Verdict: Silver!

Alhamdulillah, Vortex Electrica gained a silver medal in MTE (Malaysia Technology Expo) 2010 for the Solid-State Weather Transmitter.

Personally, I am genuinely very thankful to receive this award since we are undergraduates competing with the larger party of projects done by postgraduates which are far more sophisticated. The 'but' part comes butting in when you can't but feel a bit disappointed with the way the other innovations are being judged in this expo.

I have seen other 'gold' projects which are slammed with only silver or the worse bronze medals (where my university received substandard evaluation, in my opinion), and the reverse also occurred: Projects which are unfit to be called innovation but made their way through the expo. Also, some of the innovations which received 'gold' are an eyebrow-raiser. I'll spare the details to avoid any controversy.

All of what I mentioned are not meant to discredit the judges since my opinion is not the only one which matters, but there are fields where I concede fit to be within my jurisdiction, at least in electronics and structure. I HAVE seen electronics exhibit in the expo which in my kinder words would be said as "redundant". I am totally sure if these projects are uploaded in Electro-tech online (an electronics forum I'm actively involved) they'll pelt these 'innovations' with remarks fit for complaints to moderators, to put simply- they'll CRUCIFY those projects. (Trust me, I have 500 +/- posts in that forum, I know how the Americans and Canadians will respond to news like this)... but don't worry... I won't do it.

Therefore it is highly important we have judges which are not going to be biased; this is analogous to having Pepsi come and evaluate Coca-Cola's latest beverages- of course what you'd expect is "this stuff is nothing much, ours is better 'cause blah blah blah" and all that rubbish.

No offense to any party who felt offended, since there are some innovations which deserved what they got. But I won't say our university were fairly judged except mine. PERIOD.

If any MTE 2010 JUDGES read this, and felt this article is a face-slammer, just take it as a feedback not from me, BUT FROM MY SUPERVISORS!!

Regards,
Vizier87.