NIBONG TEBAL, March 2018 – Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) through Sains@USM is the first higher education institution (IPT) to be selected by National Instruments (NI) for a collaboration and participation into the National Instruments Autonomous Robotics Competition (NI ARC) that would be held in Malaysia.

According to the Human Resource Manager of NI, Zul Ibrahim, this competition would also see the participation of international competitors, among others from Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. 

“NI ARC is held to provide the opportunity to local engineers to achieve world-class excellence,” he added at the NI ARC ‘KICK-OFF’ ceremony here recently.

“Through this programme, NI is offering the engineers to share their expertise with society from the technology they have utilised for their invention in the competition,” said Zul.

Since 2011, NI ARC has been held with the objective of steering students towards the understanding of software and hardware applications of renowned industries and in the design of smart vehicles that could understand traffic rules. 

With the theme "Fast Track to the Future", NI ARC would require a robot from each competing team to complete tasks such as to move to the drop-off point, unload cubes, do wireless communication and avoid existing obstacles by optimising the aspects of performance and efficiency in order to gain marks.

A lecturer from the USM School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Professor Ir. Dr. Dahaman Ishak in representing the USM Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Industry and Community Network), Professor Ir. Dr. Abdul Rahman Mohamed as the Project Chairperson said that this programme is hoped to provide the students with experience and exposure which could be utilised during their industrial trainings.

“We are truly delighted in being able to encourage the students to explore real-world work conditions through this competition, with the supervision of an international company such as NI.”

“We hope that this participation would inspire the students and lecturers involved to uplift the USM name to a higher level, at the local as well as the global stage in the future,” added Dahaman. 

All participants of NI ARC would be trained by trainers from NI, and a unit of myRIO 1900 will be given to each team during the programme. All participants would also receive RM1,500 to allow them to build a robot, track and other items. 

The victorious team will represent the country in the finals, to be held this coming September in Australia.

Translation: Mazlan Hanafi Basharudin