School in Melaka wins ‘DIY Made Simple’ contest

SMK Iskandar Shah students’ Mobile Recycle Bin won the fifth national ‘DIY Made Simple’ contest.

Students from SMK Iskandar Shah in Jasin, Melaka, emerged winners at the 5th “DIY Made Simple 2021” competition.

The event was jointly organised by home improvement retailer MR DIY Group (M) Bhd and Universiti Malaya’s Community and Sustainability Centre (UMCares), and supported by Education Ministry.

It calls for secondary school students to find ways to improve their schools’ facilities through do-it-yourself projects using recycled materials.

The Melaka school beat 105 other institutions from 13 states in this year’s competition, themed “Green School: Reimagining Plastic Waste For the 21st Century Classroom”.

The 10-member team from SMK Iskandar Shah took home the top prize of RM4,500 for its “Mobile Recycle Bin” project.

Kolej Profesional Dungun in Terengganu and SMK Ade Putra in Melaka tied for second place, each winning RM3,000.

Besides cash, trophies and certificates, the five finalists also received RM500 in MR DIY vouchers while the top three teams each received RM1,500 in MR DIY vouchers.

This year’s competition was launched in January and garnered video entries from 105 teams.

A panel of judges from Universiti Malaya (UM), MR DIY and Education Ministry evaluated the submissions and shortlisted 28 teams to present their proposals.

Eight finalist teams were then selected to work with lecturers from UM’s Faculty of Built Environment to transform their ideas into reality.

Speaking at the prize-giving ceremony held at the university, MR DIY Group chairman Datuk Azlam Shah Alias said: “We are delighted with the results of our successful collaboration with UM over the past five years and it has been a gratifying experience.

“We are proud to be part of the competition and how it inculcates the going green and do-it-yourself (DIY) culture among young people.”

He said the competition not only challenged students’ creativity and critical thinking skills to produce out-of-the-box sustainable inventions, it also encouraged soft skill development such as communication, teamwork and leadership.

“Throughout the competition, I was happy to see students working together to improve their schools’ facilities.

“We hope they will become adults with a strong sense of community,” Azlam added.

UM acting deputy vice-chancellor (research and innovation) Prof Dr Sabri Musa said, “Since last year, we have modified the ‘DIY Made Simple’ competition and despite the Covid-19 pandemic, we received responses from schools throughout Malaysia.

“We are impressed by the students, who had demonstrated courage and determination to excel in any situation.”

In tandem with the announcement of the competition winners, a book titled DIY Projects: Design Ideas For Community was also launched.

The publication features the winning projects of the “DIY Made Simple” competition from 2017 to 2020.

“We hope MR DIY will continue to collaborate with us as their academic partners, to develop programmes for the benefit of the community,” said Prof Sabri.

At the closing ceremony, the organisers also announced that they were already preparing for the sixth “DIY Made Simple” competition, scheduled for next year.