USP student Low Joo Tat (Industrial Design + USP, Class of 2017) and fellow Industrial Design students formed Team Duktig to take part in a joint collaboration workshop (organised by SPACE10 in collaboration with NUS Enterprise and IKEA Singapore) during which they won an all-expense-paid trip to Scandinavia, Sweden.

Held from 5-7 December 2016, the workshop challenged students to devise and pitch concepts that creatively integrate voice- or text- based conversational interfaces with the IKEA customer experience or their home life. The aim of the challenge is to find out how IKEA can use conversational tech and artificial intelligence (AI) to foster meaningful interactions with people. Team Duktig set out to reinvent the iconic IKEA pencil and give it an active new role as a personal assistant during the IKEA visit, using conversational tech, AI and bone conduction.

Joo Tat shared with NUSNews that his team wanted to create meaningful value beyond convenience and efficiency. “We wanted to use conversational technology in a way that not just makes things easier, but also reinforces that magical quality of IKEA as a place where fond memories are created,” he said.

During the Scandivania trip, the team will also have the opportunity to visit SPACE10 in Copenhagen, as well as tour the IKEA Museum in Sweden. Read more here.

We congratulate Joo Tat and his teammates for their innovative idea!