JOHOR BAHRU, 23 December 2016 – On the 21st November 2016, a group of 8 engineering undergraduates from the Faculty of Chemical and Energy Engineering (FCEE) represented Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (Skudai Campus) and emerged as champions in the inaugural inter-campus creativity competition, hosted by Arnott’s Shapes Malaysia, in collaboration with Experience 6 Sdn. Bhd.
In an effort to promote Arnott’s and Campbell Soup Sdn. Bhd. products, and to discover young talents across the nation, Arnott’s Shapes Malaysia hosted its first inter-campus creativity competition, titled ‘Championshapes 2016 – Shape Your Ideas’, where participating teams are required to build Nazca-line-like structures out of 1000 to 1500 Arnott’s Shapes snack boxes in the open.
Mdm Jolene, the manager of the event, was pleased to have this special event rolling out in Malaysia.
“It is a great platform where we search for individuals with the capability of thinking outside the box and give creative ideas,” she told the participating teams during the briefing session two weeks prior to the competition.
Her husband and colleague, Mr Jess Ross, will be operating the drone to capture the aerial view participants’ creations for judging purposes.
The competition is divided into three stages, namely the prep stage, execution and voting. Mr Alvin Loong, the team leader, assembled a team of eight UTM third year chemical engineers, as ‘The Chemisigners’.
The team designer, Ms Tan Yi Yin, was tasked with the Nazca-line design. According to Ms Tan, the main hero would be a soaring phoenix, titled ‘Resurrection’.
“It shows great finesse. The phoenix embodies the spirit of perseverance and not giving up.
There’s a special message within the emblem too,” said Ms Tan. Mr Khu Wai Hoong, the co-designer, was in charge of showcasing the team emblem message as creatively as possible.
The execution stage was overseen by Mr Kek Zhe Li and Ms Tan Ping Ching.
According to Mr Kek, the designed creation was systematically assembled on the UTM Rugby Field using the grid system, as it dramatically cut down the assembling time.
On the contest day itself, the team took merely 3 hours to complete their creation using 1500 yellow and purple snack boxes, which was half of the time allocated for the assembling of the structure. The voting session, on the other hand, was managed by Ms Tan Xinyi, Mr Lee Kar Siang and Mr Chan Chun Kit.
“Due to the 50% weighting of the vote results, it would be foolish to underestimate the power of votes via the social network,” said Mr Lee.
He also expressed his gratitude towards the enthusiastic voters who had supported The Chemisigners’ creation so fervently throughout the event, leading to a flat-out victory for the UTM team.
Following the announcement of the competition results on 22nd December 2016, The Chemisigners emerged as the ultimate champion for the Championshapes 2016 competition, followed by the Taylor’s Tribe (Taylor’s University, Selangor) and the Dynamite Squad (SEGI University, Selangor).
According to the team leader, Mr Alvin, it was a never-before experience to compete in such a large scale and to triumph against all odds.
Despite numerous challenges and hurdles such as the unforgiving weather elements, lack of resources and severe time constraints, the team’s resourcefulness had paved their way to victory.
The weather itself, posed a formidable challenge, since the rainy weather frequented the southern region of Johor, including the Skudai area.
“We can’t thank enough to those who helped us along the way – our family, friends, and coursemates.
To those who brushed us off and thought that we could not have achieve this, this is a great showcase of who we really are,” said Mr Alvin following the team’s victory yesterday.
He hoped that this competition would be held annually as it would serve as a great platform to showcase immense creativity, innovativity and teamwork in the future.