A junior high school researcher's conference ?! Exploring Science Castle Malaysia!

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(Interviewed May 2019)

Want to execute a new idea that you have thought of?
Are you feeling inconvenience in your life now?
There is a place where many young researchers gather to solve such problems.
This time, I went to Science Castle Malaysia, a conference of junior and senior high school researchers.

What is Science Castle?

It is a place for research presentations hosted by Leave a Nest. 
It started in Japan and now spread to Singapore and Malaysia. The highest prize will be awarded for "research that realizes most for the development of science and technology and contribution to the earth."

This is a place to take a step toward a future leader who plays an active role in society through research. The purpose is to determine the theme yourself, conduct research, and connect that research to society. A variety of people present their products and services that they have researched and created to the judges and the audience.

On the day of the event

When you arrive at the venue, you will first receive a pamphlet about the event. The seats in the hall were almost full. Many researchers, teachers, parents, etc. from various companies were listening to the presentation. I sat in the back seat and listened to the oral presentation.
At this event, there was 11 oral presentations and 16 poster presentations.

The entrance to the hall. Discovered a nice door. The venue was a university in Malaysia.

Types of presentation
Oral presentation: Standing on the stage and showing slides.
Poster presentation: Explaining in front of a poster on a large board in the hall.

The presentation selected by the judges are posted on the Science Castle website, so I chose my own top 3 presentations that were very interesting.

The first presentation

The AquaDrone: It is a robot that collects floating trash while moving on the water like a hovercraft. It is remotely controlled like a drone.

Developer:
Our school is near the Melaka River. Melaka is one of Malaysia's busiest tourist destinations, attracting many foreign tourists. The Melaka River is one of the famous tourist spots. After seeing the river contaminated with garbage such as plastic bottles, candy bags, and aluminum cans, I decided to make this garbage collection hovercraft.

The drone was built from cheap and ubiquitous materials. The controls (controller and camera) are parts of a real drone. Since the camera is connected to VR glasses, you can see 360 degrees around the environment as if you were on the drone. However, the way of control is the same as a normal drone.

the two students who developed the drone

Reason:
I was impressed by the fact that the craft was built using drone parts, I saw the video of it in action. I thought "Wow, kids can make this kind of thing!" This drone was not built using expensive materials. In Japan, you can get materials at home improvement stores and make the drone at home.
In Japan, many children are used to playing games, so if you assemble this robot yourself and play it with your friends, the rivers and ponds in Japan will be clean in an instant. (The creators say they do not know yet if the drone can be used at sea.)

The second presentation

Create a bridge design that does not collapse easily: The creators found that the collapse of bridges in Malaysia were largely due to the lack of strength at the time of construction, and the team designed a new, low-cost, strong and collapse-resistant bridge.

The students who developed the bridge.
(The male student on the right is a Harry Potter fan like me.)

Developer:
We found that 45% of bridge collapses in Malaysia were due to poor strength at construction (student research). This not only wastes time and money, but also puts people in danger. So our team designed a low-cost, strong and hard-to-collapse bridge. The bridge uses only chopsticks, glue and paper, but has been found to be able to withstand a maximum weight of 64.5 kg. It did not break even if my friend rode on it.

Reason: 
I think it's amazing that they made a bridge that wouldn't break with so much weight, it was just chopsticks and paper.
Also, many books were put on the bridge to check the strength of the bridge. All the titles in it were my favourite books, so we derailed from the middle and started chatting about Harry Potter with the presenter and got excited (^-^ ')

The third presentation: Japanese High School students were there too!

Two teams from Gifu Prefectural Kamo High School participated in the poster presentation!

Sora and Kaho's team making presentations

Ayano's poster presentation

Sora and Kaho's poster presentation

Sora Watanabe and Kaho Ichinose are presenting about the Paramecium bursaria, and Ayano Ito is presenting research about Argentine ants. The posters from Japan had a QR code so that they can fly to the video of the experiment, and they also distributed A4 size materials. The careful consideration was just like Japan!
I think that the opportunity to present in English is limited in Japan, so it was very cool to see Japanese students come to Malaysia, present in English, answer questions from the judges and audience and respond in English!

CEO of Leave a Nest appeared!

He is Mr Maru Yukihiro, CEO of Leave a Nest! He is one of the founders of Leave a Nest and currently works around the world. Leave a Nest has spread to Singapore, Malaysia, USA and UK. This time, I had time to interview him during the lunch break of the event!
Apart from the work of Leave a Nest, he gives lectures to university students and works with government officials, so he is familiar with the fields of industry, government and academia. (It sounds like the big boss pulling threads behind everyone. Lol)

Right end: CEO (Chief Executive Officer) Mr Yukihiro Maruzaki
Left end: Mr Shuichi Takahashi, COO (Chief Operating Officer)
And two new employees who joined the company in 2019

Fun Fact about Leave a Nest:
Everyone who works for the company, including the CEO and COO, has a doctorate or a master's degree!

A message from Mr Maru

Leave a Nest is the world's first "knowledge manufacturing" venture company founded in December 2001 by 15 graduate students of science and engineering.
Leave a Nest's mission is to "be the most effective knowledge manufacturing company on the planet."

From now on, the way of working will change more and more. Now, with the Internet, you can work from anywhere in the world. Working in the office doesn't guarantee a good life anymore.
You will have multiple titles and will be active in several different fields. However, if you do nothing, you will fall. From now on, you will be able to see the results of your places, the time you spend on things, and the effort. It's important to work happily, even if it's tough.
Leave a Nest doesn't only organise events for junior to high school, but also events where adult entrepreneurs present their business. Junior high and high school students should come and see the presentations! There are many interesting people.

Leave a Nest Management Philosophy:
Realize the development of science and technology and contribution to the earth.
Advancing Science and Technology for Global Happiness

For people who want to participate in Science Castle

Science Castles are held in the following countries:
・ Malaysia: https://en.s-castle.com/science-castle/malaysia2019/
・ Singapore: https://en.s-castle.com/science-castle/science-castle-in-singapore/
・ Japan: http://s-castle.com/castle2019/

People who think that research presentations are too tough

Science Castle TV (funny video about science): https://s-castle.com/castletv/
NESTLAB / Liveness School (There are robot classrooms and biological science classrooms in Tokyo and Osaka.) https://school.lne.st/

Leave a Nest Homepage: https://global.lne.st/

Conclusion

From listening to high school students from Japan and Malaysia and listening to Mr Maru's story, I realized once again that children can contribute to the world and change the world. I want to be a useful person for the earth like them in the future.

Please join us at the Science Castle!