Two high school students in the central Vietnamese city of Da Nang have invented a house model that can stand environmental pollution brought about by local landfills.

Quach Duc Huy and Tran My Duyen, two tenth graders from Tran Phu High School, were selected as runners-up for the southern region in the 2016 National Science Contest for High School Students.

The house model is designed with special exteriors in order to minimize the effect of pollution emitted from landfills on local residences.

The idea stemmed from an incident that happened in October last year, in which people in a neighborhood near the Khanh Son dumping ground in Lien Chieu District tried to prevent all garbage trucks from getting access to the place as a measure to stop pollution from the dump.

The tenth graders, mentored by their teacher, conducted a field trip and discovered that residents there had to suffer the offensive odors, dust and smoke from trash burning, exacerbated by noise pollution from running machines.

The two students then decided to create a house model that has special features to help the residents cope with the harmful environment.

According to Huy and Duyen, the roof of the house is coated with titanium dioxide paint to oxidize the contaminated air.

The main door and windows are made from polyvinyl chloride-coated fiberglass and equipped with nets to resist dirt and insects.

The house is also outfitted with a system of activated carbon filters to eliminate unpleasant smells and remove impurities in the atmosphere, the two students said.

In addition, a wide variety of plants, including mint, shallot, aloe vera, fern, viper's bowstring hemp and others, are placed around the residence to absorb pollutants as well as killing harmful insects.

The National Science Contest for High School Students is an annual event organized to encourage creativity and efforts to turn knowledge into reality.

This year’s competition ran from March 12 to 15 in Dong Nai Province for participants coming from the southern region and in Hai Phong City for contestants living in northern Vietnam.

The submissions were related to many fields, namely behavioral sciences, animal science, biochemistry, earth and environmental sciences, mechanical engineering, robotics, and others.

Winners of the contest will represent Vietnam to compete in international science fairs.

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