EURAXESS ASEAN is proud to introduce the five recipients of the 2018 EURAXESS Prize!
The EURAXESS Prize is part of EURAXESS ASEAN’s support of the Falling Walls Lab competitions in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam and is awarded to the first winner of each competition. The EURAXESS Prize has a value of 600 Euros and offers the unique opportunity for the awardee to visit a research lab or university in any of the 28 Member States of the European Union. The Prize serves as a career-advancement bursary enabling the winners to expand their professional network through linkages and future collaboration with their research peers in the European Union.
EURAXESS ASEAN will be documenting the Europe trips of our winners on our Facebook Page!
The five awardees represent the whole spectrum of scientific disciplines and are clearly making their mark in their respective fields. The innovative ideas they are developing are truly impressive. Mr Pawin Taechoyotin from Thailand’s Ministry of Digital Economy and Society is developing a substance detection system that will be able to make invisible substances such as invisible gas appear on a computer screen while his Malaysian peer Dr Prabhakaran is developing a cholera vaccine. Singaporean biomedical engineer Dr Yin Chin is working on a new-generation of implantable medical devices that are entirely biocompatible. Vietnam’s EURAXESS Prize winner 2018 Ms Vo Quoc Thao Nguyen from Saigon proposes replacing plastic straws with environmentally friendly natural straws made of a grass that is abundant in the Mekong Delta. And Indonesian researcher Dr I Made Andi Arsana from the Universitas Gadjah Mada is dedicated to improving the livelihoods of fishermen by building a device that allows access to online maps that show the location of fish in the ocean.
Read on to find out about the innovative ideas of our awardees!
Vietnam is among the top five producers of plastic waste globally, and it is estimated that the country dumps about 1.8 million tons of plastic waste annually into the sea. But solutions are being developed, and this year’s winner of the Falling Walls Lab in Vietnam may have part of the answer.
Ms Vo Quoc Thao Nguyen from Saigon was declared the winner of the first Falling Walls Lab in Vietnam with her contribution to solving the Vietnam’s plastic waste problem. Her solution, which she calls "Breaking the Wall of Plastic Straw”, proposes replacing plastic straws with environmentally friendly natural straws made of a grass that is abundant in the Mekong Delta. Making this shift would not only reduce the amount of plastic choking Vietnam’s coastline and waterways but would help create jobs in the Mekong Delta. euraxess_prize_winners_2018_vietnam_4.pdf
Dr Chin Sau Yin from the Molecular Engineering Laboratory (MEL), Biomedical Sciences Institutes, A*STAR is the winner of Singapore's Falling Walls Lab 2018. She convinced with her presentation on Biocompatible Implantable Devices.euraxess_prize_winners_2018_singapore_1.pdfeuraxess_prize_winners_2018_singapore_0.pdf
Cholera is a clear indicator of inequality among the living population, disproportionately affecting the bottom billion people, the poorest and most vulnerable populations worldwide. Vaccination is a major preventive measure; however, the high cost of cholera vaccines is not affordable for the bottom billion people. Therefore, a thermostable live vaccine would relieve the bottlenecks, cost determinants and result in significant cost savings during mass cholera vaccination campaigns for the bottom billion people. Falling Walls Lab AIMST in Malaysia crowned Dr. Guruswamy Prabhakaran as this year's winner of the competition for his ground breaking idea on cholera. euraxess_prize_winners_2018_malaysia_2.pdfeuraxess_prize_winners_2018_malaysia_0.pdf
Mr Pawin Taechoyotin from Thailand’s Ministry of Digital Economy and Society was announced the winner of Falling Walls Thailand with his presentation called “Breaking the Wall of Safety and Security". euraxess_prize_winners_2018_thailand_1.pdfeuraxess_prize_winners_2018_thailand.pdf
Indonesia is the world's largest island country with more than seventeen thousand islands, and with over 261 million people it is the world's 4th most populated country. Many Indonesians still make their living from the sea including millions of traditional fishermen. I Made Andi Arsana, Ph.D from the Universitas Gadjah Mada in Indonesia has a novel idea to “break down the wall of technological injustice” and improve the livelihoods of these fishermen.euraxess_prize_winners_2018_indonesia_1.pdfeuraxess_prize_winners_2018_indonesia.pdf