Competitions 2025
In 2025, I shifted my focus towards entrepreneurship-driven hackathons and innovation competitions, exploring challenges that combined technology, business strategy, and real-world impact. Building on a strong technical foundation, I continued to participate in STEM-focused hackathons while expanding into startup, pitching, and venture-based competitions, allowing me to test my ideas beyond code and into execution.
For a detailed overview of highlighted competition wins and milestones, please refer to my LinkedIn.
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For highlighted hackathon wins, please refer to my linkedIn
NUS HacknRoll 2025
Best Hardware Hacks Award
Our team from Neural Drive won Best Hardware Hack at NUS Hackers HackNRoll 2025, Singapore’s largest student hackathon with over 700 participants. We built Battle Bots PvP, a smart combat robotics platform that combines real-time remote control with autonomous behaviour.
The system featured live video streaming via ESP32-CAM, proximity-based combat logic, damage detection with recovery states, visual feedback using an LED matrix, and a low-latency WebSocket control pipeline. This project showcased rapid end-to-end hardware prototyping, embedded systems design, and tight hardware–software integration under time constraints.
Devpost Submission:
Hackomania 2025
Top 10 Finalist
At Hackomania 2025, we built a digital networking application designed to make in-person events more intuitive and less intimidating. The app allowed participants to input their interests such as electronics, AI, or backend development. As users moved around the venue, haptic feedback on their phones was triggered when they came into close proximity with others who shared similar interests, encouraging organic and meaningful conversations.
While we placed as a Top 10 Finalist, we do not consider this a win, but rather a valuable learning experience. The project helped us better understand user behaviour, interaction design in physical spaces, and how to refine problem framing and execution under time constraints. The insights gained from this hackathon have since informed how we approach product clarity, user experience, and iteration in future projects.
NTU Deep Learning Week
1st Place
Our team secured 1st Place at NTU Deep Learning Week, Southeast Asia’s largest deep-tech hackathon, competing against 750+ participants across universities and technical backgrounds in a 36-hour sprint.
We presented a Brain–Computer Interface concept in the form of a discreet, stick-on patch placed near the throat to capture sub-vocal signals and decode them into intended speech. The solution was designed to restore communication for individuals with speech impairments. To demonstrate real-world applicability, we built a prototype smart wheelchairand a smart-home integration demo, allowing users to experience how neural intent could directly control their environment.
The project required rapid iteration across hardware prototyping, signal processing, and live system integration under tight time constraints. Winning the competition validated both the technical direction and real-world relevance of our approach, and the SGD 5,000 prize was reinvested into further development and experimentation.
Mentioned in SP website about winning:
NTU Intuition
Top 10 Finalist
At NTU Intuition, we built a rapid-prototyping device designed to bridge physical sketching and live digital creation. The device attaches directly to a camera and mirrors the camera feed onto a working surface such as a desk. As users sketch interface ideas, layouts, or flows by hand, AI interprets the drawings and translates them into structured digital outputs, enabling real-time updates to a live website or interface preview.
The concept was intended as a proof of rapid ideation, allowing creators to move from rough sketches to functional, visually polished digital products without switching tools or workflows. By drawing directly on a physical surface, changes could be reflected instantly in the digital environment, demonstrating a new approach to fast, intuitive design iteration.
While we placed as a Top 10 Finalist and did not secure a win, the project provided valuable learning points. It highlighted the importance of clearly framing user value, balancing technical ambition with simplicity, and communicating complex systems in a way that resonates with both technical and non-technical judges. The experience reinforced how early-stage ideas benefit from tighter problem definition and sharper storytelling, lessons that we continue to apply in subsequent projects.
Singapore Polytechnic Excellence Award
Most Individual Contributions Awardee
I was awarded the Singapore Polytechnic Excellence Award for Individual Contributions, one of the institution’s highest recognitions given to students who demonstrate exceptional impact beyond academic performance. The award is highly selective and recognises sustained contributions across leadership, innovation, and representation of Singapore Polytechnic at a national and international level.
Receiving this award reflected the breadth and consistency of my work across multiple fronts, including building and scaling a startup, contributing actively within the Apple developer ecosystem, leading and organising major student initiatives, and representing Singapore Polytechnic in competitive hackathons and global competitions. It acknowledged not just individual achievements, but the cumulative effort, responsibility, and commitment required to drive meaningful impact over time.
This recognition was a defining milestone in my Polytechnic journey, affirming that the work I pursued outside the classroom, often under high pressure and uncertainty, created tangible value for both the institution and the wider community.
NUS Health Hack
3RD Place
Neural Drive was awarded 3rd Place in the Silver Generation track at the NUS HealthTech Summit, where we showcased our startup and its application in assistive communication. Neural Drive focuses on building non-invasive brain–computer interface technologies to enable individuals with speech and mobility impairments to communicate and interact with their environment more independently.
The Silver Generation track was highly competitive, with many teams comprising industry professionals, researchers, clinicians, and experienced founders, all working on healthcare solutions targeted at ageing populations. Placing third in such a technically and clinically grounded environment was a meaningful milestone for us, as it validated both the relevance of our problem and the practicality of our approach.
This experience reinforced the importance of building solutions that balance technical innovation with real-world healthcare needs, and it gave us valuable exposure to feedback from professionals deeply embedded in the health and medtech ecosystem.
Medtech Actuator 2025
Top 10 Finalists
Neural Drive was invited to participate in MedTech Actuator 2025 Asia by the programme’s CEO and CTO, marking a major milestone for us as an early-stage startup. At the time, we were still a relatively young team, only months into building Neural Drive, and entering a space alongside many well-established medtech startups with years of experience behind them.
Competing against close to 40 seasoned startups and emerging as a Top 10 Finalist was both humbling and deeply encouraging. As beginners in the medtech startup ecosystem, this experience validated our vision, technical direction, and commitment to solving meaningful problems. Making it into the top 10 was not just an achievement, but a moment of genuine pride for our team, reinforcing our belief that Neural Drive had the potential to grow into something impactful.
Attended TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 200 in
San Francisco
Achieved Top 40 out of 500,000 Entries
Neural Drive was selected for the TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 200 through a highly competitive, multi-round screening process, emerging from an applicant pool of approximately 500,000 startups worldwide. At the time, we were still a very young, early-stage team, only months into building Neural Drive. Our submission was evaluated on the clarity of our problem statement, depth of technological innovation, and potential for real-world impact. We presented our work on a non-invasive wearable system designed to empower locked-in and speech-impaired individuals to communicate through brain-driven intent, supported by functional prototypes and early-stage clinical insights.
Being selected as part of the Top 200 granted us exhibition space at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 in San Francisco, along with access to exclusive investor, mentor, and founder sessions. For a startup at such an early stage, this level of global exposure and validation was a significant milestone. Neural Drive was also featured in TechCrunch’s official announcement, “The 2025 Startup Battlefield 200 is here; see who made the cut,” recognising us among the startups chosen to showcase at one of the world’s most competitive technology conferences.
Following our participation, Neural Drive was further shortlisted as a Top 40 Finalist, advancing from the initial pool of 200 startups. For a young medtech startup still in its formative stages, reaching the Top 40 was a major achievement and a strong signal of confidence in our technology, team, and long-term vision. This milestone reinforced our belief in the impact of our work and marked a defining moment in our journey to build meaningful assistive communication technology.
Our start up mentioned in Tech Crunch Top 200 List
Tech Crunch Listing our Startup
Won 2025 Entrepreneurs Next Star & Million Prize Global Challenge in Shenzhen, China
Achieved 1st place Asia Pacific Region
Achieved 16th place worldwide
Neural Drive participated in the 2025 Entrepreneurs Next Star & Million Prize Global Challenge in Nanshan, Shenzhen, a flagship international entrepreneurship competition often regarded as one of Shenzhen’s most prestigious startup platforms. The competition attracts high-potential startups across AI, biomedicine, and hard-tech, and is supported by major national and municipal innovation bodies, with a combined prize and investment pool exceeding 40 million yuan.
We competed in the Asia-Pacific regional round, facing strong competition from startups across the region, and were awarded 1st Place in APAC, securing approximately SGD 130,000 in prize funding. This win advanced us directly to the global finals in Shenzhen, providing international recognition that our non-invasive brain-computer interface communication system is competitive on a global stage. With support from SPiNOFF at Singapore Polytechnic, our team travelled to Shenzhen to participate fully in the finals and engage with investors and ecosystem partners.
The global challenge brought together startups from over 30 countries and regions, with 40 teams advancing to the final stage after multiple rounds of regional selection. Competing against top-tier teams across AI, biomedicine, and emerging technologies, Neural Drive placed 16th out of 40 in the global finals. This result positioned us among the leading startups in the competition and validated our technology, execution, and long-term potential in the global medtech and deep-tech ecosystem.
The Lee Hsien Loong Interactive Digital Media Smart Nation Award
Top 10 Finalists
Neural Drive was selected as a Top 10 Finalist for the Lee Hsien Loong Interactive Digital Media Smart Nation Award, one of Singapore’s most prestigious national-level competitions recognising innovation with strong societal and Smart Nation impact. The award attracts top student and professional teams working across digital media, emerging technologies, and public-good applications.
Reaching the Top 10 required multiple rounds of evaluation, where teams were assessed on problem relevance, technical depth, innovation, and real-world applicability. Competing against a highly competitive field and being shortlisted among the final ten was a meaningful achievement for our team. While we did not take the top prize, making it into the Top 10 itself was a strong validation of our idea, execution, and direction, and remains a milestone we are genuinely proud of.
SUTD WTH 2025
Participation
We participated in SUTD What The Hack 2025, where we explored new ideas and approaches under hackathon conditions. While we did not place due to unforeseen circumstances during the event, we treated the experience as a valuable learning opportunity. The hackathon provided insights into better preparation, adaptability, and execution under uncertainty, lessons that we carry forward into future competitions and projects.