In order to stimulate students’ interest in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields and promote Taiwan’s higher education, the Education Division, TECO in Malaysia has worked with the United Chinese School Committees’ Association of Malaysia (Dong Zong) and Alumni Association of National Taiwan University, Malaysia (AANTUM) to organize the MICSS Tech Camp and Robotic Competition 2023, and the National Secondary School Programming Contest 2023 Grand Final. The participants managed to learn good values such as teamwork spirit, problem-solving skills, and critical thinking from the matches.
The MICSS Tech Camp and Robotic Competition 2023 held at Chung Hua Independent High School Klang on August 26-29, was co-organized by Dong Zong, United Chinese School Committees' Association of Selangor and Kuala Lumpur, and Chung Hua Independent High School Klang with supports from Taiwan Embedded Microcontroller Development Institute, Institute for Information Industry, Department of Education, Taipei City Government, National Chinyi University of Technology, Ming Chi University of Technology, and Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology.
The Taiwan Embedded Microcontroller Development Institute and representatives from the above leading universities of science and technology were invited to share the latest knowledge about AI technology fields with teachers and students. Students were learning the principles of operation, assembly, creation, and programming of robots. After that, the students had to apply what they learned, which was to build a robot, and compete among the participating schools. A total of 18 independent secondary schools participated in matches of 3 theme categories. The top three from each category will be invited to take part in the international robotic competition in Taiwan from October 26 to 30, 2023.
Mr. Tan Tai Kim, Chairman of Dong Zong, said that he was impressed by the outstanding performance of the students in the competition and encouraged them to showcase their creativity and innovations in related fields in the future. Mr. Chen Hung-Sheng, President of the Taiwan Embedded Microcontroller Development Institute, participating in the event for 15 years since 2007, was moved by the determination and hard work of the students in the robot production.
The National Secondary School Programming Contest 2023 Grand Final held at Hin Hua High School on September 1, 2023, was co-organized by the AANTUM in collaboration with Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) and National Taiwan University.
Mr. Choo Yan Tiee, the president of AANTUM, stated that the aim of the programming contest is to provide a platform for secondary school students in Malaysia to discover their interest in information technology and improve their analytical, computational, and programming skills. The association has conducted five workshops in Johor, Sabah, Penang, Sarawak, and Selangor from April to August this year, to provide the students with programming design-related courses. A series of preliminary tests and competitions were held to select the best 60 teams for the Grand Final on September 1. Among the 41 secondary schools that advanced to the final, the Tsun Jin High School team won the competition and was awarded a cash prize of 3,000 Malaysian ringgit.
In addition, a technology and sustainability conference with youths hosted by Mr. Goh Boon Peng, the founder & CEO of MyStartr was also conducted before the closing ceremony of the contest. The professionals including Associate Professor Hung-Yi Lee, Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Ts. Dr. Liew Soung Yue, Dean of the Faculty of Information and Communication Technology (FICT) at UTAR, Mr. Fong Choong Fook, Executive Chairman of LGMS Berhad, and Ms. Zoel Ng Yuet Yeng, Director of mySDG Academy, were invited to share the latest programming developments and technology trends with teachers and students.
Ms. Charlin Chang, Director of the Education Division of TECO in Malaysia, mentioned in the closing ceremony that it is important to develop students' digital literacy, especially in the rapidly growing artificial intelligence (AI) era. She praised the foresight of the organizers for holding STEM-related competitions to help students keep pace with the competitive environment of the future world and obtain a better understanding of Taiwan's teaching and learning resources. She welcomed the students to study in Taiwan and take the chance to develop their talents there.
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