QIU students have excelled yet again at an international competition by emerging champions at the inaugural World Sustainable Chemistry Challenge 2019 (WSCC) organised by the Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Universitas Islam Indonesia.
This challenge was open to undergraduate and diploma students in chemistry, science and technology which are related to chemistry from all around the world to submit ideas on Innovation in Sustainable Chemistry.
Three undergraduate students from QIU’s Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Biotechnology programme, Koh Wing Sun, Chan Kwong Kian and Cho Kar Ean were declared champions and walked away with the prize of Rp4,000,000 and a trophy for their submission titled “Characterisation of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria associated with Leucaena leucocephala, a potential biomass energy resource in Malaysia”.
Their submission beat 30 other finalists from Universiti Teknologi MARA, Yogyakarta State University, Universitas Islam Indonesia, Indonesia University of Education, Universitas Mataram, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Univeritas Lampung, University of Sumatera Utara, Hasanuddin University, Universitas Tanjungpura, Airlangga University, University of Sumatera Utara and Universitas Jenderal Achmad Yani (UNJANI).
It was not an easy task to emerge champions as the team initially submitted an abstract and were subsequently shortlisted as the top 30 for the grand finals and submitted a paper. During the grand finals, all 30 groups were required to present their posters to an esteemed panel of judges within 3 minutes. The top 10 then proceeded to present their innovation using slides for 10 minutes and followed by 10 minutes of Q & A session. Contestants were judged based on needs, approach, benefit and creativity concept of the innovation.
This project is part of the project that was awarded the Malaysian Toray Science Foundation (MTSF) Grant by Toray Science Foundation, Japan in 2018.
QIU participated in this competition to showcase our innovation to promote world sustainability in chemistry. This shows the university’s commitment in addressing the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (Goal #7 Affordable and clean energy; Goal #12 responsible consumption and production)
Congratulations to our stellar students and lecturers for making the University proud!
