Basilan boy, 14, wins bronze in US science tilt

COTABATO CITY - Whosays that Basilan is synonymous to kidnapping-for-ransom and beheading Abu Sayyaf bandits?A 14-year old boy from Simisip, Basilan won the Bronze Medal in the groundbreaking science competition of the International Sustainable World Energy, Engineering and Environment Project (I-Sweep) for high school students, in Houston, Texas on Sunday.Ahmed Turabin Hataman, a junior high school from Fountain International School, invented for his entry a plastic made of coconut which biodegrades in 20 days, unlike most other plastics.Ahmed’s invention qualified and ranked third among 426 entries from 71 countries, said his mother Rep. Sittie Djalia Turabin-Hataman, who received the news with mother's jubilation as the best Mothers’ Day” gift she has ever had.Called Amin by his friends and family members, the young Hataman is the son of Governor Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, who couldn't seem to say as much in his Facebook account.The same entry also won for Hataman Gold Medal in the International Young Inventors’ Olympiad also in the USA, last year.According to its website, the inaugural I-SWEEP academic competition was launched in the spring of 2008 with a goal to bring the best and brightest math and science focused students from around the world to Houston for an Olympiad of epic academic proportions. I-SWEEP works with local, national, and international science fair organizations to being together top-ranking participants and qualifying projects from these competitions.”