THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY (ACS) GLOBAL INNOVATION CHALLENGES (GIC)

INTRODUCTION

The Global Innovation Challenges (GIC) is the inaugural student competition organized by the newly-formed ACS Malaysia Chapter. This program stemmed from the Global Innovation Grants call from the ACS Committee on International Activities (IAC). This is a competitively-awarded grant to ACS Local Sections, Technical Divisions, International Chemical Sciences Chapters, and Governance Committees in order to further Article II, Section 3 of the ACS Constitution which states:

“…the SOCIETY shall cooperate with scientists internationally and shall be concerned with the worldwide application of chemistry to the needs of humanity.”

Furthermore, the Grants will also serve IAC’s goals, which are to:
• Foster collaborations
• Extend international chemistry education and training
• Engage developing countries
• Assure support of ACS science and human rights
• Support development and quality of the ACS International Center
• Sustain momentum of the International Year of Chemistry (IYC) beyond 2011

The ACS Office of International Activities (OIA) administers the yearly grants towards activities which catalyze new international collaboration and partnerships, especially those dedicated to solutions to global challenges.

IAC continues this program in 2014. Applications from ACS Malaysia Chapter were submitted, and the proposal were assessed by ACS IAC. Initial proposal were based on an event directed at undergraduate students, to come up with innovative and creative ideas to solve problems pertaining to sustainability. Upon assessment by the IAC, the Malaysia local chapter were awarded USD1,000 to organize this event.

The committee had then decided to use water-related issue as the main theme of the competition, as it is among the main topics being discussed all over the world. The final theme was then decided to be “Sustainable Approaches for Global Water Security”.

The venue selected were at the Center for Student Innovation (CSI), UTM Skudai, Johor. CSI also acted as co-organizer, and pumped in equivalent fund to support this event. The organizing committee were set up, comprised of ACS Malaysia founding members, assisted by graduate and undergraduate students from UTM.

Competition Format

There were two rounds of competition:

Preliminary round: Student teams (2-3 students per team) submitted their ideas to be evaluated. A selected panel of judges screened all submissions. Altogether there were 25 submissions from undergraduate students from institutions all over Malaysia. Submissions closed on 26th September 2014. The judges convened on 8th October 2014, 2.30-5.00 pm, at CSI UTM, before the selected teams were on 10th October 2014. 12 teams were selected for the Final Round.

Final round: Selected teams convened at the Center for Student Innovation (CSI), UTM Skudai, for a one-day competition. On the day, teams presented their ideas in front of a panel of judges, and best presentations were awarded with cash prizes and certificates. The Final Round was on Saturday, 8th November 2014.

Judges

The committee also approached water-related organizations, such as the Young Water Professionals (YWP) of the International Water Association (IWA), and the Institute of Environmental and Water Resource Management (IPASA), UTM. The two institutions had agreed to provide expertise in terms of judges for selecting finalists and also as judges for the Final Round. The judges are:

Preliminary round:
• Dr Norhayati Abdullah, Chair, Young Water Professionals (Malaysia Chapter), International Water Association.
• Dr Tony Hadibarata, Senior Lecturer, Institute of Environmental and Water Resource Management (IPASA), UTM
• Dr Abdul Rashid Husain, Director, CSI, UTM.
Final round:
• Dr Norhayati Abdullah, Chair, Young Water Professionals (Malaysia Chapter), International Water Association.
• Dr Tony Hadibarata, Senior Lecturer, Institute of Environmental and Water Resource Management (IPASA), UTM
• Dr Nor Fasiha Mohd Yusof, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, UTM.
• Dr Lee Hooi Ling, Senior Lecturer, School of Chemical Sciences, USM.

Co-organisers

Other than YWP IWA and IPASA, this event was also co-organized by the Faculty of Biosciences and Medical Engineering (FBME) and Faculty of Science, UTM.
OBJECTIVES

Objectives of this event are:
1. To create awareness among local undergraduate students on sustainability and water-related issues.
2. To provide networking opportunities for undergraduate students to meet fellow undergraduates from other institutions.
3. To expose student organizing committee members on event organization.

FINAL ROUND PROGRAM DETAILS

The Final Round competition started at 8.00 am, with participants registration. All participants from outside UTM were provided one-night accommodation at Scholar’s Inn UTM. After registration, the event was officiated with a welcoming remarks by Chair, ACS Malaysia Chapter, Dr Lim Jit Kang. Dr Lim applauded the effort by the organizing committee to make sure the event run smoothly, and were thrilled by the enthusiasm shown by all the participants. He also commended on the high quality of ideas submitted in the Preliminary Round. Dr Hasrinah Hasbullah, an ACS Malaysia Director of Outreach Programme (Southern Region) acted as the Master of Ceremony for the whole event.

The competition kick-started with the first presentation by a specially-invited team from Universitas Brawijaya Indonesia. They presented an interesting idea on using ceramic membrane filtration to purify drinking water supply. Participants were given 10 minutes to present their ideas, followed by 5 minutes for answering questions given by the judges.

The presentation was then continued by teams from UiTM Pasir Gudang, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). Then, the session took a 20 minutes break for refreshments. During the refreshments, team members were able to interact with their colleagues from other institutions. Mentors for the participating teams were also able to meet and discuss on potential research collaborations.

The presentation session was then continued with eight more teams presenting, from UiTM Pasir Gudang (three teams), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP), USM (two teams) and UTM.

Before the event stopped for lunch break, a representative from the panel of judges, Dr Norhayati Abdullah, gave an overall overview of the teams performance. She was glad to see such great teamworking and confidence in the students, although there were still areas to be improved in terms of idea feasibility and the economic analysis. The participants, mentors, committee members then had a hearty lunch, with networking discussions over the meal.

The afternoon session was filled with a talk by Dr Abdul Rashid Husain on creativity and innovation. Dr Rashid is an experienced speaker on this topic. He managed to keep the students awake after the hearty lunch, and grab their attention with thought-provoking slides filled with a lot of interactive activities. After the talk, Dr Rashid gave a tour of the many gadgets developed by CSI. The students were particularly interested in the “Aerotrim”, which is a gyroscope usually used for cardiovascular workout and equilibrioception training in pilots and astronauts. They were also fascinated by the interactive games, locally developed by CSI, using Xbox Kinect platform.

The awards and closing ceremony commenced at 3.30 pm, with honourable guests invited include the Dean of the Faculty of Science, Prof. Dr. Madzlan Aziz, and Director of IPASA, Prof. Dr. Abdull Rahim Mohd Yusoff. The honourable guests then presented the prizes to the winning teams. The judges awarded the consolation prize to team USM 7 with their idea titled “Water Rationing Due to High Ammonia Contamination in Malaysia”, UTM 3 (Treatment of Tannery Wastewater using Cactus as Natural Coagulants) and UiTM Pasir Gudang 4 (Wastewater Treatment using Activated Carbon from Eggshell). The 3rd prize went to UMP (Catalyst Free Carbon Nanospheres for Water Purification), 2nd prize went to USM 3 (Washing Machine Water Recycling). Team USM 1 bagged the 1st prize with the idea titled “Tackling Eutrophication using Modified Clay”. The event saw an impressive performance by teams from USM, with a commendable performance by teams from other institutions as well.

The event ended with a refreshment, before all participants depart back to their home institutions.
CONCLUSION

Overall, the ACS GIC competition event went really well, and received many positive feedback from the participants. It is hoped that the participants gained some useful information out of the sessions. Many of them requested for a bigger similar event to be organized in the future. The committee members also learn valuable lessons on event organization, which will help in more fruitful events that will be organized by ACS Malaysia in the future.

 

Written By: Dr Mohd Firdaus Abdul Wahab

THE ORGANIZING COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Advisors:
Dr Lim Jit Kang (ACS Malaysia), Dr Abdul Rashid Husain (UTM CSI)

Chair: Dr Nik Ahmad Nizam Nik Malek

Secretary: Dr Mohd Firdaus Abdul Wahab, Dr Hasrinah Hasbullah

Treasurer: Dr Mohd Bakri Bakar, Dr Lee Hooi Ling

Registration, Gifts and Certificates
Head: Dr Hasmerya Maarof
Members:
Dr Zainab Ramli
Siti Fatimah Jamian
Nor Arbani Sean
Tengku Fazarina Tengku Ab Ghani
Siti Nadiah Md Ajeman

Logistics
Head: Dr Mohd Bakri Bakar
Members:
Zuraini Md Zahir
Nur Adilah Hussien

Food, Promotion, Technical
Head: Dr Nik Ahmad Nizam Nik Malek
Members:
Muhammad Syamim Zainurin
Nurul Aqilah Roslan
Farah Sahira Mohd Khalil
En Azizul Azman (UTM CSI)

Protocol and Invitations
Head: Dr Mohd Firdaus Abdul Wahab
Members:
Dr Hasrinah Hasbullah
Assoc. Prof. Dr Jafariah Jaafar