Skyridder innovation, a single-handle long wire cutter by a group of UPM researchers successfully helped the community of Rukun Tetangga (KRT) Taman Sinaran, Kajang Selangor remove illegal advertisements that are widely posted on street lights in residential areas.

 

Illegal advertising is a recurring issue and harassing the population that is the focus of these advertisers every year. Illegal advertisements, including the pieces of bunting wood that were left hanging, polluted the scenery which was seen filling many of the lampposts around the neighborhood.

Every year, the Local Authority undertakes various initiatives to eradicate illegal advertisements as DBKL recorded 1.5 million illegal advertisements removed in 2015 and MPSJ also recorded 290 thousand illegal advertisements were removed in the same year.

According to Yusoff Masburi, Chairman of KRT Taman Sinaran, the community is very grateful to UPM for sharing innovations that can facilitate our work to remove wires and illegal advertisements, which we previously did not realize this issue affects the environmental landscape in this area despite frequent gotong-royong activities in this park.

The issue of illegal advertisements that also left old, rusty wires on lampposts has been ignored by the community before. Although gotong-royong activities are often held with the help of Local Authorities (PBT), the cleanliness of the lampposts cannot be implemented due to the difficulty of using stairs to remove wires due to the narrow area factor.

This Skyridder device has been handed over to KRT Taman Sinaran so that it can be fully utilized by the residents here during the handover session at Surau Al-Falah Taman Sinaran. A group of Innovative and Creative Group (ICC) researchers, Langit Putra from Putra Science Park and DVCRI Office, Universiti Putra Malaysia have initially taken the initiative to solve the problem of old wires and pregnant debris left on lampposts around UPM by producing Skyridder innovations starting in 2018. Indirectly, this tool is also able to facilitate the work process of removing illegal advertisements that hurt the eyes of the residents here.

According to Asrizam Esam, project team leader, “Skyridder is very easy to use, weighs only 1.7kg, speeds up 84% of the disposal time compared to the usual method of using stairs, low cost, able to reach a height of 5 meters and adjustable for easy carrying by employees the advantages of this innovation. ”

"The most important thing is that Skyridder can avoid the usual method of using stairs that are at risk of falling due to various terrain factors and flowering obstacles around the lamp post area," he added.

There is no such tool in the Malaysian market while imported tools costing up to RM4 thousand also have disadvantages such as weighing up to 6kg, reach only 4 meters and can not be adjusted due to the use of pulley and string cutting techniques.

This tool has received copyright protection and is used around the UPM campus in Serdang, Port Dickson and also Bintulu Sarawak. Collaboration with the community to help overcome this problem is one of the social responsibilities of UPM besides being part of the validation study of this innovation market itself.

According to the study of this group as well, these old wires and illegal advertisements are also noticed by tourists and foreigners in Malaysia which gives a negative image of the cleanliness of lampposts on the roads in Malaysia. We find a lot of rust wire and wood chips that are left hanging on the sidewalks around parks, roads or highways in Malaysia that tarnish the scenery.

Prof. Dr. Samsilah Roslan, Director of Putra Science Park, is also proud that UPM's innovation can help solve community issues that have been plagued technically.

"This tool has not yet been commercialized and UPM welcomes the cooperation of the industry to commercialize this tool so that its benefits can be used to solve community issues, local authorities and reflect the image of a clean country in the eyes of foreign tourists", he said.

Also present were KRT committee members and some residents of the park as well as members of the Langit Putra group consisting of Asrizam, Norliyana, Hafliza, Norazlin, Mohd Mas'ataillah, Mohd Hisham and Mohd Izzat from PSP, Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research & Innovation) UPM and Shahriman Hashim as the facilitator of this group.

 

 

Articles by;

Asrizam Esam |
Research officer
Putra Science Park
asrizam@upm.edu.my

Date of Input: 16/12/2019 | Updated: 26/11/2020 | asrizam