NIBONG TEBAL, December 2015 - The aerospace festival, better known as AEROFEST, at the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) Engineering Campus held here recently has provided an avenue for more than 150 students in the fields of aerospace, aeronautics and astronautics from six public higher education institutions (IPTA) to meet and share ideas, information and experiences in representing their respective universities.

The Universities that took part were the International Islamic University Malaysia (UIAM), Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL-MIAT), Universiti Pertanian Malaysia (UPM), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) and with USM as the host of the event.

According to the Deputy Dean (Academics), School of Aerospace Engineering, Dr. Ahmad Zulfaa Mohamed Kassim, the programme was aimed at bringing together and establishing closer ties among the aerospace engineering students from all the IPTAs in Malaysia.

“I am confident that, the students would be able to share ideas, information and experiences from their own universities and to continue utilising the knowledge they had gathered from this programme,”he said as he officiated the event at the Pusat Mahasiswa (PUMA), Students Affairs and Development and Alumni Division (HEPA), Engineering Campus, USM.

Meanwhile, the Project Director, Tan Pheng Chuen said this festival has succeeded in achieving its targeted aims and objectives which were providing the students from the various universities the opportunity to meet each other, compete against each other and gain valuable experiences (meet, compete, experience).

“This was the first time USM had organised this event and I would be thrilled to be offered an opportunity to organise another programme such as this in the future,” he said when met during the closing and prize-giving ceremony to the winners of the Glider, Quadcopter and CanSat competitions here recently.

Meanwhile for the team leader of Roboteam fromInternational Islamic University Malaysia (UIAM),Mohamad Farhan Ahmad when met said that, he was really excited and thankful to his team mates who had worked together to achieve victory and bringing fame to their university.

“I believe that, this was a shared victory for everyone who was involved in this field”, said Farhan who represented his team and winning the event for the Quadcopter category.

“Other than as means of getting together, this programme has truly benefitted us in acquiring new knowledge and adding on whatever that was lacking for us to be more creative and innovative in the future,” he added.

All the winners took home cash prizes of RM500.00 for the champion, RM300.00 for the runner-up and RM100.00 for third place, together with trophies and certificates of participation.

Also present at the closing ceremony were the two sponsors for the programme, the Manager of Synergy (M) Sdn. Bhd., Muhammad Syafiee Mazlan and the Managing Director of Jat Asset Integrity Offshore & Onshore Sdn. Bhd., Encik Azhar Abdul Aziz.

Translation: Mazlan Hanafi Basharudin

Text: Mohd Kamil Ashar/Photos: Bani Faidzzainami Baniyamin