On 27th April 2015, the School Based Committee (SCB) for Chemistry from the Ministry of Education organised a national poster and project exhibition competition. The event, themed ‘Innovation in Everyday Chemistry’, took place at Paduka Seri Begawan Sultan Science College auditorium, where over 20 upper secondary schools from across Brunei participated. Three UBD lecturers, Dr Hj Ibrahim bin Hj Abdul Rahman and Dr Mohammad Hilni bin Harun Sani from Chemical Sciences (FOS), along with Dr Quentin Cheok Hoon Nam from Faculty of Integrated Technologies (FIT), were invited to be the judges for the competition.

The event was split over two days. On the first day, the students prepared their respective exhibition booths in the auditorium. The three judges then went to each exhibition booth where the students presented their project for 10 minutes, followed by a question and answer session. Each judge then gave a score according to the provided criteria based on a rubrics system, which assesses the quality and innovation of the poster presentation, exhibition materials and oral presentation of the students. The prize presentation ceremony was held the next day at the same venue. The Acting Head of the Science, Technology and Environment Partnership (STEP) Centre under the Ministry of Education, Sarimah binti Abu Bakar, was present to award the prizes to the top three exhibits. Sultan Sharif Ali Secondary School emerged as the winners of the competition. Their project titled ‘Creating Carbohydrate Polymer’ involved making bio-degradable plastics from common food waste. Sayyidina Ali Secondary School came in second with their project titled ‘Extraction of essential oils and applications’ while Paduka Seri Begawan Sultan Science College came in third, with their work on‘Using colloidal silver to enhance a portable water purification system’.