IT Warriors from SMK Bintulu named national champions of Shell NXplorers Malaysia 2022

Tariq (second left) in a photo with Team IT Warriors members (from left) Yiek, Siaw and Lee.

KUCHING, Dec 1: Three students from SMK Bintulu in Sarawak made the State proud when their team was crowned the winner of Shell NXplorers Malaysia 2022, after competing with five other teams from schools across the country.

According to a media release, Team IT Warriors comprising Yiek Siew Hao, Sean Lee Jia Roung and Christalyn Siaw Ern Qi developed the winning project called EZ Park, an IoT-based smart parking system and app that helps drivers to find their indoor parking easier and faster.

EZ Park app allows drivers to know exactly where to park their car by receiving real-time data from sensors connected to embedded systems (Arduino) using Bluetooth. Drivers using this app will not only be able to save time but most importantly, minimise greenhouse gas emissions.

“We are impressed with the solutions that the students in our Shell NXplorers programme have developed. Their ability to challenge themselves and collaborate to design sustainable solutions give me confidence that the future generation will help shape a bright future for our country,” shared Dato Ivan Tan, chairman of Shell Malaysia and senior vice president, Upstream Malaysia.

“We are ecstatic to have won the grand champion tittle of Shell NXplorers 2022. Throughout this journey, we have learnt to value teamwork and thinking out of the box as these are traits that enabled us to connect the dots to the real-life problems the world faces today and to further work on solutions to address them, one of which we hope is our invention. We thank Shell for this valuable experience,” expressed the team members of IT Warriors on this programme.

Yiek who bagged the Best Speaker award presenting his team’s innovation to the panel of judges.

A special prize for the Best Presenter was awarded to Yiek for his eloquence and detailed explanation on his team’s invention.

Six schools, two finalists each from Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak participated in the national finals after emerging State winners and runners-up at the State-level of the Shell NXplorers Malaysia competition.

The finalist schools were SM St Michael and SM All Saints from Sabah; SMK Kidurong and SMK Bintulu from Sarawak ad SMK Seksyen 9 and SMK Bandar Puncak Jalil from Peninsular Malaysia.

The panel of jury for the grand finals comprised Ministry of Education’s principal assistant director of BSKK Dr Faizulazmi Binti Osmin, Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) director of Talent Development Nik Naharudin Mohd Nasir and Shell Global STEM lead Tariq Hussain.

Shell’s NXplorers challenges school students to work in teams to design and develop solutions to real-world problems within the nexus of food-water-energy. — DayakDaily