Students get foreign acclaim for new sticky-rice cooker

The show was held in Taiwan from September 18-21.
The sticky-rice cooker was submitted to the “Move World Together” campaign in the competition. It won the Honorable Mention Awards, Special Awards from South Korea, Qatar and Taiwan, and the TIIIA Award for an excellent Invention from the TIIIA Outstanding Diploma.
Teacher Chetthakorn Pracharoj, who disclosed the award-winning invention yesterday, said he was helping the students to register an invention patent, while they experimented to improve the invention’s commercial potential.
The “Electric Sticky Rice Cooker”, cooked rice with superheated stream and produced the soft and pleasant-smelling rice in 30-35 minutes. It can reduce the amount of water and energy used in cooking rice and also keep the cooked rice warm and soft for a longer while, Chetthakorn said.
The device was powered by electricity – was about ten minutes faster than a stove cooker which also produced dirty soot and smoke – and its cylindrical body was made of woven bamboo, he said. The device could be easier to clean than the normal cooking set, he added.
Team members Krissada Joysa, Natthawut Srisompan, Thanyares Thongyos, Prapassorn Pankhot, and Namfon Klongkhoksung – all studied at Mathayom 6 level.
Namfon said the project taught her to seek an inspiration to apply to problem solving. The team looked at the traditional sticky-rice cooking set and thought about how time-consuming and how much water it used while subjecting the kitchen to dirty soot, she said. So they came up with the electric sticky rice cooker idea. “We didn’t know we could go so far and our work received attention from experts who then provided us with additional knowledge to improve it so we can apply for a patent for it,” she added.