Kenyan students shine at 14th International Standards Olympiad

From left: Kauel Brahmbhtt, Muhammad Faizan, Ag. KEBS Managing Director Lt. Col. (Rtd) Mr. Bernard Njiraini and Mitesh Varsani after receiving ISO special award. [Wilberforce Okwiri, Standard]

Three students from Shree Cutchi Leva Patel Samaj School, Nairobi, were crowned silver winners at the 14th edition of the International Standards Olympiad 2019 held in South Korea last week.

Miteshi Varsani, Muhammed Faizan and Kauel Brahmbhatt, aided by their mentor Laban Chweya, became the first Africans to participate and win the prestigious annual competition in the first round that tested their knowledge of standardisation, creativity, scientific and technological knowledge.

The Korean Agency for Technology and Korean Standards Association challenged the students drawn from different high schools aged between 13 to 18 in the participating countries to develop a standard document on the, “Robots for Household Use – Performance Criteria and Related Test Methods for Dry Vacuum Cleaning Robots.”

Bernard Njiraini, acting managing director Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) was impressed by the students who without prior knowledge and internet clinched a silver medal and ISO special award with the host South Korea emerging winners.

Speaking when he received the students at the Kebs offices, Njiraini said the Korean standards body invited Kenya to participate in the competition when he had no thoughts on the best model of selecting students to participate.

“We engaged Engineers Fair (formerly Science Congress) at the secondary level and selected those that performed exceptionally,” he said.

Previously, the students participated in the local science fair where they excelled before they were selected to represent Kenya in the global competition. Despite hailing from a developing country, they proved that potential knows no bounds. “Even though we were ill-resourced and lacked international exposure, we combined the power of three and did wonders,” said Varsani, the spokesperson of the team.

“All other competitors including Korea thought that Kenya was a joke until we won two awards. After that they began taking us seriously,” he added.

Varsani said preparations for the competition took eight hours where they were given the task in the morning with no disclosure prior to the event.

Thereafter, they had to make a PowerPoint presentation for two hours.

“We appreciate KEBS for sponsoring the entire trip and orienting us on how the event works on short notice,” said Varsani.

Njiarini said Kebs is setting up a local competition for students to participate and compete across the country to nurture their innovative skills on standardisation.

With judges from Korean Standards of Association, NIST (America Bureau of standards) and ISO headquarters in France, the competition attracted countries including South Korea, China, Indonesia, Ecuador, Malaysia, Peru, Singapore, and Japan.

“Most Kenyans know the importance of standards, which provide an essence for living. Only if standards could be brought to our subjects in schools, students would get to learn a lot and instill standards when the minds are still young,” said Faizan.

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