Malaysian Year Five student Maryam Musamir's recent innovation is fast gaining international praise. Not only did the 11-year old bag three international awards recently for her breakthough invention – creating livestock feed from crustacean shells – she was also highlighted on US talk show, The Late Late Show with James Corden, for her innovation at such a young age.
"You might have heard about this girl... it's absolutely incredible... Maryam Muzamir who is a 11-year old schoolgirl in Malaysia. She found a use for common food waste... seafood shells and she makes them into a new sustainable livestock feed. She's 11-years old! Yeah, in Malaysia. She's already won three international awards for her breakthrough idea," Corden said on his show recently.
Maryam made the news recently after winning three awards at the recently-concluded International Invention Innovation Competition (iCAN) in Toronto, Canada for her innovation. She formulated a new form of livestock feed made out of ground shrimp and sea snail shells. She calls her product "YAM 2.0".
The pupil at SK (P) Methodist in Kuantan, Pahang, had already won several awards locally for YAM 2.0 but was encouraged by her father to enter iCan, according to various news reports.
Yam 2.0 won Maryam not just the gold medal but also the Canadian Special Award, as well as the coveted Best Young Inventor Award at iCAN 2021.
She beat over 600 participants from over 70 countries and was the youngest winner in the competition.
The young girl, who lists Greta Thurnberg as one of her inspirations, got the idea for YAM 2.0 when she was at a seafood restaurant with her family and saw the amount of shells that were being dumped, according to reports. She then found an article that cited the benefits of the shells for llivestock, in particular a compound called chitin, and went about creating Yam 2.0.
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