UiTM researchers won two awards – the Gold medal as well as The Special Invention and Innovation Award for their invention titled “High-performance low-cost electrode for energy storage systems” at the 18th International Expo on Invention and Innovations (MTE2019) held 20-23 Feb 2019 at Putra World Trade Centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Assoc Prof Dr Tan Winie and her team from the Faculty of Applied Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Shah Alam, Selangor invented a device which is a third generation of solar cell that uses dye to absorb sun light and through some chemical interactions converts the sunlight into electricity. The innovation known as dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) is viewed as a cheaper alternative to the conventional silicon-based solar cell. Currently, the highest electricity efficiency achieved for DSSC is 14% and research is underway to further improve the capability of the device.
This is not the first time this invention bagged gold as this team won a gold medal at the 29th International Invention, Innovation and Technology Exhibition (ITEX) 2018, a silver medal at International Invention, Innovation and Design Exposition (IIDEX 2018) and also a Selangor State Innovation Main Award for the category of Higher Education Institution in 2016.