Old tyres, new guardrails: Malaysian students win RM40,000 (about $9,500) with ROADBLOC

A used tyre is rubbish with a second talent: it absorbs impact. Three students from MRSM Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi school in Malaysia — Muhammad Rayyan Hakimi Hifzi, Qaleesya Nur Mawaddah Mustaqin and Nur Amirah Kamal Ariffin, guided by teacher Nur Hana Serip Mohamed — turned that talent into ROADBLOC, a road-safety barrier built from recycled tyres, and won the secondary-school championship of Junior Innovathon Season Two 2026. Their prize is RM40,000 (about $9,500), plus RM8,000 (about $1,900) in teacher and school awards. The competition, run by Malaysia's economy, education, science and rural ministries, drew 2,092 school teams from across the country.

SDG 4 · Quality education — Mechanism: community action