PENANG, 15 September 2016 - Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) created history after emerging as the only higher learning institution in Malaysia to receive the Gold Award among 13 other international educational institutions at the IEEE Darrel Chong Student Activity Award 2016.

The award was given also to USM for having the best achievement in competing for the first time.

According to the Dean, USM School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Professor Dr. Mohd Rizal Arshad, IEEE USM Student Branch (USM SB) has been very active at the national and international levels and has won many awards and competitions since its inception in 2006, including in competing with IEEE Student branches around the globe.

"I am very proud of our students' dynamism and innovative programmes and all these successes are indicative of USM's policies in facilitating learning experiences for the students which are exciting and vibrant," he said.

Meanwhile, IEEE USM student Branch Counsellor and Lecturer from the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Dr. Rosmiwati Mohd Mokhtar said that, Tech Mentors project is a 6-month programme that serves to initiate self-learning and discovery-based embedded system projects among IEEE USM Student Branch and the secondary schools involved.

"The objectives of the Tech Mentors programme are to promote interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) among school students, to nurture the students to be creative, innovative in design and to develop skills in line with high-end technology benefits,” she said.

It was also meant to enhance the university and school students’ communication skills, to expose technologies and programming to the next generation at their early years as the importance of technologies and programming are increasing every year, to create a positive culture and added values between school students, university students and the industries in facing challenging and competitive market demands and to be in line with USM’s mission which is to empower future talents and enable them to transform their economic well-being.

Furthermore, Tech Mentors is a volunteering programme carried out by the undergraduate students of USM based on the mission to inspire the young generation through designing creative innovations with embedded systems and it focuses on practical learning which involves hands-on and group discussion activities, where students learn how to construct an embedded system by applying what they learn during the training on necessary software.

"Tech Mentors was carried out at selected secondary schools mostly in the state of Penang and some other states, and in having the knowledge that they gained at the university, the USM students would further obtain training from industries (provided by Dreamcatcher) to become mentors.

“The programme normally starts with a 3-hour screening workshop called SAINS@X to select talented student teams from various secondary schools to be enrolled in the Tech Mentor project,” she added.

The Tech Mentor programme involved 20 to 30 USM students from IEEE USM Student Branch.

The Darrel Chong Student Activity Award is a recognition from IEEE to acknowledge exemplary student activities around the world. Recipient of the Darrel Chong Gold Award would receive a Certificate from the IEEE in acknowledging the contribution.

IEEE, pronounced as "Eye-triple-E," stands for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. As the world's largest technical professional association, IEEE consists of engineers, scientists, and allied professionals. These include computer scientists, information technology professionals, physicists, medical doctors, and many others in addition to IEEE's electrical and electronics engineering core. For this reason, the organization no longer goes by the full name and it is referred to simply as IEEE.

IEEE, an association dedicated to advancing innovation and technological excellence for the benefit of humanity, is the world’s largest technical professional society. It is designed to serve professionals involved in all aspects of the electrical, electronics, and computing fields and related areas of science and technology that underlie modern civilization.

Text: Hafiz Meah Ghouse Meah / Editing: Mazlan Hanafi Basharudin