This article is brought to you in part by R.E.A.L Schools.

In October last year, R.E.A.L Schools participated in the Young Inventors Challenge, a team-based invention competition open to secondary school students aged 13 to 17. Attracting a total of 260 proposal submissions nationwide, only 80 teams were shortlisted and invited to participate in the meet which was organized by the Association of Science, Technology and Innovation (ASTI).

Among the 80 shortlisted were two teams from R.E.A.L Schools, Shah Alam Campus dubbed ‘The Cahayan Brainiacs’ and ‘The Cahayans’ respectively. Both teams in fact had the youngest candidates in a competition dominated by older, 17-year-old talents. The R.E.A.L students however, more than held their own as The Cahayans invented a brilliant contraption that changes sound energy to electricity while The Cahayan Braniacs created a liquid solution to replace industrial wax used on items such as fruits for preservation.

For their novel idea, The Cahayan Braniacs were awarded a highly respectable 3rd place! Apart from proving that simple ideas can go a long way, the budding R.E.A.L inventors had the priceless opportunity to express their creativity on the big stage. All their preparation and hard work certainly paid off in the end as they left a ‘R.E.A.L mark’ on the competition.

This article was originally published in The Expat magazine (February 2017) which is available online or in print via a free subscription.