A team of students from the UST College of Information and Computing Sciences (UST-CICS) won the Best Use of Technology Award for their mobile app project addressing food waste and animal welfare at the EDUtech Asia 2024 Planet Protector Sustainability Challenge held from Nov. 6 to 7, 2024, at the Marina Bay Sands Expo in Singapore.
The “USTainability” team, under the BS Information Technology Automation Track, is composed of Gerwin Bryan L. Tuanquin, Cher Elisha Cruz, Enrique Resurreccion, Lara Nicole Gatchalian, and Miguel Adrian Torrejos, who were under the mentorship of Asst. Prof. Eugenia R. Zhuo, DIT. They presented their project titled “Stray Surplus,” which uses Gemini AI to assess surplus food items for safety and suitability for stray animals and leverages the Google Maps API to connect donors with local animal shelters.
Stray Surplus offers a GoogleTech-powered solution that fosters sustainability and compassion by reducing food waste and supporting animal welfare. This innovative approach transforms surplus food or leftovers into a sustainable resource for stray animals and animal shelters, addressing waste reduction and care for stray animals.
The mobile application was developed with Android Studio and uses Firebase for backend services, Google AI Studio for prompt engineering capabilities, Gemini AI for intelligent processing, and Google Maps API for location-based features.
The team’s success at EDUtech Asia highlights UST-CICS’s commitment to advancing socially responsible technological solutions, showcasing the university’s dedication to fostering sustainability. Stray Surplus adheres to the ideals of SDG 12 that promotes responsible consumption and production of food products.
EduTech Asia 2024 brought innovators from various organizations and institutions to tackle pressing sustainability challenges. The competition featured two leagues: the K-12 League and the Higher Education Institutions (HEI). The USTainability team represented UST-CICS in the HEI League, one of six short-listed teams from the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand.
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