Asian Science Camp 2017
By Sara Tanovic
In August I had the honour of flying over to Malaysia to attend the Asian Science Camp, along with four other Australians and over 200 students from all over Asia. It was a week full of science, sight seeing and cultural experiences, and it was one hell of a ride.
The camp started off with an uplifting speech from the Sultan of Perak, about how artificial intelligence was going to make all of our jobs obsolete in the future. We listened to distinguished scientists such as Professor Sir Richard J. Roberts and Professor Poo Mu Ming give lectures about everything from GMOs to neuroplasticity, and even got to ask them some of our own questions in the dialogue sessions. Melbourne’s own Professor Suzanne Cory, biochemist and sadly the only female lecturer, gave a fascinating talk about her cancer research. (She also called me tall and it was my highlight of the trip.)
During the camp we all got together in diverse groups to brainstorm ideas to combat depression, protect our wildlife and create alternative energy sources. Although my group didn’t end up winning the poster competition, we still had a lot of fun tossing around wild ideas such as building a black hole power plant, and it was interesting to see what the other groups had come up with.
We learnt that Malaysia is a lot like Australia, in that we both have melting pot societies. While immersing ourselves in Malaysian culture, we also ended up learning a lot about India and China. We tried on Indian saris, gave each other nerdy henna tattoos and tried playing Chinese drums. And don’t even get me started on the food. Oh lord, the FOOD. I wish I could eat nasi lemak everyday. We went sightseeing around the city of Ipoh and got the chance to visit the geology museum and learn about Perak’s origins as a tin mining region.
It wasn’t the organisers of the camp that made it great (although they did do a fantastic job), but it was the other students that made it so fun. I got the chance to talk to people from China, Turkey, Russia and so many more countries that I never would have ever met otherwise. We shared stories about our lives and when I talked about how strange it felt to eat rice for breakfast, my South-East Asian friends asked, “What the hell do you eat then?” We put on cultural performances for each other during the closing ceremony, with Australia telling the Dreamtime story ‘How the wombat got a flat head and the kangaroo its tail’ and most other countries singing songs and dancing. But it was nice to know that despite all of these differences in language and culture, school was still boring for all of us (sorry Uni High).
Divided by countries, united by sleep. Jet lag consumed even the best of us and the excitement of being in a foreign country with other science nerds was a bit too much at times. I’ll confess that even I, a model student, fell asleep during an engineering lecture after a particularly rowdy night of playing ‘Secret Hitler’ with the Kiwis. But it was the little things, things like sleeping on each other during lectures, teaching each other how to swear in foreign languages, and sharing around packs of Tim Tams, that helped us build friendships despite our cultural barriers.
I left Malaysia with a tummy full of curry, a broader view of the world and a whole lot of memories that I will cherish forever.
Next year’s Asian Science Camp will be held in Indonesia, and I strongly encourage anyone interested to apply! Check out https://www.asi.edu.au/programs/asian-science-camp/ for more details.