Ctrl_A Wins Enterprise Lab: World Student Pitch ASEAN Edition 2026 with AI Scrap Grading System YARDS

Student team Ctrl_A has claimed the Grand Prize at Enterprise Lab: World Student Pitch ASEAN Edition 2026 with YARDS, an AI-powered computer vision system that automates scrap steel grading and pricing the moment a delivery truck enters the yard, eliminating inconsistent manual human inspection.

Along with the win comes a prize package worth over 200,000 THB and a sponsored flight for one team representative to attend Japan's Largest Venture Summit.

The finale on the Tech Showcase Stage at Techsauce Global Summit 2026 brought together nine finalist student teams from Thailand and the Philippines, empowered by CREDO Holdings, CP AXTRA, and HUMANICA.

Judges scored each team out of 50 points across five core criteria: novelty and creativity, business model, feasibility, market potential, and team presentation. Across all three challenge tracks, the panel pushed finalists on two critical operational questions: Do you have a working prototype? and Who is actually going to pay for this?

HR and AI Challenge (Set by HUMANICA)

• Top Secret (KMUTT): Pitched Ally, an AI onboarding companion that guides new hires through IT access, HR setups, and 30/60/90-day targets. Designed to integrate directly into HUMANICA's existing enterprise client base, the team cited data showing 55% of employees lack system access on day one, proposing a price of roughly 2,000 THB per employee per month for large multinational clients.
• HRsudlhor (Chulalongkorn University): Developed Know LA-OK, an institutional knowledge retention system that maps departing employees' skills and projects to internal successors and runs AI-driven exit interviews to capture tacit knowledge, fully compliant with PDPA.
• K-Clone (Mahidol University): Pitched K-Clone (Knowledge Clone), transforming senior employees' expertise and decision-making into a "living organizational brain" that acts as an interactive AI mentor for junior staff, while matching employee skills to internal projects and plugging into HUMANICA's existing HR systems. The team estimated an 82% boost in knowledge retention, 70% higher productivity, and a 24% shorter ramp-up time, priced from 10,000 THB per month.

Retail and AI Challenge (Set by CP AXTRA)

• Gen Z 67 (Chulalongkorn University, Burapha University & King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi): Pitched Stock Smart, an agentic AI demand-forecasting system for CP AXTRA's inventory network that forecasts demand based on festivals, promotions and other sales data to reduce stockouts and excess inventory, and rebalances stock across stores in real time with store managers involved in decision making.
• ลดแรงแซงทางโค้ง (Srinakharinwirot University): Pitched AXTRA Rescue Network. The engine matches CP AXTRA's surplus or at-risk-of-going-unsold products with B2B buyers such as restaurants and food factories by adding items to buyers' existing orders. At the same time, B2B customers can purchase the products at special prices with no additional delivery charges.
• คิดถึงบอล (King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi & Chulalongkorn University): Pitched OrderGenie, which simplifies and improves the accuracy of the complex purchasing process. The AI analyzes orders, product demand, inventory, budget and product shelf life, while linking them to Makro SKUs to create the most suitable shopping cart. This helps reduce planning time, minimize stockouts and product waste, and improve cost control.

Open Challenge: Business Growth Solutions

• Ctrl_A (Grand Prize Winner): Developed YARDS, a computer vision system automating scrap steel grading and pricing upon truck arrival. Tested across 100+ site trials on tens of thousands of scrap pieces, the team reported 91.7% grading accuracy (up to 23% more accurate than human graders), charging a setup fee plus 35 THB per ton processed.
• Carethia (Rangsit University & Kasetsart University): Built a caregiving marketplace matching families (focused on special needs care) with vetted, trained caregivers via scenario-based AI interviews (Cathier Loop). Caregivers keep 100% of their earnings while the platform charges families a 15% service fee. The MVP is live with 53 caregivers onboarded and 68 test users.
• NERDS 2.0 (Far Eastern University – Institute of Technology, Philippines): The sole international finalist pitched Birdseye, an IoT and AI monitoring platform for small and mid-sized poultry farms. Combining computer vision with ammonia sensors to detect wet litter and toxic gas spikes early, the system holds a Technology Readiness Level 7 validation, verified 92.9% pixel-level accuracy in field testing, and aims to cut flock mortality from 5% to 3%, with hardware priced from 17,899 to 29,499 PHP plus a software subscription.

What's Next

The triumph of Ctrl_A and their YARDS platform underscores the power of youth-driven innovation in tackling heavy industrial inefficiencies with practical AI. A representative from Ctrl_A will now travel to attend Japan's Largest Venture Summit to connect with global investors and tech pioneers, a significant milestone proving that ASEAN's next generation of innovators is ready to make a tangible impact on the global stage.