Team Alchemists, comprising four undergraduate students, emerged victorious at the recently concluded Schneider Go Green Malaysia finals held at Schneider Electric’s Petaling Jaya office.
They are psychology student Vanessa Yew Sze Wei, international business student Lee Yee Huei and finance, accounting and management student Lavinya Puvanathan from University of Nottingham Malaysia and law student Evonne Hui Xin from Brickfields Asia.
With the theme “Circularity and Energy Efficiency for Buildings”, Team Alchemists addressed the challenge of motivating building owners to empower their occupants in carbon footprint reduction, which clinched the win.
The team won RM3,000 in cash, certificates of achievements, Green Premium labelled trailing socket power strips and internship opportunity with Schneider Electric Malaysia.
The winning team will go on to represent Malaysia in the upcoming regional finals, to take place virtually on September 7, 2023, and will compete against winners from Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines and South Korea.
Eugene Quah, the country general manager for Malaysia at Schneider Electric stated: “Traditionally, our competitions have predominantly drawn engineering and IT students into the fold. However, this year has ushered in an inspiring shift and convergence of a spectrum of sectors, with students hailing from disciplines such as business, finance, law and psychology.”
Quah added: “This convergence is a testament to the universal relevance and urgency of sustainable practices in buildings, which presently account for 30 percent of total global CO2 emissions.”
In preparation for the regional finals, the winning students will receive professional mentorship and guidance from segment leaders, product application engineers and sales managers from Schneider Electric.
These experts were selected based on their involvement in crucial aspects of the innovation process, including opportunity assessment, conceptualisation and market release.
The regional finalists from Middle East and Africa, North America, Greater India, East Asia and Japan, South America, Pacific and Europe will be invited to an international gathering to celebrate their bold ideas.
The first runner-up was Team Emaculate Energy (EE) from University of Malaya, a trio comprising Sarvagjnaa Divya, Abdul Azeem Muhammad Nazri and Teoh Jian Wei.
The second runner-up spot was won by Team TULC from Taylor’s University, a dynamic ensemble composed of Natalie Soo, Teoh Jin, Ng Wei Xiang, and Kok Qi Lam.
Organised by Schneider Electric Malaysia, the local hackathon saw the participation of teams from six local public and private universities, including University of Malaya, Monash University Malaysia, Taylor’s University and Universiti Teknologi Petronas.
First launched in 2011 by Schneider Electric, a French energy management and automation company, the Schneider Go Green is an annual competition that invites university students from around the world to share their ideas for innovations that can help make the world cleaner, more inclusive and more sustainable.
