Intel ISEF 2014
Finalist, representing Malaysia
- Project
- The Slurpper (GOS³D)
- Category
- Physics and Astronomy
- Booth
- PH064
- Venue
- Los Angeles Convention Center
- Dates
- 11 to 16 May 2014
Founder & CEO, Apex Innovation Consulting
Dr. Dharsyanth Rao MBBS
There is always a way.
Doctor by training. Inventor by habit. Today I build the systems that teach organisations how to think.
Where it started
In our house, impossible was never the end of a sentence. My father would turn a problem around until it showed him another way in. I picked up the habit long before I knew it was one.
16my age when I started inventing
2014the year I represented Malaysia in Los Angeles
13years building the same idea
On the world stage
Los Angeles, May 2014.
At seventeen I was chosen to represent Malaysia at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, the world's largest pre-college science competition. More than 1,700 young scientists from over 70 countries filled the Los Angeles Convention Center.
My booth was PH064, in Physics and Astronomy. On it stood The Slurpper, a device that vacuums, pumps and sprays using nothing but pressurised gas, even a car's exhaust. No electricity needed.
I came home carrying the Malaysian flag, a different sense of scale, and a lot more to build.
Two journeys
One in innovation, one in medicine. They kept meeting in the middle.
- Innovation
- Medicine
- 2013Innovation
The odd one out
At sixteen, at MRSM Terendak, I kept noticing problems everyone else had learned to live with. So I started building things to fix them.
- 2014Innovation
The Slurpper
A gas operated suction and spray device. It took Gold and the Special Jury Award at MIYIO, Gold at iidex, and a place in the national finals of the Anugerah Harta Intelek Negara. That same year I won the Physics category at Tunas Saintis MRSM.
- 2014Innovation
Los Angeles
Selected to represent Malaysia at Intel ISEF, the world's largest pre-college science competition. Booth PH064, Physics and Astronomy, among more than 1,700 finalists from over 70 countries.
- 2015Innovation
From instinct to method
I qualified as a Level 1 TRIZ Practitioner with MATRIZ. The ideas stopped depending on luck. There was a science underneath them now.
- ThenInnovation
A better question
People kept asking how I came up with so many ideas. Handing them out one at a time was the slow answer. The fast one was to teach people how to think.
- 2019Innovation
Across JKR
As part of the consulting team, I helped build the Innovation Competency Model and Dictionary for JKR and the Ministry of Works, covering JKR across Malaysia. Innovation, it turned out, could be defined, mapped and grown.
- 2022Medicine
MBBS, with clients on the side
I studied medicine while the innovation work kept running. Lectures, exams and client deadlines shared one calendar. I graduated with my MBBS in 2022.
- 2022Innovation
Into the universities
I helped develop spin off company guidelines for UPSI and was an external consultant on a UNITEN R&D commercial performance workshop. In 2023, Politeknik Merlimau invited me to speak.
- 2023Medicine
Housemanship
Two years at Hospital Melaka, rotating through six postings. Every ward taught me the same rule, and I now use it with every client. Diagnose before you prescribe.
- 2023Innovation
In print
The engineering work never stopped. While on the wards, I co-authored research on AI modelling of 3D printed parts, followed in 2024 by papers on laser cutting quality and magnetic repulsion.
- 2025Medicine
Surgery
Then the operating theatre. In surgery a good idea is worth nothing until it is carried out precisely, every single time. That standard came with me.
- 2025Medicine
Neurosurgery
At Hospital Putrajaya I scrubbed in on brain and spine surgery, from tumour resections to emergency craniotomies. There, one decision made in minutes can change a whole life. I have measured my own work against that ever since.
- 2026Both, together
Apex Innovation Consulting
Every thread came together. The work I did under earlier names, including InnovX, now stands as one firm with one method. APX for short.
“Why teach one person an idea, when you can teach a whole organisation how to think?”
My father spent decades building methodology and research. It was rich, but it was not yet something another team could pick up and run. So we built that part together, tested it with real clients, and kept refining it until teams could use it without us.
That system is what APX delivers today. A workshop fades by Friday. A way of thinking keeps working long after we leave the room.
How I work
There is always a way
A constraint is information, not a verdict. We keep looking until we find the route through.
Diagnose before you prescribe
Most failed initiatives solved the wrong problem well. We find the real one first.
Stand where no one is standing
The best answers usually sit outside the obvious view. I train teams to look there on purpose.
Make it a system
A good idea fades. A good system repeats. Everything we build is designed to run without us.
Recognition and credentials
- 2014Finalist, representing MalaysiaIntel International Science and Engineering Fair, Los Angeles
- 2014Gold Medal and Special Jury AwardMIYIO, for The Slurpper
- 2014Gold Medaliidex, UiTM
- 2014National Finalist, Young InventorAnugerah Harta Intelek Negara, MyIPO
- 2014Physics Category WinnerTunas Saintis MRSM se-Malaysia
- 2014Anugerah PengantarabangsaanMRSM Terendak
- 2015Certified TRIZ Practitioner, Level 1MATRIZ
- 2022MBBSBachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery
- 2023Surgical Skills Training, Parts 1 and 2Hospital Melaka
- SalesTrained in high ticket closingLearned while building the firm
Published research
- 2023Artificial Neural Network Performance Modeling and Evaluation of Additive Manufacturing 3D Printed PartsEngineering, Technology & Applied Science Research
- 2024X to Y Axes Industrial Laser Cutting Machine Quality InvestigationAIP Conference Proceedings, vol. 3161
- 2024Analysis of Treated Magnetic Repulsion Dynamics and Their Implications for Future Engineering ApplicationsAIP Conference Proceedings, vol. 3161
Organisations I have worked with
- JKR
- Ministry of Works
- UPSI
- UNITEN
Beyond the work
Eight languages
Mandarin from a Chinese medium school in Melaka, plus English, Malay, Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Urdu and Bengali. Most people open up faster in their own language.
Black belt at eleven
I earned my karate black belt young, and in 2009 I was featured as Melaka's youngest black belt holder.
Ethical hacking
I picked it up along the way. Learning how a system breaks is the quickest route to building one that holds.
One decision can move thousands of lives.
Neurosurgery showed me what one decision can do for one life. Inside an organisation, the right decision reaches thousands. Every programme we run has to move that needle. If it does not change how people think, it has not changed anything.
Dr. Dharsyanth RaoFounder & CEO, APXLinkedIn