Event: YIC 2021 Programme (Online TTT & Challenge Competition)
Date: January to September 2021
Venue: Zoom & online website platforms
The School of Computing and Creative Media (SCM), UCTS had successfully supported online Young Innovators Challenge (YIC) Programme 2021 in partnership with Chumbaka Sibu, conducted virtually on online platforms. This year’s event saw a larger turnout of student mentors and teachers from over 23 participating schools from Sibu and all around Sibu, including Sibu Jaya, Sarikei, Daro, Kanowit, Mukah, Kapit, Betong, Engkili and Julau.
Due to COVID-19 pandemic, YIC programme was continued to use Zoom online platform as what we did last year. We started off with 3-day TTT from 7th – 9th July 2021 conducted by Chumbaka Sibu, Chumbaka Kuching and Chumbaka Miri. TTT programme prepared the teachers and student mentors from UCTS to train students from their respective schools for the Young Innovators Challenge Competition from 10th July to 15th September 2021. Three modules were completed in the online training workshops: Introduction to Arduino, Building Project with Arduino (Forming Problem Statements) and Sharing and Planning for YIC. Throughout the TTT, the participants learnt about setup Arduino, building Arduino project, constructing problem statement, brainstorming project ideas, and how to programme their Arduino microchips.
Each mentor was paired with assigned school teachers to discuss a real-life problem faced by a person in the community and possible solutions in the assigned breakout rooms. They were required to pitch their ideas after the discussion in breakout rooms. They presented and sketched numerous creative project ideas in the forms of diagrams, tables and statements. It was tremendously fun and engaging for both mentors and teachers. Reflections were carried out at the end of each session to find out 4Fs: Facts, Feelings, Findings and Future.
All schools and student mentors were given free Arduino kits that were generously sponsored by Chumbaka under the supports of SDEC, MESTR and TEGAS. In this competition, the students identified a real problem that a person would face and designed a solution that has social impact. Their solution may consist of an open-source microcontroller (e.g. Arduino, Raspberry Pi) and/or developed with open-source software (e.g. App Inventor, Android Studio).
Twelve UCTS students participated in TTT and 23 schools sent their teachers-in-charge to form the teams of students as YIC participants as listed below:
- SMK Sacred Heart
- SMK Lanang
- SMK Methodist
- SMK Sungai Merah
- SMK Rosli Dhoby
- SMK St. Elizabeth
- SMK Tiong Hin
- SMK Deshon
- SMK Luar Bandar No.1 Sibu
- SMK Agama Igan
- SMK St. Anthony
- SMK Bandar Sarikei
- SMK Tinggi Sarikei
- SMK Sarikei Baru
- MRSM Betong
- SMK Kanowit
- SMK Sedaya
- SMK Semop
- SMK Julau No. 2
- SMK Mukah
- SMK Kapit No. 2
- SMK Engkili
- SMK Sg. Poah
This year we also have a special session for experienced teacher, Cikgu Franky from SMK Rosli Dhoby who was with us since 2018 to share about his journey and experience with YIC in recruiting students for joining YIC. Cikgu Franky highlighted that Frustration is part of the learning when the things does not turn up to be the way we expected but we need to encourage the students do not give up when they faced the problems.
YIC is a platform for secondary school students in Malaysia to learn, innovate, and implement their ideas in the community with the support from teachers, mentors and organizer. This learning journey will not only inculcate their technical skills but also nurture their life skills. By putting the platform online, we have gathered the alumni of YIC, technical mentors, and industry experts for the students, no matter where they are in Malaysia.
Some collections of photo during the online training:
