Research Technology and Creative Exhibition (ReTEx) 2023

Along with University of Technology Sarawak’s (UTS) 10th anniversary, the School of Computing and Creative Media (SCM) had successfully hosted its second ReTEx event in 2023 in a larger scale than before. This time around, its theme was “Sustainable Digital Solution in Technology, Design & Creative Media”. While still focusing mainly on students’ final year project (FYP) presentation and exhibition, several other activities were also held during the event.

At the kickstart of the ReTEx’s week, on 3rd July, SCM in collaboration with SMK Rosli Dhoby conducted a STEM carnival at the school’s hall for their students. Several booths have been opened solely by SCM, which offered various activities to be tried including robotic car, drone flying simulator, 3D printing, 2D animation using Adobe Animate, chemistry laboratory using augmented reality, BB8 robot, and computer science wheel game.

Apart from that, on 8th to 9th July, the program starts with FYP poster presentation and exhibition, with one invited external examiner for each program, namely Dr Valerie anak Michael (for BDM), Mdm Nur Hartini (for BCS) and Mr Omar Ali Sepian (for BID). Several talk series have also been conducted throughout the event for the purpose of knowledge sharing to the students before they enter the working environment, focusing on “The Role of Extended Reality in Metaverse” by Dr Lam Meng Chun from UKM, “Creative Industry Exposure: Reality & Rhetorical, by Mr Syafiq Ali Am from Groundzero Studio company, and “Circular Material Information within Small and Medium Enterprises in Malaysia” by Mr Liew Yong Kian from Asia Pacific University of Technology and Innovation.

The difference between 2023’s ReTEx compared to the previous one is that several additional activities were offered too to further enliven the week. Several competitions with prizes to be won were held in parallel, including Drone Photography Competition, ReTEx eSports Mobile Legends, Drone Coding Competition, BB8 Playground and Recycled Art Competition. Apart from that, workshops focusing on “3D Character Design” by Mr Vanden Michael, “3D Modeling through Solidworks” by Mr Lutfee Mohd Lasa, and “Cybersecurity Exploitation Simulation” by Mr Mohd Faiz Tony and Mr Mohamed Amir Wakidi were also opened for UTS students and public to join. Additional talk series have also been conducted, namely on “Sarawak Digital Economy – Research Commercialisation & Implementation” by Dr Khairul Hafiz from SDEC and on “Youth Digital Upskilling Program” by Tn. Pdt. Charlly Simon from SDIH.

This event is an annual event which was meant to evaluate students’ FYP and at the same time, provide their potentially commercialised projects with the opportunity to be exposed to local industries. This year, under the lead of Mr Hasrunnaim Hasan and Ms Nuratiqah Zaini, we have done something special including lucky draw to gather more nearby public for the celebration of UTS anniversary. We had hoped this event inspires our current students to increase their passions in producing projects of high quality in the near future, as SCM will do our best to appreciate and celebrate their end products via our ReTEx, annually.

Some photo collections are as follows: