YEOW KHAI ER KIE170511 PERSONAL REFLECTION

Self Reflection by  
Yeow Khai Er

KIE170511

First of all, I never imagined that our project for social engagement to be field-related. But, we are the lucky ones. Electrical Engineering students are given the chance to involve themselves in projects and activities that are proposed by the Malaya Electrical Students Association (MESA) for social engagement. 

After a short discussion, our team chose to engage in the BEGIN challenge as mentors. BEGIN is an abbreviation for "Beyond Engineering Innovation", the objective of competition is to encourage high school students from all across the country to innovate and design a science related project that is applicable in the real world. As for this year, the task is to design a project that could cater to the various needs at oil palm plantations.

After we decided our project for social engagement, we started to outline our tasks and objectives. We gave a presentation about our plan and project to our supervisors/lecturers. Soon after that, the committees of BEGIN challenge started to distribute teams to mentors. Our team chose SMK Tropicana. Then, the journey begins. 


Day 1 - Briefing Day (30th March 2019)

The event started off with a briefing day, this is also the day where we first met our mentees from SMK Tropicana. The participants are guided by us for a lab tour around the Faculty of Engineering. They also get to ask questions and get inspirations from all kinds of technologies that they might never seen before. Unfortunately, due to time restrictions and some other issues, the lab tour ended in unsatisfactory. 



Lab tour



Our team had a meeting with our mentees from SMK Tropicana, which is a group of 4 talented students together with their supervisor Madam Khor. We did some brainstorming sessions and discussed about the project for the challenge. Also, we discussed about the topics and activities that they would expect from us. They decided to design a Smart Plantation Fencing system.


Mentors, mentees and Madam Khor (supervisor)



Day 2 - First workshop (3rd April 2019)

On this day, few members from our team, alongside with our supervisor, Dr David Chuah went to SMK Tropicana to conduct the first workshop. The mentees are taught how to use a breadboard, how to code using Arduino, how to create a prototype for their project, etc. The team made a lot of progress that day. 



Coding workshop for Arduino



Group photo

Day 3 - Second workshop (10th April 2019)

This is our second visit to SMK Tropicana. When we arrived, they guided us to their lab with a warm welcome. As soon as we enter the lab, we can already see the prototype being fully developed. On this day, we focused on their pitching and presentation skills. We request them to do a mock presentation to analyse their presentation skills, then we started to ask some questions about their codes and stuffs. Turns out they are facing some problems with their codes. To be honest, at this point we are unable to provide much help on the technical side because we are not familiar with their code and their cloud software. Luckily we have a Masters student, Mr. Jahangir to give some advice. 

While Mr. Jahangir and 2 of the mentees are studying some Arduino coding knowledge on the internet, members from our team gave another 2 of the mentees a presentation workshop. 
Also, we gave some advice on how to improve their prototype and also their circuit. All of us learned a lot from each other that day. 

Mock presentation


Presentation workshop

Coding workshop


Day 4 - BEGIN challenge (24th April 2019)

The day we had been waiting for! The team arrived at UM with their work, ready for the competition. Our team stop by the competition location to see how they are doing. We didn't stay there because we have classes going on. They seemed a bit nervous because of the strong competitive vibe there. Although their prototype had some problem before the assessment, they were able to fix it in time.

During the closing ceremony, our team members were there to give them support and to witness their success. When they announced the results, we cheered out loud. They got 2nd place, we congratulated them for their achievements. 
The team with Dr. Suhana and Madam Khor


Group photo with the team



I am truly inspired by these talented students from SMK Tropicana. After witnessing how dedicated they are and how hard they work for this competition, it gives me a strong feeling that urges me to work harder in my studies. This is the end of the journey, but the learning never ends. 

Sincerely
YEOW KHAI ER 
KIE170511

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