From left to right: Nathaniel Santana (SM All Saints), Ryan Ng Jun Lei SJK (C) St James Likas) and Akiko Royn Samuel (SM All Saints).
KOTA KINABALU: Three students from SM All Saints and SJK (C) St James Likas won gold under the Technology & Computer Science Category (Secondary School level) and Second Grand Award of the Technology and Science category of the World Innovative Science Fair 2021 (WISF) organised by the Indonesian Scientific Society on July 18.
Nathaniel Santana, 15, Ryan Ng, 12, and Akiko Royn, 14, entered the competition with their very own walking robot. The project, merely titled “Simple and Inexpensive Walking Robot,” is a walking robot with a well, simple mechanism. It is aimed to help search and rescue teams in their operations.
Although simple, it greatly surpasses the ability of existing wheeled and tracked robots on the market. Due to the design, it can effortlessly walk over indents and moderately sized holes on the surface. It is also very sturdy thanks to its flat body. If needed, extra components like cameras, heat sensors and headlights can also be fixed onto the robot.
The idea sprouted from the realisation of the human limits and the fact that not everyone is wealthy.
“I would like to express my gratitude to my mother, Susan Chin, and my principal, Andrew Chong for their unlimited support and encouragement. I would also like to thank Nathaniel for giving me a chance to join them in the team,” said Ryan who was shocked when the results were announced as he never thought they would win the top prizes and were up against people older and more knowledgeable than him.
“It was unimaginable to me for us to get gold, let alone second place overall competing against those who were older than us from all over the world. I feel delighted that I could get this far and achieve such a high award. Furthermore, I was thrilled because this is the first time I had enrolled in an international level. This gives me confidence and determination to participate in more competitions in the future,” said Nathaniel.
He never thought that he would get this far and is very proud of what he achieved. He would like to thank his parents for letting him work on his project; his team members, Akiko and Ryan, for helping him with the presentation; and his teacher Susan Chin for giving him the exposure and managing the registration of this competition.
Akiko also feels similarly, “Thank you to our mentor teacher Susan, and my school principal Dr Mary Gambidau, teacher Chong and teacher Rizal, my science teachers. My parents, my family and friends, who gave me endless words of encouragement when I was feeling nervous before the live presentation, and also the ones that watched the judging session and awarding ceremony and celebrated with me.
Thank you so much, I am always a nervous wreck and would not be here without all your support.”
A total of 71 teams from 24 countries participated in this competition. Among them, four were Malaysia, including one from Sabah. Three teams competed in the secondary school category and one in the primary school category.