Date: 20th– 21st April 2024 (Saturday – Sunday)
Venue: Computer Lab 3, UTS
Young Innovators Challenge (YIC) is an annual program with the aim to catalyze the maker movement in secondary schools. In this programme, students are supported by teachers, mentors (UTS students), and the organiser, to solve real-life problems using open-source embedded system and software.
This collaboration between UTS and Chumbaka was coordinated by Mdm. Eileen Ong from UTS and Dr. Xavier Chee from Chumbaka. Nine secondary school teachers from various schools, including SMK Bandar Sibu, SMK Datuk Patinggi Kedit, SMK Kampung Nangka, SMK Luar Bandar No 1, SMK Mukah, SMK Rosli Dhoby, SMK Saratok, SMK Song, and SMK Three Rivers, along with 19 UTS students, participated in this face-to-face YIC TTT. They were trained by David Lim. During YIC Train-The-Trainer (TTT), secondary school teachers and UTS students underwent training. The aim was to equip them with the mentoring and technical skills needed to facilitate secondary students.
During the 2-day YIC TTT, the online learning materials in the learning management account were given to enable the teachers and mentors to learn about PictoBlox (which is new for this year), Arduino, design thinking, project planning and building. The theme for YIC TTT was fun and interesting, with trainees asked to build silly or funny projects. Numerous creative and fun prototypes were created and presented. For example, a head wearable wiper, coin box, anti-food stealing machine, jokes entertainment machine and so on. The trainees evaluated their projects and voted for the three silliest projects. A special thanks to Dr. Tiong Meng Chung, who volunteered his time to be the technical advisor to offer help throughout the YIC TTT.
Here are some photos taken during the event.
