Sarawak: Sarawakians Team Wins Top Spot At NASA Space Apps Challenge 2021 (Video)

on 13 Dec 2021

#Sarawak #STEM #NASA #Hackathon #Technology

A team from SMK Bintulu were crowned Best Use Of Technology Category in the recent Global NASA Space Apps Challenge 2021.

The SMK Bintulu team, Change Maker, comprised Edwin Ting Heng Wei, Isaac Yong Wei Onn, Yiek Siew Hao, Jayden Lu Zheng Li and Sean Lee Jia Roung, supported by teacher Chew Ai Fang are one of the ten global winners.

With their intuitive app dashboard, the Change Makers helps streamline and simplify data given by NASA, allowing homeowners to easily access meteorological data like solar irradiance, wind speed, the surrounding temperature, humidity, etc.

With the app, homeowners could monitor the electrical output generated by the solar panel and estimate the electrical savings. Thus, homeowners can decide whether to invest in installing solar panels.

"The NASA Space Apps Challenge gives local talent a stage to solve global challenges that are impacting our lives through science, technology, engineering, and maths," said Education Science and Technology Ministry permanent secretary Datuk Kameri Haji Affandi.

Team Change Makers were part of the 37 finalists from 320 locations worldwide, competing for the 10 Global Awards of the NASA Space Apps Challenge 2021.

Three Sarawakian teams were amongst the 37 global finalists, the other two being SMK Pujut Educators from Miri and team Dirty Bits from Unimas.

As part of the award, the team will receive an invitation from NASA to visit their facility in the United States, potentially including viewing the launch of a spacecraft. However, this was subject to prevailing travel conditions and visa requirements in light of the pandemic.

The NASA Space Apps Challenge is a 48-hour international hackathon where designers, scientists, coders and storytellers use NASA's open data to solve real-world problems on earth and in space.

Sarawak once again showed the world what we are capable of, fostering the talents and brilliant minds of the youth, said NASA Space Apps Local Lead and Director of Realfun Learning Centre Teo Yuang Teck.

Other winners are: (details of their projects in the link)