Triumphant: (From second left) Tina, Yee Yi, Dylan and Saad with (from left) Hyperbyte AI chief executive officer Eer Kai Song, Prof Lee, and Sunway University provost and deputy vice-chancellor Prof Abhimanyu Veerakumarasivam.
PROBLEM-SOLVING is a highly sought-after 21st-century skill that students are increasingly expected to develop in today’s fast-paced world shaped by artificial intelligence (AI).
Demonstrating their strength in this domain, four students from Johor recently clinched first prize at the inaugural National AI Competition 2025, beating 149 other teams in the innovation track of the upper secondary category.
Mentored by their teacher Goh Yi Zheng, the quartet from Austin Heights International School comprised 15-year-olds Tina Low Tien Na and Dylan Goh Yiyang, and 16-year-olds Saad Syadul and Leong Yee Yi.
Team leader Tina, who is also a participant of The Star’s BRATs Young Journalist Programme, said it all started when she came across a noodle vendor with poor posture.
Seeing his struggle inspired her team to address spinal issues – one of the most common causes of disability in Malaysia, she shared.
“Our project, BlueJay², is an AI-powered posture screening and treatment system. It adapts care to each individual using image recognition and trained assistants.
“Our goal is to improve posture, reduce health risks, and extend life expectancy across Malaysia,” she told StarEdu.
Tina said as first-timers in an innovation competition, the team was “shocked, thrilled and deeply grateful” for their win, announced at the grand finale held at Sunway University on July 19.
For their accomplishment, the quartet walked away with an RM16,000 Sunway bursary each and an invitation to visit the Google Malaysia office next month.
Moving forward, Tina said her team plans to further develop their prototype and explore opportunities to submit it to more business, science and engineering fairs.
“We also hope to represent Malaysia in international competitions and ultimately leave a meaningful impact on our communities,” she said.
Recalling their participation in the competition, she said it was “really interesting to see so many other teams and the diverse projects they presented”.
She called on fellow students to participate in such competitions.
“Just give it a try. Don’t be afraid of failing. What matters is that you keep going and learn from the experience.
“When we first started, we weren’t focused on winning; we just wanted to learn and grow. That mindset made all the difference and pushed us to do our best,” she said.
She also encouraged students to gain knowledge in AI as it would open up opportunities.
“AI will play a major role in shaping the future. Stay curious, ask questions, explore, and don’t be afraid to seek answers. There’s no such thing as a bad question when you’re learning,” she said.
The competition, co-organised by Sunway University and Hyperbyte AI, brought together over 2,500 students aged 14 to 19 from government secondary schools, private and international schools, and pre-university colleges for online workshops, which resulted in over 600 submissions.
The participants competed in three tracks: generated art, innovation and technical – separated into two age categories: Category A for upper secondary and Category B for pre-university students.
Ten finalist teams from each track category were chosen to present their projects through 10-minute pitches followed by Q&A sessions with industry expert judges. They were also required to showcase their work at exhibition booths for visitor voting.
Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo, who was present at the grand finale, said empowering the youth is one of the key steps in building a robust digital talent pipeline in the long term.
Sunway Education Group chief executive officer Prof Datuk Dr Elizabeth Lee said the competition was a testament to how young minds, when given the right environment and encouragement, can come up with innovative ideas to solve pressing global issues, or create tools to help or educate people.
Charis, 22, a student in Kuala Lumpur, is a participant of the BRATs Young Journalist Programme run by The Star’s Newspaper-in-Education (Star-NiE) team. For updates on the BRATs programme, go to facebook.com/niebrats.
