PETALING JAYA: Organisers of the “Tell Your Lunar Gateway Story” challenge, Nasa, in collaboration with Tynker, an organisation that fuels children’s creativity through coding, announced four winners of the challenge, one of whom is Malaysia’s 11-year-old Alvin Voon.
The challenge required student contestants to come up with an intriguing story imagining life as an astronaut on a mission called Artemis while living in the Lunar Gateway of 2024.
The competition challenged the creativity and imagination of the participants as no one had any experience as an astronaut. They also needed to apply various coding concepts to add appeal and interest to their storylines.
Each winning entry was evaluated and selected by a team of Nasa experts based on originality, execution and effective use of code.
“This collaboration with Tynker will inspire students in the STEM field to be a large part of our future to the Moon and Mars,” said Nasa’s associate administrator for the Office of STEM Engagement Mike Kincaid.
Voon joined Realfun Learning Centre’s coding programme in March 2018. He has been a regular at competitions and took third place in the recent national Young Innovator Challenge.
“I am very happy and excited that I was chosen as one of the winners of the second challenge. I am also super lucky to have my very supportive parents and a caring teacher too.
“I hope more people will be able to learn coding as it is very important,” Voon told theSun yesterday.
Meanwhile, Realfun Learning Centre owner Teo Yuang Teck was “over the moon”, to have two students win the Moon 2 Mars coding challenge.
“This proves that anyone can be successful, as long as you work hard and aim for a goal,” he said.
Teo’s other student Teng Wei Rui, was one of five to receive a golden opportunity to video chat with a Nasa expert. The surprise came after he submitted his entry for the international Mission Patch Design challenge in May this year.
Realfun Learning Center specialises in coding, electronics, and technology education for children as young five years old. It operates in Miri, Sarawak and has so far, been successful in developing students with a thirst for knowledge and competency to compete in national and international coding competitions.
Its main mission is to help children be future-ready by teaching them to create games, apps, animation and more through coding.
