JOHOR BARU: Four teams from Negri Sembilan, Melaka, Pahang and Kedah will compete in the finals of the National Science Challenge (NSC) 2018 in Kuala Lumpur this month.
Negri Sembilan will be represented by SMK King George V (KGV), Melaka by Kolej Yayasan Saad and Pahang by Maktab Rendah Sains Mara (MRSM) Tun Abd Razak, while Kedah is represented by a wild card team comprising students from MRSM Langkawi, MRSM Kubang Pasu and SMJK Sin Min.
The teams were chosen after a week-long semi finals held at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia where 16 teams representing each state competed.
The announcement of the finalists were officiated by UTM deputy vice chancellor (research and innovation) Prof Datuk Dr Ahmad Fauzi Ismail. Also present was Prof Dr Noorsaadah Abd Rahman, chairperson of the NSC steering committee.
The teams will compete in the finals that will be held at Universiti Malaya on Aug 30. The winner of the competition will get a trip to Stockholm, Sweden, where they will attend the Nobel Prize presentation ceremony.
The team from Kolej Yayasan Saad, comprising of Muhammad Iqbal Aziz, John Lim Yue Han and Jagdhishwar Sivarau, said they were grateful to their seniors who won last year’s competition as they were very helpful and supportive.
“They have given us a lot of advise and assistance. We are grateful for all that they have done for us,” said Iqbal.
The team’s project for the semi finals was titled ‘Hybrid Apartment Project’ where they tried to create a self sustaining power generating system for an apartment complex.
In the project, electricity would be generated using three methods, namely gas turbine, hydroelectricity and piezoelectric tiles.
The gas turbine utilises the garbage produced in the apartment complex while the hydroelectric generator will utilise the waste water produced in the complex.
“With this project, the power generation would be more cost effective in the long run and the complex would not have to depend on the National Grid,” said Iqbal.
He said for them, their closest competitor in the final would be KGV.