NUR FATIN NADIAH BINTI AHMAD ZAHURI KIE170087 PERSONAL REFLECTION

In all  honesty, the first time the word "social engagement" crossed my mind, all i imagined it to be was a situation where you visit old folks' home/orphanages and things like that. However, as for my group, we had the chance to mentor a group of 4 high school students along with their school teacher for an innovation program called "BEGIN Challenge". This was totally different to the "social engagement" i had imagined in the first place. And i'm ecstatic to mention that this was certainly one of the greatest moments in my second year university life.

BEGIN Challenge is a yearly innovation challenge organized by Tuanku Bahiyah Residential College and co-organized by Faculty of Engineering, UM. This challenge is all about innovating one's ideas and turning it into a working prototype. As for this year, the participants are tasked to invent or innovate something that could cater to the various needs at oil palm plantations. 

My group consisted of 11 second year electrical engineering students. My group was assigned to SMK Tropicana, which is located about 8 km away from UM. Our task for SE was that we had to assist and help the students together with a mentor from UM itself which was Dr. Suhana, a lecturer from Department of Civil Engineering, to improvise their ideas as well as hone their social skills to be more confident. As a group, our working plan is divided into three main parts which are before, during and after the event. Here, i will be discussing in details about each part. 

Before: 

We held a few meet-ups in order to prepare for our workshops. We did some job delegations among the team members as well as discussed on the contents of the workshops we will be having. After thorough discussion and liaising with the SMK Tropicana team, we came up with these to be the contents of our workshops: 

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

The first activity for this program was meeting with the school team and mentors during the briefing day. As seen in the picture below, this was during our very first meeting. We discussed a lot of plans and activities that both parties wanted to have throughout the whole BEGIN mentoring session.

Day 2

We had our first visit to SMK Tropicana to execute our first workshop. The school was beautiful and we were surrounded by amazing and bright students. Everyone, especially the 4 students and Madam Khor, their teacher, was very welcoming. We were greeted with open arms and it was definitely a moment to remember. What made it more memorable was that our visit was joined by our supervisor as well, Dr David Chuah. We kicked start our workshop with a little introduction on what we'll be teaching them as well as some details regarding engineering. We taught them on how to code using Arduino UNO and how to use the breadboard. We also had some discussions on improvements that can be done on their prototype to make it more viable and functional. Alongside, we helped them designing their prototype. We spent a few good hours at the school and everything went better than expected. The students enjoyed the whole session and liked the knowledge we shared. Best believe it is safe to say that we did help them improvise more than a bit or two on what they were working on. 

Teaching a student on how to use the breadboard

Coding for Arduino

Two students working on the prototype

Group photo with the students during the workshop

Day 3
We had our second visit to the school for our second workshop. This was our last visit and everyone was very saddened by it. This time, the workshop was joined by a masters student, Mr. Jahangir. We got him to come along to help the students with the coding because we believed that coding was his forte! Haha. In this workshop, we taught them on how to code using Arduino and how to present and pitch their ideas in front of the crowds. We also got the students to have a mock presentation so we could help them improve on the parts they were lacking in. It was a very eventful day as we felt like we managed to get a lot of things done and improved within a few hours.

Team members and the students having a mock presentation

Coding session led by Mr. Jahangir

Discussing ideas on the prototype

Day 4
Whew! This was the day everyone was waiting for - the Competition Day. Before they started exhibiting their project, we helped them with their final preparation. From presenting, pitching, to making sure the prototype was working well. At the final hour before the competition began, everyone had a very nerve-wrecking moment. The prototype that had been checked and tested for numerous times suddenly didn't work. It was tough for everyone especially for the school students because God knows how hard they had been working on this project. We tried remaining relaxed and troubleshooted the problems faced in a very calm manner so that nobody panicked. Even though deep down we were all very worried! Haha. They tried very hard fixing what went wrong and yes, they managed to get everything fixed and settled before the competition started! I knew these bright students are really good and passionate in what they're working on. If there's a will, there's a way, right?

Prototype

Judging session

SMK Tropicana team and mentor, Dr. Suhana

SMK Tropicana and us

 After rounds of judging being held, it was announced that our school, SMK Tropicana had successfully won the first runner-up! This was the highlight of my whole SE experience. We were all totally baffled by this win, which left us all out of words. We knew they would be winning something because these people certainly deserved to win for their efforts and hard work. They deserved every bit of this win. I swear we were the happiest people ever! Each one of us was extremely proud of what they had achieved.

SMK Tropicana winning first runner-up!

After: 

Once the competition day ended, it marked the end of our whole mentoring session. We delegated the tasks among the team members for further preparations for our final presentation. 

To sum up, i'd like to express my sincere gratitude to everyone who has been working tirelessly on making this whole SE experience a very memorable one to me. It was certainly great to have known the school team, as well as Dr. Suhana and Mr. Jahangir. Without this SE program, i wouldn't have had the chance to know these people. I'm really glad to have chosen BEGIN Challenge for my project because i've learnt so many things. From coding on Arduino, handling chloroform (for the prototype) to presentation skills. I've managed to hone many skills that i've been lacking in. Lastly, i'm super happy to be in a group of supportive people, who give their full best in everything they do. Every team mate is very cooperative and i'm glad to say that most of the things we planned, we managed to pull them off very well. All in all, everything was a smooth sailing journey. 

NUR FATIN NADIAH BINTI AHMAD ZAHURI

KIE170087