MIRI – Team Hopecore from Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (SMK) Lutong has been declared the Sarawak-level champion of the Shell NXplorers Malaysia 2025 competition.
The winning team, along with runners-up Team Theory from SMK Bandar Bintulu, will now progress to the national finals next month.
The Shell NXplorers programme, an initiative by Shell Malaysia supported by the Ministry of Education, challenges students to devise innovative solutions for real-world issues concerning food, water, and energy. This aligns with the state government’s focus on enhancing STEM education.
Team Hopecore’s victorious project, titled “Signify”, is a proposed application designed to interpret Malaysian Sign Language into text and audio.
This innovation aims to facilitate better communication for deaf students within the school environment.
The runner-up project, “Flood Eye” by Team Theory, is an early warning system intended to improve community safety during flood events.
An additional Most Innovative Award was presented to the IoT team from SMK Baru Bintulu for “Aware Baby”, a safety device that detects infants accidentally left in vehicles and alerts their guardians.
The state-level contest featured participants from eight schools across Sarawak. Nationally, the 2025 Shell NXplorers programme engaged 318 students from 29 schools, including 111 from Sarawak, in a concerted effort to nurture a creative and knowledgeable generation to support sustainable development.