating various strains of the virus. The need to find a solution to identify and provide information on new variants or vaccination efforts, can also be provided by AI language models.

In the International Virtual Education Invention, Innovation and Design Competition (iVEDIIC) 2023, team CoronAI from APU won the Bronze Medal for their innovative and AI-inspired COVA-Bot design solution.

COVA-Bot is an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot designed to be the best resource for anyone looking for reliable, accurate, and comprehensive information about COVID-19-related physical and mental health issues, in accordance with Malaysia’s government guidelines.

It has a variety of features, including an online store and early diagnostic tools, that assist users in obtaining the support they need to handle the pandemic effectively and securely.

Team CoronAI consisting of Yip Kar Fai, Wu Ka Lok, Wong Wei Zhangw, Ng Li Sheng, and Mohamed Muhsin Sultan (Software Engineering, Cloud Engineering, and Computer Science (CyberSecurity) students) designed COVA-Bot with CoronDiagnosis, a powerful tool that assesses the risk of COVID patients through a series of questions and provides a detailed report with recommendations based on the outcome.

“Building an AI chatbot super app to combat COVID-19 is not just a competition or a school assignment; it is a race against time to save lives. We are honoured to be a part of this important mission, and we are determined to make a difference,” said Kar Fai, CoronAI team leader.

Users of COVA-Bot have access to crucial information about nearby hospitals, immunisation clinics, mental health organisations, ambulance hotlines, and more, giving them the assistance, they need to take control of their health.

All inquiries about COVID prevention, resources, best practises, locations to get assistance, and information about various hotlines will be answered along with the AskCoronAI feature.

In addition, users will receive verified access to current, trustworthy information from reputable health organisations like the Malaysian Ministry of Health (MOH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the World Health Organization (WHO), and more.

While CoronCases offers a thorough visualisation of daily COVID cases for all countries, accurate information is extracted from the COVID API and built with Express.js — back-end web application framework — providing users with a convenient way to monitor their symptoms and get professional advice without leaving their homes.

With CoronLive, users can have live conversations with medical experts for more individualised support, and CoronShop, an eCommerce pharmacy, makes it simple to get the necessary supplies they need to stay safe during the pandemic.

All of the advanced features, support multilingual functionality, including Bahasa Melayu and sentiment analysis to understand users’ moods and provide more accurate suggestions, as well as an advanced keyword search, making it an ideal tool for combating COVID, fake news, and mental health problems.

CoronAI’s success in securing the bronze medal in this tournament was largely due to their capacity to persuade non-technical stakeholders of the benefits of technical concepts and products.

They took the time to pinpoint the precise requirements and concerns of their target audience and concentrated on using language that was clear, concise, and simple to comprehend.

CoronAI were able to successfully persuade them to buy into their ideas and eventually prevail in the competition by addressing their concerns and emphasising the value proposition of their product in their message.

“Based on our experience of joining the event, we had the opportunity to develop our leadership skills, product planning, implementation, and marketing. This allowed us to gain a better understanding of the entire product development process and how to manage a team effectively.

“Additionally, we gained knowledge about the medical domain and the healthcare industry, particularly in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. This was a valuable learning experience as it allowed us to gain insights into the challenges faced by the industry and how technology can be used to address them,” he said.

Meantime, CoronAI would like to thank their mentor, Ms. Nur Amira Abdul Majid, especially for her help with the AI module, which eventually motivated them to develop COVA-Bot.

CoronAI discovered how to condense complicated technical concepts into simple and compelling messages that the audience could easily understand in the short amount of time. Overall, they gained valuable experience and insights from this challenge that will help them be successful in their future endeavours.

Learn more about APU’s Bachelor of Computer Science (Hons) (Intelligent Systems) to gain an advantage in the fast-growing AI market which is expected to reach $733.7 billion by 2027. The growth of the AI market is being driven by the increasing adoption of AI across various industries, including healthcare, finance, automotive, and retail.