As national leaders gathered in Copenhagen to negotiate on steps to curb global warming and the world awaited a deal from the world’s biggest environmental summit in history, a group of INTI Engineering students have quietly but successfully addressed the need for clean and sustainable energy by creating practical devices to harness solar power.

Edwin Chew Yoong Ming, Derrick Chen Kuang Huey, Patrick Tan Foon Cheng, Imran Mohammed Jaffer, Pavankrishna Ellore Ramesh and Adnan Iqbal – students of INTI International University who interned at Ricoh (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd. – created the Solar Tracker and Solar Switch, which harness solar power efficiently and cost-effectively.

Brainchild of Imran, Tan and Pavankrishna, the Solar Tracker is a device that follows the movement of the sun, allowing maximum amount of sunlight to fall on solar panels and increase their yield by 30% to 60%. Consisting of a motor, light dependent resistor, control unit, battery, switch and solar panels, the tracker is compact and cost-effective.

The Solar Switch invented by Chew, Chen and Adnan on the other hand is a controller that automatically selects between AC (Alternating Current) and solar power depending on the intensity of sunlight. This effectively cuts down on the amount of electricity needed to power appliances day and night.
Setting off on their solar projects with minimum instructions from their supervisors, the interns were given the bare essentials to come up with their ingenious inventions. They had to conduct their own research and draw on their knowledge and skills acquired in the classroom and through experience. Many a times, improvisation was required when their equipment or tools were inadequate or unsuitable for the task.

“When we were unable to find a suitable input power jack, we had to retrieve one from a recycled laptop,” said Chew, “and when we did not have enough equipment for printed circuit board etching, we went back to INTI’s engineering labs to do etching and drilling.”

The end products of the students’ stint as interns go beyond the technical knowledge and skills they acquired and the practical innovations they crafted. They also improved by leaps and bounds in their confidence, verbal skills as well as analytical and problem-solving abilities.

“INTI’s students adapted quickly to the working environment at Ricoh, and were quick to learn,” said Lim Eng Weng, Ricoh Malaysia’s Managing Director. “They showed tremendous progress in improving their communication and presentation skills and I believe they will be an asset to any organisation.”

Internship with leading organisations is a component of INTI Education Group’s Enrolment to Employment (E2E) initiative. An approach that has received the support of many multinational and local corporations, E2E ensures that the curriculum and coursework activities at INTI are designed to be in tandem with the expectations of the industry. This means that programmes developed are relevant to the market’s needs and demands.

The E2E programme provides timely support and services for student industrial attachments and placements, as well as graduate internship placements and job placements.

“Students who are part of our E2E initiative learn more from the hands-on approach and are able to adapt better when employed,” said Graham Doxey, Deputy CEO of INTI Education Group. “INTI’s curriculum helps students make a seamless transition upon employment, which make them an important asset to any organisation.”

(from left) Chew, Chen, Adnan, Pavankrishna, Imran and Tan celebrate their successful stint as interns and innovators.