Robotic Competition Promote Students’ Interest Towards Stem
Kangar, August 5th - A total of 28 teams from 18 primary and secondary schools around Perlis participated in the National Robotics Competition (NRC) 2017 at Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP), here today.
The jointly organized competition by UniMAP's Mechatronic Engineering School (PPK), Perlis State Education Department (JPN), and Sasbadi Holdings Berhad put forth two major categories, the Regular (Pro & Rookie) category and the open category themed Sustainabots.
Perlis JPN Head of the Human Resource Sector, Azran Mohamad @ Ahmad said the NRC was aimed at inculcating students' interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and hone their skills.
"Currently, High-Level Thinking Skills (KBAT) are focused on students in schools in order to sharpen their skills to solve creative and innovative problems therefore, the NRC was established since 2005 to realize this aspiration.
"The NRC will start at the national, state and national levels. Those successful at the national level will represent Malaysia at the international level in World Robot Olympiad (WRO) in Costa Rica this November," he said while officiating the NRC Closing Ceremony 2017, at Dewan Ilmu UniMAP representing Perlis JPN Director.
Also present were UniMAP Vice-Chancellor Dato 'Prof Dr Zul Azhar Zahid Jamal, Dean of Mechatronic School, Professor Dr Abu Hassan Abdullah, and Sasbadi Holdings Berhad Program & Council Noor Faiz Zulkiflee.
Meanwhile, Zul Azhar said the organization of this program is part of the university's social responsibility (USR) as creativity and innovation cannot be taught however can be indirectly implemented through centralized activities.
" This program indirectly helps mobilize young researchers especially at the school level to gain greater exposure both locally and internationally.
In view of this, it is hoped that a lot more opportunities would be presented to UniMAP, especially the Mechatronic School that have been actively organizing robotic competition to jointly contribute towards achieving NRC's objectives as the Ministry of Education (MOE) wishes, "he said. In the competition, Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK) Institut Pendidikan Guru Malaysia was the champion for the Regular School (Rookie) category, Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (SMK) Lailatul Shahreen for the lower secondary category while SMK Syed Alwi for the upper secondary category. In addition, Sekolah Rendah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina (SRJK(C)) Hwa Aik won the Pro category while SMK Arau dominates the lower and upper secondary category. In the open category of Sustainabots, SMK Lailatul Shahreen won the lower secondary category while SMK Putra (upper secondary category) and SK Seri Perlis became the winner for the NRC Football category.
