Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT)’s brightest minds clinched several prizes in two nationwide competitions in Singapore, whose main objectives are to look for fresh and innovative solutions in the areas of sustainability and security.

Green Wave Environmental Care Competition

SIT students from University of Glasgow (UofG) took home four prizes at Sembcorp Marine’s GreenWave Environmental Care Project 2014, a competition calling for new ideas on environmental sustainability.

The students took home Second Prize, a Commendation Award and two Good Presenter Awards in the competition which saw a total of 287 projects fielded by more than 1,000 students nationwide.

At the award ceremony, which was held on 19 January at the Marina Mandarin Hotel, Lawrence Lau, was awarded the second prize as well as a Good Presenter prize, for his project titled: ‘Investigations of the Effects of Ultrasonic on Midge Larvae’.

Another team of UofG undergraduates from UofG, comprising Umesh Divakar, Ngo Qi Zhi and Jeremy Seah Zhen Long, also nabbed the Commendation Award as well as Good Presenter prize for their design on a hybrid power bank.

Divakar explained: “We constructed a hybrid power bank which operates on solar energy and electromagnetic generation. The power bank is able to harvest energy from ambient solar energy and man-made movements (shaking). The primary purpose of the generator is that in a state of emergency when solar energy is absent, the user can shake the electromagnetic generator to produce power.”

Ministry of Home Affairs’s SAFE Competition

SIT undergraduates also scored a coup by winning several awards, including the coveted Gold prize, at the Security Awareness for Everyone (SAFE) competition, which aims to uncover new innovation solutions for security and safety challenges.

The UofG undergraduates in Mechanical Design Engineering, Than Wei Sin and Muhammad Azhar Bin Said, nabbed Gold in the university category for their project titled ‘Anti-tamper Urine Bottle’.

Muhammad Azhar shared more about the prize-winning project: “We created an anti-tamper urine bottle so as to increase the integrity of the urine samples in the bottle.”

Currently, urine samples taken from drug suspects are only sealed with two rounds of black tape before being labelled and stored. “We chose this project as we found it to be meaningful, knowing that this is a real-life issue upon which our engineering knowledge can be put to good use; the project will definitely be beneficial to the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB),” he added.

Another group of Mechanical Design and Manufacturing Engineering undergraduates from Newcastle University also fielded entries for SAFE. The team, comprising Chor Kangwei, Philemon, Kok Wai Geng, Mohammad Izwan bin Ismail, Nadeen Abu Musawwir and Surianah binte Sulaiman Sujai, won the Bronze prize for ‘Aerial Surveillance Autonomous Platform’ (ASAP), a quadcopter project.

Dr Ahmed Qureshi, lecturer at School of Mechanical & Systems Engineering, Newcastle University, explained how the quadcopter project aligned with the degree programme’s curriculum. He said: “The curriculum for the students is based on intense project-based work in which the students learn to collaborate and cooperate in an immersive learning environment; this is in close accordance with the practical demands of the profession.”

Professor Alfred Tan, who also supervised the ASAP project, attributed the success of the team to their appetite for failure. “They have the ability to pick themselves up and try again,” he said. “Good thing that the competition spans across several months which gave the students more time to tinker and experiment.”

Meanwhile, another student team from Newcastle University, comprising Ang Hui Mei, Angelia, Koh Ih Chin, Leong Wei Jian, Ngu Jun Keat, Nurul Asyqah binte Roslan, nabbed a SAFE Merit prize for their work on a portable traffic accident shield.

Two other UofG teams were also awarded Merit awards for their submissions: Aerospace Engineering students took the Merit prize for their ‘Robocopter’ project while Computing Science undergraduates were awarded the Merit Award for their submission titled ‘Eye Crime’.

Heartiest congratulations to all the winning teams!