Sanny helps innovation take flight at Scitech

Visitors to Scitech Discovery Centre on Monday mornings are likely to glimpse an usual paper plane zooming through the air.  

Unlike regular paper planes, the ‘zoomerang’ flies in a circle before coming back to land where it started.  

Its inventor is Scitech volunteer, Sanny Ang, who brings his love of innovation and design-thinking to the Rio Tinto Innovation Central space each week, sparking visitor curiosity and delight.  

An architect by profession, Sanny said he invented the zoomerang in 1991 after watching planes taking off on TV.  

“I read all the books I had about planes, and I invented a few of my own,” he said.  

“I made about 200 different planes and one of them did a bit of a turn, but I couldn’t control it – sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t.  

“I thought, ‘that’s not good enough, it needs to work all of the time.’   

“Then a couple of days went past, it was Chinese New Year, and I went to a friend’s house for lunch.  

“On the TV they were showing the latest fighter aircraft from Sweden.  

“I looked at it, and I thought ‘that looks like a fantastic airplane.’”  

Inspired by the plane’s four-wing design, Sanny set about creating a prototype and the zoomerang was born. 

He now shares his creation with Scitech visitors and loves seeing their reactions.  

“They see me throw the zoomerang and they say ‘wow, I’ve never seen that before!’” he said.  

“It’s magic – but magic you can work out!  

“If you follow the instructions, you can actually recreate it.” 

Through volunteering at Scitech, Sanny is both sharing his knowledge with others and enriching his own learning.   

“Scitech staff and volunteers ask me questions and show me things, and it takes me to another level and challenges me,” he said.  

“They ask ‘can you make it do this?’  

“Or ‘why does it go like that?’ 

“Usually I give out information, but here I also receive information – it’s an exchange.” 

Scitech Operations Coordinator Julian Low said there were approximately 20 regular volunteers who played an important role in contributing to visitors’ experience at Scitech.    

“Our volunteers engage visitors in interesting and meaningful discussions about STEM through exhibits and science activities,” he said.  

“They also help facilitate the programs we deliver to students on their excursion to Scitech, and our workshop volunteers work on a variety of projects. 

“The role of volunteers is best summarised as ‘make them smile, make them think and make their day.’” 

It’s a job description that Sanny has mastered perfectly. 

To learn more about volunteering opportunities at Scitech, email Volunteer@scitech.org.au