The Young Inventors’ Gold award went to Edward Quinto, a biology graduate student at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, for developing a simple and cheap way to test water for harmful toxins.
The Silver award went to Bini Thumbarathy Balakrishnan, a Ph.D. mechanical engineering student at the National University of Singapore, for creating a way of tailor-making biodegradable tubes to regenerate and grow nerves without the need of autograft surgery.
And the Bronze was awarded to Ph.D. graduate student Yu Chen-chi from Taiwan’s National Cheng Kung University for developing an oral fish vaccine.
UST’s Quinto utilizes microscopic light-producing organisms that he takes from squid and sticks to small paper discs to test water for toxins. When the organisms multiply on the paper discs, they glow bluish-green in the dark. Once immersed in water, the paper disc will continue to glow if the water is clean but fade if harmful toxic chemicals are present.
Hong Kong judge Chang Sun, managing director of Warburg Pincus Asia LLC, said: "What the judges particularly liked about Quinto’s project is that it has immediate local application at an affordable cost and can help improve the quality of life not just in the Philippines but in many countries in Asia."
Quinto recounts that he got the idea for his project in a serendipitous manner: "My family had just had squid for dinner and my brother threw out the remains of the squid. He noticed that the squid was glowing in the dark and showed it to me. So it was an accidental discovery, really. It reinforced an earlier notion of mine that large concentrations of bacteria can be trapped in small material and readily be seen."
Since bioluminescence had always interested him, he decided to pursue this hunch by inventing a simple, cheap way to test tap or well water for the presence of heavy metals or identify pollution in rivers or lakes near industrial plants. His method serves as an efficient, locally applicable solution – without having to use expensive and sophisticated equipment.
Quinto modestly acknowledges his victory with a quote from another award-winning inventor: "As Albert Einstein once said, ‘chance favors the prepared mind.’"
"I hope that winning this contest will serve as an inspiration to young budding scientists all over the country. Let your imagination soar free to new heights of scientific innovation to further uplift the quality of life," he says.
The complete articles on the winners with additional technical details on the winning entries can be found at www.feer.com.