ABUBAKAR MUGHAL KIE170708 PERSONAL REFLECTION

As an electrical engineering student at University of Malaya, we were obliged when we were given the opportunity to be part of the Begin Challenge 2019, an inter school competition where the brightest minds came together to develop the next big thing in the technological world. The schools participating were required to build a prototype. We became mentors to SMK Tropicana with their prototype of SMART FENCING FOR ANIMAL DETECTION. It is a project that has huge economic and scientific potential and were lucky enough to be a part of this.

                            


Day 1 - Opening Ceremony
On the first day, there was an opening ceremony during which all the participating schools were briefed regarding the competition. After that, we had lunch with the team from SMK Tropicana and during this time we introduced each other and learned a lot about them and their prototype.Then,  we lead groups of students for a survey of research labs at the Engineering Tower, Block L. This was very beneficial as it exposed the students to engineering environment and served as a kind of inspiration and motivation. 
                             
Day 2 - The first Visit to SMK Tropicana
To kick off our first visit to SMK Tropicana, we all gathered at the Engineering Tower at 1.30 pm. We used our own cars to get to the school.  We were greeted by our mentees as well as Puan Khor, the school teacher upon our arrival. We asked our mentees to brief us on the current situation of the prototype and the issues that they were facing. After hearing from them, we helped them with the technical part such as programming as well as the Arduino circuit. We also helped them to build some sort of compartment which was going to be used to store all the circuit components and the Arduino board.







Day 3- The Second and final visit to SMK Tropicana
After our first trip to SMK Tropicana, we could not wait to start our second trip. We all were eager to go there and see the progress of our mentees and help them further towards the completion of their prototype. After reaching the school we found out that our team were facing some issues with the Arduino programming and this was delaying their progress. After about an hour of brainstorming, we were able to solve the issues. Another important thing we did was teaching them some basic presentation skills which they can use during the competition day to perform a powerful presentation.





Day 4 - D Day
Finally, the competition day was here. It was now up to the team to prove themselves and to show the judges why their work is the best among all. It was in the morning that we managed to pay a visit to the SMK Tropicana team. At about 10 am we visited their booth after our class ended. The team were setting up the booth and were having final preparations. We gave them confidence and advised them to keep a calm head. We were not around when the judges started the assessment as we had a class to attend. However, we were being updated via the Whatsapp group that we had created previously. Puan Khor told us how the judges were giving them a hard time by asking all sorts of questions about the prototype. After the results were out, Puan Khor informed us that our team had won the first runner up prize and we all were over the moon. We were delighted for the young students from SMK Tropicana as all their hard work finally paid off. 









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