SMKA Bandar Penawar Students Win Gold At PIE 2025 With Flood Alert Sensor Technology

By Nur Fadhliana Shaari

JOHOR BAHRU, Sept 28 (Bernama) -- Armed with the experience of facing floods almost every year, a group of students from Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Agama (SMKA) Bandar Penawar, Kota Tinggi, succeeded in creating the ‘Flood Alert Sensor Technology’ (FAST), which ultimately earned the school a gold award at the Project Ideation Experience (PIE) 2025 competition.

FAST, which won gold under the 'Affordable and Clean Energy' (SDG7) category, was developed by four Form Three students, Rizky Amsyar Afeef Abdullah, Muhammad Mirza Mohd Johari, Adie Firdaus Othman and Muhammad Luthfil Hadi Sidek, with guidance from teacher Kamaruzaman Abd Samad. It’s designed to provide early warnings and improve community preparedness in facing flood risks.

Graphic designer and project modeller of FAST, Rizky Amsyar Afeef, said frequent floods in their area drove them to create a smart technology-based system to help the community respond more quickly and safely.

He said FAST was developed to deliver early flood warnings to residents via mobile application notifications, while also utilising LED lights, a buzzer and an automatic pump to reduce the risk of sudden water level rise.

“This project took a month to complete, covering the processes of coding, design, system testing and presentation preparation.

“We did this project because we live in Kota Tinggi, which is often hit by floods. With FAST, residents can receive earlier warnings, which in turn helps reduce the risk of loss of life and damage to property,” he told Bernama when met after the PIE 2025 closing ceremony at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) Skudai yesterday, officiated by Deputy Works Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan.

PIE 2025, organised by UTM in collaboration with the Johor State Education Department and the Pontian District Education Office, successfully gathered 100 students from 25 secondary schools across five districts to develop Internet of Things (IoT)-based innovations themed “Carbon Zero”, further strengthening efforts to nurture a creative and competitive student generation.

Elaborating further, Rizky Amsyar Afeef said FAST operated using an ultrasonic sensor to measure water levels, where a green LED light would turn on when the water level was normal, yellow at the warning level, and red at the danger level, accompanied by a buzzer sound and automatic notifications through the Blynk and Telegram applications.

In addition, he said the automatic pumping system would pump excess water into a temporary storage pond to slow the rise of water levels, giving the authorities time to take early action.

Meanwhile, Kamaruzaman, 39, said the students’ success proved that participation in competitions like PIE trained them to be more independent and master skills beyond the classroom.

“All aspects of the project, including coding, presentation and slide preparation, were carried out entirely by the students.

“They not only learned in class but also mastered STEM skills through activities like this. Such programmes should be encouraged as they help produce a more innovative and competitive generation,” he said.

He added that FAST also met sustainability features by using renewable energy sources, being more affordable, easy to maintain and having the potential to be commercialised to government agencies such as the Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID) and the National Disaster Management Agency (NADMA).

In fact, he said it had export value as it could be applied in neighbouring countries facing high flood risks such as Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.

The group of SMKA Bandar Penawar students also planned to upgrade FAST with additional functions and establish collaboration with various agencies to enable the technology to be utilised more widely across Malaysia.

-- BERNAMA