KOTA KINABALU: A team of three students from Keningau Vocational College, Sabah, successfully secured a spot to compete at a regional hackathon organized by Save Philippine Sea in collaboration with several organizations based in the Philippines.
The Haquathon 2.0 is specifically organized to search for solutions that can tackle issues related to coastal and marine sustainability.
Warren Junior Patin, Andi Fazirah Binti Usman and Vannie Verus are one of the 13 teams that are currently competing to win a grant worth USD 2000 which will be given to five winners.
The other 12 teams are from the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam. The names of the projects and the country that they are from can be accessed from the website https://www.savephilippineseas.org/haquathon2
The team is currently attending virtual training programme that started on 24 April and it will culminate in the final round where each team needs to pitch their solution in early June.
Their project “Mechanical Water Veins” is a device that can provide water directly to the soil surrounding the roots of plants in the most optimal manner on preset schedule.
The device reduces water waste as it controls the amount of water that flows through its tubes. It also reuses wastewater runoff from sinks, showers, bathtubs, toilets, washing machines and dishwashers. This technique can be replicated and scaled up so that the concept can be widely applied in a large garden or farmland. Their main purpose is to conserve the usage of water especially in urbanized areas which is consistent with the concept of innovation known as e-STEM (environmental STEM).
The director of the college, Johari @ Jaibet Bin Sabin, lauded the students’ effort in putting their skills into practice by developing a practical project that can help tackle some environmental issues.
He hoped that more students will explore real-world problems and design solutions to address these problems.
