Monday, January 19, 2009

Kuching girl’s pollution project wins global award - Star

Jan 19, 2009

JOHOR BARU: She has been actively taking part in international competitions to gain experience and generate funds for her studies and research.

It was a great start to 2009 for Wendy Teo Boon Ting, 24, who struck gold when her year-long research was picked as the winner under the next generation category at the Holcim Foundation for Sustai-nable Construction Awards held in New Delhi.

The foundation awarded her US$20,000 (RM73,000) for her project on flooding and water pollution in Shanghai’s Suzhou Creek, considered one of the most polluted rivers in the world.

“With this prize money, I will be able to do more research in Malaysia,” said Teo who is from Kuching.

She said that the project was part of the thesis for her Masters in digital architecture which she is pursuing in Taiwan.

Teo added that she had won several other awards, with all her prize money going towards her studies and research.

The competition which received some 5,000 entries from 90 countries, also saw five students from Malaysia picking up an award.

The team from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, won the next generation encouragement prize. They took home US$2,500.

Team leader Ho Ching Keng, 21, said the team never expected to win because they had very little time to put together a project as they only found out about the competition days before the submission date.

The team concentrated on a mechanism to grow trees in urban areas and harsh conditions.

“Teamwork is crucial when pressed for time,” Ho said.

Holcim Foundation management board chairman and CEO of Holcim Limited Markus Akermann said that the foundation wanted to bring into focus the many opportunities and benefits of adopting sustainable approaches within building projects and processes.

The global Holcim awards will be held in Switzerland next year.

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