Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) students swept the top three prizes at the prestigious MSSA/CIDB Open Ideas Competition for Students (OIC 2018) that was held in conjunction with the International Construction Week 2018.
The competition pitted varsity students to ‘reimagine MRT stations’, and the winning design called ‘Recharge Transit’ took home the top prize of RM10,000 cash and the MSSA Challenge Trophy.
The second prize of RM7,000 cash went to the team that looked into the ‘Reintepretation of Papan Cantik’ and the third prize of RM5,000 to ‘Tenun’.
All the victorious students hailed from the USM School of Housing, Building and Planning (HBP) and School of Civil Enginnering in the only design competition in Malaysia that combines Architectural and Civil Engineering students in one team.
Director General of Public Works Department, who is also President of the Malaysian Structural Steel Association (MSSA), Dato’ Sri Ir. Dr. Roslan bin Md Taha said: “The element that stood out and incorporated well by students was energy efficiency. For instance, natural light was used as much as possible and this minimised the use of fuel and other energy resources, which made their designs very sustainable.”
Associate Professor Ir. Dr. Chong Kok Keong who represented of USM’s School of Civil Engineering said the clean sweep was unexpected.
“We always encourage our students to do the best while they also learn something. I am amazed with their designs and the way their ideas were realised practically.”
The competition saw the participation of 218 students and 18 supervisors from seven universities from all over the country.
Speaking for his teammates, Kelvin Ah Kian of USM HBP said that they studied the MRT Pusat Bandar Damansara and looked into a design that contributed to the community.
The lesson they learnt the most from the competition was ‘teamwork’, in coordinating their schedules in the limited time they had to complete the project.
Two consolation prizes of RM3,000 each went to University Malaya and Universiti Islam Antarabangsa. All cash prizes were sponsored by various construction firms and CIDB Malaysia. — Construction+ Online
