KUCHING, Oct 8: Three teams from SMK Bintulu have bagged top three prizes in the Junior category of NASA Space Apps Challenge Sarawak this year.
Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Research (MESTR) Sarawak said NASA Space Apps Sarawak, which is part of the NASA-led international 48-hour Global hackathon, received 87 submissions and the participants tasked on solving 20 challenges provided by NASA ranging from space debris, space landing, understanding of Sun, and growing food in space, including challenges related to Earth such as the massive amount of trash we have in the ocean and of course, the Covid-19 pandemic.
“According to the founder of Realfun Learning Centre, Teo Yuang Teck, 28,286 participants from 323 locations around the world joined the global hackathon. Sarawak is proud to be a part of the largest Space Apps Virtual event in the history of the challenge.
“Thirty submissions were in the junior category (aged 13 to 17) while the remaining 57 submissions were in the senior category for anyone above 18 years old.
“In the Junior Category, all top three prizes were bagged by students of SMK Bintulu. They are Team Change Maker (Champion), Team Beyond Infinity (first runner up), Team E410 (second runner up), and each team will receive cash prizes of RM3,000, RM1,500 and RM1,000 respectively,” it said.
The ministry noted, two consolation prizes were won by Team A.D.L.M of SMK Sacred Heart Sibu and Team Magellanic Cloud of SMK Serian, and each team will receive RM500 in cash.
Team A.D.L.M also won the special award sponsored by Microsoft for the Best Use of Azure Platform, worth USD500 of Azure credits.
Meanwhile, in the Senior Category, the ministry disclosed an all-teachers team from SMK Pujut Miri, that calls themselves Team SMK Pujut Educators won first place and took home RM5,000 cash.
“Team Crocodile, which is made up of undergraduates from Monash University Malaysia and based in Miri won the first runner-up spot, walking away with RM3,000 cash prize.
“The second runner-up was Team ROCKSPACE made up of undergraduates of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), winning themselves RM2,000, while the consolation prizes were won by Team A Tech from Riam Institute of Technology and Team Dirty Bits from UNIMAS. Each of the team will receive a prize worth RM1,000,” it said.
The ministry also pointed out that seven teams from Space Apps Sarawak will be nominated for the global judging, and are competing with 356 teams from around the globe for the 10 different awards by the NASA global organising team.
“The Global winner will get a fully sponsored trip to watch a spacecraft launch in the US, if traveling is permitted,” the statement read.
For more information and to watch a replay of the competition’s broadcast, check out Space Apps Sarawak’s official Facebook page. — DayakDaily
