MCAST Engineering student, Juan Sarcia, won top prize at the Contest for Young Scientists which reached its culmination during the NSTF Science Expo. His winning project is a real-time vehicle ECU logging via android tablet. Juan will represent Malta during the EU Contest for Young Scientists (EUCYS) which will take place in Warsaw.

Juan’s project monitors fuel, speed, battery voltage as well as faults and information obtained from the car’s ECU. The data gets transferred onto an android application, on which it is illustrated as real-time. The information can be saved and accessed from a web page where it is recorded for monitoring. This system can be implemented by any type of car.

The main objective of this contest, which is organised by the NSTS Foundation (NSTF), is to encourage students to be original and creative in conducting scientific research and developing a scientific or technological project. Students work either individually or in teams to research and develop their own original scientific project which is then exhibited during the Science Expo.

The NSTS Foundation is the national organisor of the EUCYS and since 1997 has been selecting students to represent Malta in this pan European event. In 2009, MCAST Electronics student, Philip Cardona, was the first Maltese student to be awarded a prize at the EU Contest for Young Scientists. His project “Cappuccino Logo Printer” was awarded second prize.