Steam Challenge

文：Wei Wen (Batch 5)

Steam Challenge

This competition only started last year (2018). So it is quite new. It is under the international level and if you win you will definitely get 10% for your co-curriculum marks. There is an announcement about this competition and information on the competition will be spread through WhatsApp. Whoever wants to join will need to go through an interview. Sir Idil and Sir Firdaus are the lecturers in charge (Under the Mathematics department). In this competition, we need to do a multipurpose cupboard (portable, light and less cost). I think the theme of this competition will change every year. This competition held a few weeks after our first mid-sem break (5th of September).

We did the interview in the announcement room (or warden room) at block c ground floor. Sir Idil will be interviewing us. He asked about our abilities especially doing slides, poster, or 3D digital drawing.  We also told sir about the related activities we joined previously in secondary school. Then write down our names and phone numbers (WhatsApp group). He asked us to form in groups of four and think of a design in the holidays. After the holidays, sir and the other mathematics lecturers will interview us on our project ideas, and select two groups to represent our college. My group was not selected but I'm lucky enough to be chosen and joined the other team that was selected because I know how to do 3D digital drawing on the computer.

One group will be under Sir Idil and another group will be under Sir Firdaus. My group is under Sir Idil and I am glad because he is very helpful and dedicated. He helped us a lot in our project making process, as well as the ideas. We had meetings almost every night at lobby block c (depends on the lecturer in charge). It is a very busy period for me as there were many clashes of lab tests and assignments, also events. I need to draw out the designs and determine the measurements precisely in 3D on my laptop. We changed our designs quite a number of times and that is quite challenging to me as I need to redraw my whole design many times.  One of the members will be doing the brochures and posters, another one will be doing on the concept and abstract of our project, and one will do the making of the project. We also need to prepare our presentation.

We need to make the parts on our own and we cannot combine the parts permanently because the competition required us to build up the project on the spot during the competition. We use the slot-in concept (sir Idil's idea) where we can just slot in all the parts on the spot without the need of screws and nails. Once a while, sir will bring us out of college to buy the materials from a shop nearby.

The competition will be held in Kolej Matrikulasi Teknikal Pahang. We went there by college bus to Pahang, around 6 hours trip. We will stay in the dorm and food will be provided. We also received some money in our Bank Islam account (I forgot how much).  There will be a briefing session and information will be given. The competition will be held on the second day, where we need to set up our project on the spot at the appointed booths within a given time (1 hour). The setup process will be timed by the volunteers of the event. Our team managed to set up around 5 minutes :).

Then the presentation and interview session (10 minutes). Every group will draw lots and we get the first group to be interviewed, so we finished early. The judges are all professors from universities. We thought that we will present first before they ask the questions, instead, they asked us questions throughout the whole session. After that, we went to see a Science showcase at the college. We went outing too.

Next day, the prize-giving session. We won first in the overall competition and get trophies and certificates. Then the projects of each team will be showcased after the event. We went back after taking our lunch.