Malaysian uni makes a mark in Germany

A TEAM comprising academics and a student from the Asia Pacific University of Technology & Innovation (APU) was selected as one of the winners of the Data Mining Cup (DMC) 2023, alongside representatives of two universities from Germany.

The APU team was the only research group from Asia to participate in the international competition. Of the 69 teams from 17 countries that took part in the event, the varsity made it to the Top Three, together with the Anhalt University of Applied Sciences (AUAS) and the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences (Frankfurt UAS).

For their effort, APU School of Computing senior lecturer Mafas Raheem, Assoc Prof Dr Nirase Fathima Abubacker, and Devina Wiyani, a BSc (Hons) in Computer Science student, were sponsored by the organiser, GK Artificial Intelligence for Retail AG, Germany, to present their project at the DMC workshop in Berlin on June 22.

Held annually, the DMC is a competition that aims to inspire university academics and students in intelligent data analysis (data mining) and to challenge them to find the best solution while competing with others. After over two decades, the DMC was made more interactive this year with winning projects being highlighted in a joint workshop.

During the workshop, the trio presented their project titled “Returns Reduction in E-commerce”, which was aimed at improving customer satisfaction and minimising returns by classifying and analysing product reviews.

It was hoped that this could help ecommerce sellers facing challenges with high product return rates, which can negatively impact sales and sustainability.

To reduce returns, improve customer satisfaction, increase sales and create a more sustainable ecommerce ecosystem, the team utilised Natural Language Processing (NLP) to identify common themes and issues related to customer satisfaction.

“The project also provided insights into customer review sentiment, enabling sellers to quickly identify areas of concern and take action to improve their products and services,” Mafas said in a press release.

Final year student Devina said she felt extremely fortunate to have had the opportunity to travel to Berlin and present the team’s ideas and project.

“This experience provided invaluable practical exposure to developing artificial intelligence and data implementations in the retail industry, which is what I aspire to venture into when I graduate.

“Listening to insights shared by the other teams was inspiring as it sparked additional ideas for personal projects that will enhance my skills and enrich my portfolio,” she said.

Separately, Devina, together with Master in Data Science and Business Analytics student Sangeeta Yadav, won Microsoft’s “Code; Without Barriers Hackathon 2023” on June 8.

The duo were among 770 female participants from 12 countries across the Asia-Pacific region.

Out of 72 submissions addressing various problem statements, Sangeeta’s and Devina’s emerged sole winners, solving real-world challenges in the contest organised by iTrain Asia Pte. Ltd. (Singapore) and supported by Girls in Tech, Inc.

Devina solved a problem statement from Carsome, which required participants to develop a pricing algorithm to predict the selling price range of a car, while Sangeeta worked on a problem statement given by HCLTech, which required her to predict influenza outbreaks.

“Developing the time series model for an influenza outbreak prediction was crucial for accurate and timely information to help public health officials, medical professionals and individuals prepare and respond effectively to influenza outbreaks.

“By forecasting influenza outbreaks in advance, we can better allocate resources, implement preventive measures, and minimise the impact on public health,” Sangeeta said.