STEM Conference 2026

On Saturday 12th September, Marlborough College Malaysia hosted its second Student-Led STEM Conference, welcoming around 300 participants, over 40 teams and pupils from seven schools across Malaysia for a day of exploration and innovation across STEM.

The conference was entirely student-led and organised by five MCM Upper Sixth students as a joint initiative between the Computational Engineering Society and the Life Sciences & Medicine Society. What began as an idea in February developed over several months into a full day conference bringing together students with a shared enthusiasm for STEM.

The day featured three guest speakers who each offered an insight into different areas of STEM. Mr Lee from the University of Southampton spoke on “Combustion Engines”, while Dr Marwan Saleh, also from the University of Southampton, explored artificial intelligence in “How Machines See the World: From Pixels to Intelligence.” Later in the day, Dr Ahmed Abdelbaki from the University of Cambridge joined us virtually for “Seeing the Unseen: Are We Missing the Full Story of Aneuploidy Detection in Human Embryos?” Alongside these talks, students took part in interactive workshops across Engineering, Life Sciences and Medicine, giving them the opportunity to engage with STEM beyond the classroom.

A highlight of the day was the Innovation in Healthcare Competition and STEM Expo. Teams of three to five pupils were challenged to identify a real-world healthcare problem and develop a physical or digital 3D prototype as a solution. Each team also created a display detailing their product development process before delivering a three minute presentation to the judges.

Following an impressive range of entries, 4LIENZE from Tenby Schools Setia Eco Gardens were crowned Junior Champions, while IV League from Paragon International School were crowned Senior Champions. Congratulations to both teams as well as every pupil who participated in the competition.

After months of preparation, it was incredibly rewarding for us as an organising team to finally see the conference come to life and to see so many pupils engaging and sharing their enthusiasm for STEM. We would like to extend our sincere thanks to all of our guest speakers, judges, participating schools, staff and pupil volunteers who made the conference possible. In particular, we would like to thank Mr Glynn and Mrs EJ for supporting and believing in us. Most importantly, thank you to every pupil who attended and brought such enthusiasm to the day. We hope the conference inspired everyone to continue exploring STEM.

Zhi Yi, Ying Ying, Louis, Edward, Ashlee