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prototype designed by Gadjah Mada University (UGM) students won the first place at a national university competition for alternative fuel car innovation.

The Subali 4 prototype, which uses hydrogen peroxide and a kalium iodide catalyst as its fuel, has beaten other car prototypes.

'The competition was pretty tough. We weren't allowed to use electronic systems to control the car. Sensors and electric switches were also prohibited. Everything was manual,' team manager Bobby Nugroho Wicaksono said on Tuesday.

The competition was held by the 10 November Institute of Technology in Surabaya, East Java, from Friday to Sunday.

The 29 student UGM team also designed two other prototypes ' Anjani 1 and Sugriwa 3 ' that won awards.

Bobby said the team needed four months to do research and work on the prototypes. Each 80 centimeter prototype cost between Rp 3 million (US$308) to Rp 4 million.

Hydrogen peroxide, according to Bobby, is environmentally friendly and managed to power the Subali 4 up to 22 meters on 120 milliliters of hydrogen peroxide.

Anjani 1 used fuel cell energy from sodium hydroxide while Sugriwa 3 was powered by copper sulphate and zinc sulphate heptahydrate.

The three prototypes will be included in an international competition at Queensland University, Australia, at the end of September.

UGM's School of Engineering Dean, Panut Mulyono, said the results showed that an educated young generation had tremendous creativity. 'Indonesia has smart children. I hope within 15 to 20 years they will be able to become the motors for technology advancement in Indonesia,' he said.

He also called on all the stakeholders including the government and the private sector to provide support so that creativity from the education world would be more beneficial for the community.