MAVISHA MANIVANNAN KIE170051 PERSONAL REFLECTION

We are students from Electrical Engineering department. For our Social Engagement course, we were given the opportunity to be a volunteer in the BEGIN Challenge. Every group was assigned to a school and my group was SMK Tropicana. I was placed in GROUP 14 together with another 10 members. Our task is to guide the students in completing their prototype which is SMART FENCING FOR ANIMAL DETECTION.

Before: 

We had a few meetings to discuss about the preparation for the workshop. We delegated jobs among the team members. These were the contents of our workshop: 

Workshop 1

- Basic Arduino Part 1

- How to use the breadboard 

- How to improvise their prototype

Workshop 2

- Basic Arduino Part 2

- Presentation and pitching skills

During:

Day 1
We lead the students around the Engineering Tower. All of the research labs used by our lecturers and researchers are located there. The students were exposed about the features in the lab to create more passion toward engineering. This is to give them more idea about their project as well. It was exhausting as we had limited number of labs and there were a lot of students. We were supposed to give a briefing about the lab but we made it short due to lack of time.

Day 2

We gathered at 2 pm after taking our lunch. We were really excited to guide the students to complete their prototype. We helped the student with programming, circuitry analysis, presentation slides and container fabrication. The container used acrylic board which was cut into pieces. We used corrosive chloroform for the forming and binding. We explained to them the ways to do a professional presentation which can attract the crowds and the judges as well. Dr David was helping us to with the circuitry and the prototype.

Day 3

We went to the school again for the second visit and second workshop. I was very sad because it was our last visit to the school. Visiting this students brought back my school memories to me. The workshop was joined by a masters student, Mr. Jahangir. Mr.Jahangir is well known for his brilliance in coding. We taught them on how to code using Arduino. We also taught them how to present and pitch their ideas in front of the crowds. The students did a mock presentation so we could help them to improve more. We were really happy to help them as we learnt a lot from this project as well.

Day 4

It is the day that everyone was waiting for. It is 24th of April 2019, the competition of BEGIN Challenge. The students from SMK Tropicana came to University of Malaya for the competition. All of us gathered at 9.00 am at Block C, Faculty of Engineering to prepare the students and to give them moral support.

I was really excited when it was announced that our school, SMK Tropicana won the first runner-up. That was the best experience ever. They deserve a win for all of their efforts. Their hard work was paid off. These kids made us proud.

After: 

After the competition day, we ended our mentoring task. We delegated the tasks among the team members for preparations for our final presentation. I would like to thank everyone for this wonderful SE experience. I have learnt so many things. For example, coding on Arduino, handling chloroform and a lot more. Everyone was very cooperative and thank you again for this wonderful opportunity.