Joel, Kelvin, Arvin
Kelvin Soo Chu Khien from Maktab Duli Pengiran Muda Al-Muhtadee Billah, and two students from Meragang Sixth Form Centre - Ong Kai Yi and Joel Kester Newas - will be leaving for Kuala Lumpur on June 28 to represent the country at the Regional Young Entrepreneur Awards (YEA).
The trio were crowned as the 'Gold Award winners' of the 4th HSBC YEA after they proposed to market a product called "Chlorogel" that can help reduce air pollution.
"Chlorogel" is a solid silica block of highly porous structures immobilised with plant cells to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen and energy through the use of modified solar panels.
In Kuala Lumpur, the Brunei students will be vying for the 'Best of the Best Award' as they go up against other top students from Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Malaysia and the Philippines.
The winning team will receive an HSBC business development fund to the tune of HK$100,000.
"We are working hard to prepare for the big day in Kuala Lumpur. Fortunately, we have had the support of so many people and organisations for our project, including the assistance from HSBC Brunei," said Kelvin, the team's 'marketing' brains.
Their victory in the HSBC Brunei YEA was made possible with the support of lecturers and officers from various organisations.
"We would like to thank Prashanth, team leader of last year's Brunei gold-winning team More Than Simple Inc for his superb mentoring, Team Green, last year's silver-winning team for their advice and support, Nabil Asyrafi, benefactor for KLH, Mdm Ting Mee Leh, Chemistry teacher from Meragang Sixth Form Centre for providing the idea of aerogel for Chlorogel, and Mdm Bogusia Mischke and Dr Leigh Canton of the Laksamana Business of College for their business counselling," said Kelvin.
Universiti Brunei Darussalam's Assistant Vice Chancellor, Dr Zohrah Hj Sulaiman and the Dean of Postgraduate Studies and Research, Dr Tan Kha Sheng, also assisted them by approving research and prototype development of Chlorogel in UBD where Associate Professor of Physics Department, Dr Peter Hing, Chemistry Programme Leader and Senior Lecturer, Dr Jose Santos, Junior Lecturer of Biology Department, Mr Hussein, coached the trio as well as provided scientific counselling, and staff technicians of UBD's Faculty of Science who provided assistance.
"KLH R&D Team also helped us out a lot with their research efforts, while Tiong Ho from HSBC mentored Team KLH, Inc. HSBC gave us the opportunity to participate in this competition, and we thank them for that," added Kelvin, "and of course our friends, colleagues and comrades for their invaluable input and suggestions.
"We have known each other since our pre-secondary six in St Andrew's School, and we had already come up with lots of business ideas since then," explained Joel.
"For the YEA, we brainstormed amongst ourselves and friends, and we are very grateful to Mdm Ting Mee Leh for helping us find a viable business idea," added Kelvin.
Ong Kai Yi on the other hand, is the scientist of the team, keeping to himself while Joel and Kelvin excitedly bombarded the Bulletin with lots of their stories from the beginning of their journey until today.
"Realising the big competition that we will face in Kuala Lumpur, preparations have never ceased, and we will be giving our best to sell our business idea to the judges by thoroughly practising working on our presentation," said Kelvin.
So far the trio haven't successfully developed a working prototype due to the limitations that they are facing, as Kelvin said, "we are limited equipment and technology-wise as we don't have full access to all the equipment needed to produce a prototype".
They hope to be able to bring home the winning trophy and help Brunei's economy with their victory, as they were quoted as "the best entry since YEA was held in Brunei in 2008".
proud of KLH.. =D
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