Called the Davidson Inventors Challenge (DIC), Malaysia’s Association of Science,Technology and Innovation (ASTI) designed the entire project remotely due to international travel restrictions.

Its president, Mohamed Yunus Yasin, told FMT that all discussions with Cambridge’s team took place on Zoom at 2am, due to the seven-hour time difference between Malaysia and the UK.

A Cambridge alumnus himself, Yunus said the competition was named after the late John Davidson, who is known as the founding father of fluidisation in chemical engineering.

Having dedicated his life to the engineering field since the 1950s, Davidson was also Yunus’ former professor and had left a lasting impression on him.

“He was a very down-to-earth and well-respected professor. I remember he always came around during tea time to talk to students and offer them advice, so I wanted to name the challenge in honour of him,” he said.

According to Yunus, DIC was created to expand the prestigious university’s outreach to public schools and encourage wider participation in the UK. It requires students aged 14 to 17 to propose a solution or innovation that can achieve one of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

ASTI developed the training modules, designed the judging criteria, and provided advice on its implementation when DIC was launched last October. It has since received applications from over 50 schools in the UK.

“We always look at our programmes from a pedagogical point of view. We’re not interested in producing inventions, it’s more about teaching young people to look far ahead and think outside the box when it comes to solutions,” said Yunus.

Now with four shortlisted finalists, the last leg of the challenge is set to take place virtually tomorrow at 3pm (BST). The UK’s vaccines minister, Nadhim Zahawi, also a former chemical engineering student, will be launching the event.

But for Yunus, an even bigger honour is having the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) president Stephen Richardson on board to present a speech and sign the competition’s certificates.

“He (Richardson) is a legend in the chemical engineering fraternity. When I was a student, I always thought of becoming a member of IChemE. Now here we are,” he said.

With Cambridge already discussing its plans for DIC 2022, Yunus hopes next year’s competition can take place physically so he can be there in person. He even joked that it was his motivation to sign up for the opt-in AstraZeneca vaccine in the Klang Valley.

This time round, he said, ASTI would be represented by UK-based former Khazanah executive director Sheranjiv Sammanthan, who will be part of the panel of judges.

In the meantime, he said, there was still much work to be done in terms of improving the Malaysian education system and recognising our local talent.

“DIC is actually a simplified model of ASTI’s Young Inventor’s Challenge (YIC), which is based in Malaysia, although it’s open to international submissions as well. The more comprehensive challenge is right here.

“A lot of people are only interested in joining DIC because it’s associated with the UK. It’s unfortunate and we have to move beyond this mental block.”

He said the country should incorporate more project-based learning, so students would be trained to accurately identify problems and develop the right solutions – a useful life-long skill.

Those interested in tuning in to the DIC 2021 finals may register here.