news
Turning
prawns
into
plastic
Budding boffins recognised for innovative
thinking and outside-the-box inventions.
By Loren Smith
A
robotic window cleaner, a water filter made from
agricultural waste, and a prawn shell-based plastic.
These sound like the creations of experienced
researchers, but they are in fact the respective brainchildren of
Australian high-schoolers Oliver Nicholls, Minh Nga Nguyen
and Angelina Arora.
For their efforts, these students – who all attended independent
or selective public schools in NSW – won 2018 BHP Billiton
Foundation Science and Engineering Awards.
Nicholls (Barker College, NSW), who took first place in the
Engineering division, felt for cleaners who had to scale dangerous
heights to scrub windows. He also lamented the fact that their
customers paid steeply for this risky service. He addressed both
issues by using maths, physics and design to devise an automaton
that would do the job. It has since been tested and deemed
commercially viable.
Clinching the Investigations category was Nguyen (Sydney Girls
High School, NSW), with her novel water filter/plant aid. She used
organic scraps like corn husks, bamboo wisps and rice remnants
to purify H 2 O. The scraps can then be used as a fertiliser. The
budding environmental engineer hopes her invention will go global.
Plastic bags no more? A fully biodegradable, natural ‘plastic’ made
from prawn shells and silkworm silk was Arora’s (Sydney Girls High
School, NSW) winning idea in the Innovator to Market category.
Beginning in 1981, the awards are a partnership between
the BHP Billiton Foundation, the CSIRO, the Australian Science
Teachers Association and each state and territory’s Science
Teachers Association.
The winners were selected from a pool of 26 finalists, who in
turn were chosen from many others, nominated through a state
or territory science teacher association competition. Now,
along with the runner-up in each category, they will be invited
Angelina Arora
Minh Nga Nguyen
Oliver Nicholls
to compete against more than 1800 other students at the Intel
International Science and Engineering Fair in the US. ■
STUDENT WINNERS AND PLACEHOLDERS
Engineering
Winner: Oliver Nicholls, Barker College, NSW.
• Autonomous robotic window cleaner.
Second: Lachlan Bolton, Redeemer Baptist School, NSW.
• Future Board (collapsible surfboard).
Third: Jack Chapman, St Leonard’s College, Victoria.
• Electroduino-mechanical bionics hand.
Investigations
Winner: Minh Nga Nguyen, Sydney Girls High School, NSW.
• Recycling waste into biochar: a sustainable agricultural
wastewater filter and fertiliser.
Second: Caitlin Roberts, The Friends’ School, Tasmania.
• The protease inhibiting effect of almonds.
Third: Ella Cuthbert, Lyneham High School, ACT.
• Is honeybee silk antimicrobial? (Research project)
Innovator to Market
Winner: Angelina Arora, Sydney Girls High School, NSW.
• Shrimp shell bioplastics: A new solution to the world’s
growing plastic problem.
educationreview.com.au | 5