AIESEC in Malaysia Awards Night 2015 (AMAN) TOP GUN (Best Local Committee) AWARD By Ratana Shangkari Chandran

AIESEC in Malaysia Awards Night 2015 (AMAN)

TOP GUN (Best Local Committee) AWARD

By Ratana Shangkari Chandran

Semenyih, Selangor, 11th July 2015- The AIESEC in Malaysia Awards Night 2015 was held at Country Garden Diamond City in Semenyih, Selangor. The purpose of this event is to recognize the effort and contribution of the 13 local committees all around Malaysia (public and private universities with AIESEC student chapters) during the term of 2014/2015. This year’s awards night was one of memorable one for AIESEC in Universiti Teknologi Petronas as we bagged the ‘Top Gun’ Award, the most significant award for the year. This award was very meaningful as it symbolizes the growth of our local committee and that all the hard work and effort was recognized in a national level. In short, AIESEC in UTP had reached the next level as we are known to be the best local committee for the term 2014/2015.

            This award was judged based on the contribution of one entity towards the national level. It is not only based on the number of outgoing and incoming exchanges we contributed nationally, but also considering the effort of the entity in terms of enhancing leadership skills among members to serve the community. Besides creating impact to the society, our diversity is one of our niches as we provide equal opportunities and platform for different nationalities to develop themselves.

            Eventhough the Executive Board of term 14/15 are the pioneer leaders to achieve this award, we would not have some so far without the strong foundation built by the previous leaders of AIESEC in UTP that allowed the new generation of leaders to build on them and embrace the challenge to achieve the ultimate goal in national scale. The beauty of this award is that it resembles vision, passion and action-orientedness of five generations of AIESEC in UTP leaders whom had a common ambition to make the society we live in today better and have a bright future.

            Besides the support from previous leaders of AIESEC in UTP, the other factor is the relation between the organization and the university. We would like to express our gratitude to UTP management whom has provided us a lot support to carry out our operations and allow us to create a platform for us to engage with the students. It would be such a pleasure to have continuous support from the university in future as AIESEC in UTP will continue to seek for new challenge of becoming the center of youth development in universities around Perak.

            In conclusion, AIESEC in UTP has been recognized by the national committee for being the highest performing chapter for term 14/15. It had shown a significant growth of AIESEC in UTP in this past five years and the growth will not stop here as the new term of leaders of AIESEC in UTP will be aiming higher to sustain the position and at the same time maximize the potential of this organization.

A short description on AIESEC:

AIESEC is a global platform for young people to explore and develop their leadership potential. We are a non-political, independent, not-for-profit organization run by students and recent graduates of institutions of higher education. Its members are interested in world issues, leadership and management. AIESEC does not discriminate on the basis of ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion or national / social origin. We provide young people with self-driven, practical, global experiences through our exchange programs (Global Citizen Program – Personal Development, Global Talent Program – Professional Development). We enable them to see the world, make a real difference and discover what truly matters to them.

Leaders of AIESEC in UTP with the TOP GUN trophy

Pravin Nair, President of AIESEC in UTP 2014/2015

Pravin Nair giving his appreciation speech alongside his Executive Board Management Team 2014/2015 (The Expendables)

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TEDxUTP – 2015 By Sharvnee Raja Mohan (PG, 1st Year/ 1st Semester)

TEDxUTP – 2015

By Sharvnee Raja Mohan (PG, 1st Year/ 1st Semester)

Undercroft, 15^th August – "Extraordinary from The Ordinary" was the theme for the first ever TEDx's talk event that took place here in UTP. Over 100 participants gathered in the spirit of a day full of ideas worth sharing and spreading through international platform in a local environment. TEDx is an independently organized version of a conference that produces TED Talks that are held in cities and universities all around the world. TEDxUTP spreads out an array of thought-provoking content under the overarching theme "Extraordinary from the Ordinary" through over 11 talks, videos and performances and with inspirational and visionary leaders from a wide spectrum of industries.

       After registration, the ceremony started with a recorded video of TED conferences. The lights came up, and the talks begun with first speaker Ahmed Basyuni, founder of a youth organization, Arzumy MD, a startups hacker, Jason Campbell, a marketing leader and Jackie Yep from UNITEN, founder of FastTrack. The participants were quite excited about first round. After some social activity and lunch break, the talks were continued with Ronan Diego, a Brazilian who is also the leader and founder of AIESEC Paraguay followed by Ahmed Alaa a trainer from Egypt and Wesley Chan, Gold Chancellor recipient from UTP. This session was followed by a break and an energetic Mozambican dance performance by MyMoz. The last session speakers were Sukesh Pandian, an inventor and alumni of UTP, Walla SallahEldin a young women from Sudan., Zikry Kholil, co-founder of the movement Incitement and Beshr AL Khateeb, an aspiring student from UTP.

"The event was successful and mind-blowing with brilliant speakers and creative hardworking team. We hope that it will become an annual tradition in UTP with a greater success" said Yasser Nazir, the Project Manager of TEDxUTP.

Gorgeous and well-designed stage

Part of the audience

Ronan from Brazil during his talk

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Chancellor Public Lecture by YABhg Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad By Nabilah Hassanudin (Business Information Systems ,2nd Year/ 2nd Semester)

Chancellor Public Lecture by YABhg Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad

By Nabilah Hassanudin (Business Information Systems, 2^nd Year/ 2^nd Semester)

Chancellor Hall, 19^th August - YABhg Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, the Chancellor of UTP and his wife Tun Dr. Siti Hasmah once again came to UTP to deliver his inspiring lecture on Social Evolution in Malaysia: What’s Next. YB Datuk Ir Abdul Rahim, the Vice Chancellor of UTP  was also present and delivered his welcoming speech on Tun Dr Mahathir’s background  and on his ventures to develop the country, for example the development of Malaysian Expressway System, PROTON cars, Port of Tanjung Pelepas and many others. The welcoming speech was followed by the launching of “A Gift Hope”, a book of UTP CSR Initiatives and Program Genesys-UTP ICT Transformation Journey after the session. During his lecture, Tun Dr Mahathir emphasized the importance of being hard-working, adding that hard-working citizens are needed to further develop this country. The floor was also opened to Question and Answer session. The crowd was overwhelming as the students, staffs and also the outsiders attended the public lecture and to meet Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad regardless of their busy schedule on a weekday. We are eagerly looking forward for the next public lecture by our very own Chancellor. 

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad while delivering his lecture

Photo credit to: Universiti Teknologi Petronas-Main Page 

Full-house during the lecture session

Photo credit to: Universiti Teknologi Petronas-Main Page 

 Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad launching CSR Book ‘A Gift of Hope’

Photo credit to: Universiti Teknologi Petronas-Main Page

Launching  Program Genesys-UTP ICT Transformation Journey

Photo credit to: Universiti Teknologi Petronas-Main Page 

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Smart Athlete Cultivation Camp – SACC 2015 By Proshini Nadesan (Petroleum Geoscience, 3rd Year/1st Semester)

 Smart Athlete Cultivation Camp –SACC 2015

  By Proshini Nadesan (Petroleum Geoscience, 3rd Year/1st  Semester)

Block B, 15^th & 16^th July 2015- Smart Athlete Cultivation Camp (SACC) is an event organized by the UTP Wushu club for the very first time. The event was officiated by Chew Siang Zhi, Project Director of SACC at Martial Arts Room, Block B. Wushu Selangor Athlete was also invited to participate in this event. One of the objectives of this event is to strengthen the bond between the participants and committees. Moreover, participants were given an opportunity to exchange and learn new skills to become better martial arts practitioners in future. The event was organized to enhance committee’s leadership skills and capability to handle challenges in the task given. After lunch, an ice-breaking session was conducted, followed by a Self Defense Talk. Next, both teams were engaged with a sparring training session and swimming lessons. The sparring practical session was continued after dinner and the day was ended with a sharing session.

The participants of UTP Wushu team and Selangor Wushu team

Participants on the battle field

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Euphonius 2015 By Vishnu Rao (Chemical Engineering 2nd Year/ 1st Semester)

Euphonius 2015

By Vishnu Rao (Chemical Engineering 2^nd Year/ 1^st Semester)

Chancellor Hall, 8^th August – Euphonius returned with the theme ‘Electrify Rock’ with six bands  vying for the top spot after getting through the preliminaries that were held over the last two days. Eddie, Aizat ‘Bert’ Ali and Masrour from Tres Empre was invited as the judges of Euphonius 2015. The Manager of Student Support Services Department (SSSD) and the Advisor of the International Culture Club were present as the VIPs of this event. After a short speech by Mr. Theodore Terence Ridgeway, the Project Director of Euphonious 2015, the beautiful Elizabeth Tan took the stage for the first guest performance of the night. Performing her famous single ‘Knock Knock’ and a cover of Ed Sheeran’s ‘Kiss Me’ she managed to get audiences pumped for the remainder of the night.

The competition kicked off with the performance by Duckhead from Space, performing their unique brand of music, using a trumpet, gong and tabla. They were followed by Bloopers who performed a medley of ‘ABC’ and ‘Uptown Funk’as well as an original composition. Next up was Helvetica, performing an original instrumental composition ‘Lullaby for You’. They also performed a tribute to Amy Winehouse and a cover of Ariana Grande’s ‘Problem’, with a saxophone as accompaniment. After a short break, the second guest performers, PITAHATI, delivered their pieces. The competition resumed, with EXODVS performing a mash up of ‘I Write Sins Not Tragedies’ and ‘Ignorance’. They then followed up with ‘Hallelujah’ and an amazing rendition of ‘Hotel California’.

The final competing band to perform was Last Resort. They delivered an exuberant performance and their vocalist was full of energy, gaining raucous applause from the crowd and the final performance of the night was by another guest artist, Tres Empre who managed to get the crowd off their feet and to mosh with them.  The event came to an end after the results announced and awards presented to the winners.

Awards List

Champion- Last Resort

1st Runner Up – Breadcrumbs

2nd runner Up-Helvetica

Best Male Vocalist – Last Resort

Best Female Vocalist – Breadcrumbs

Best Drummer – Breadcrumbs

Best Guitarist – Helvetica

Best Bassist – Bloopers

Best Keyboardist – Last Resort

Best Accompanist – EXODVS

Best Background Performer – Duckhead from Space

Best Self Composed Song – Last Resort

People’s Choice Award – Last Resort

Champion of Euphonius 2015

Exuberant performance by guest performers

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UTP Sports Carnival By Neroshinni Balachandran (CE, 2nd Year/1st Semester)

UTP Sports Carnival

By Neroshinni Balachandran (CE, 2^nd Year/1^st Semester)

Sports Complex, 8^th-9^th & 15^th-16^th August 2015- With a theme of “Sports for Unity”, UTP Sports Carnival, held with the collaboration of Co-curriculum Unit and Student Representative Council (SRCUTP) is meant to bring students and staffs in campus together through sports activities. Pre-events such as mini carnival and road show were held to promote and motivate students to participate in order to make this event successful. The games like futsal, kayak, basketball, road relay, photo contest and so on were competed according to participants from respective programs and also UTP staff. The overall results are as follow:-

Ranking	Department
1st	Chemical
2nd	ICT/BIS
3rd	Mechanical
4th	Petroleum
5th	Petroleum Geoscience
6th	UTP Staff
7th	Electrical & Electronics
8th	Civil

UTP Sports Carnival 2015 was a huge success with its aim been achieved. This type of event which creates stronger bond among students and staffs should be encouraged and organized more often.

Participants for Frisbee.

(Photo credits : Photographers of UTP Sports Carnival 2015)

Hockey team.

(Photo credits : Photographers of UTP Sports Carnival 2015)

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Banana Relay Run 2015 By Wong Hao Xiang & Lim Chin Hwan (Mechanical Engineering, 1st Year/ 2nd Semester)

Banana Relay Run 2015

By Wong Hao Xiang & Lim Chin Hwan (Mechanical Engineering, 1st Year/ 2nd Semester)

UTP, 8th August- A total of sixty UTP students woke up early on a beautiful Saturday morning to gather for a run organised by American Association of Petroleum Geoscientists, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS at Chancellor Complex. It is the first ever 3-person obstacles relay run held in UTP that uses banana as a baton. The event started with a simple aerobic dance lead by the committee members. Apparently, participants had to face different obstacles during the 5km run. There were different prizes for both males and females categories. The champion won RM200, 1st runner-up grabbed RM150 and RM100 for 2nd runner-up whereas certificates are given to the winners as well as the rest of the participants. The run came to an end at 10.30am.

Aerobic dance lead by the committee members.

A group picture taken with all the participants.

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Sehari Bersama 2015 By Naviin Balasubramaniam (Petroleum Engineering, 2nd Year/1st Semester)

Sehari Bersama 2015

By Naviin Balasubramaniam (Petroleum Engineering, 2^nd Year/1^st Semester)

Undercroft, 8^th & 9^th August 2015- Sehari Bersama is a two-day educational seminar organised annually by the Sekretariat Rakan Muda (SRM) of Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP) for primary school students who will be sitting for Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) examination soon. The main objective of this program is to educate students by enhancing their understanding on subjects especially Bahasa Melayu, English, Mathematics and Science, also to train them to answer past year examination questions, meanwhile having them entertained with lots of fun-filled activities. Approximately 150 students from three different schools, namely SK Tronoh, SK Seri Tronoh and SK Seri Perdana actively participated in the subject slots, games and educational quizzes conducted by the facilitators throughout the seminar. All the facilitators were specially trained by school teachers prior to the event in order for them to be aware of the school syllabus and are well informed on significant elements that should be given priorities during UPSR examination for all the four subjects. The highlight of the program was a motivational talk by Nur Sakinah Ahmad Rosli, the Deputy President of Student Representative Council, Universiti Teknologi Petronas (SRCUTP) on the second day. Last but not least, the Project Director, Mohamad Hakimi bin Haris Fadilah (Electrical and Electronics Engineering, 2^nd year/1^st semester) expressed his gratitude to the committee members for their endless efforts that made this program a successful one and hopes to have bigger achievement in coming years.   

Students were divided into groups accompanied by facilitators.

Photo credits: Dharmika Mardhene (Petroleum Geoscience, 2^nd year/ 1^st semester)

Emcee of the seminar conducting ice breaking session with the students.

Photo credits: Dharmika Mardhene (Petroleum Geoscience, 2^nd year/ 1^st semester)

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THE DENIAL OF DEATH

THE DENIAL OF DEATH

Alan Harrington said “Death has become an imposition on the human race and is no longer acceptable." 

 The topic of death seems obvious and unappealing in the same time .Some people say that death is an important design meant to get rid of the old in order to make room for the new that may have been a stepping stone, a necessary rehearsal, and a way of spreading the diversity of informations through genes. But what if we were able to create new rules, what if we master biotechnology, we create software that write its own hardware, we start to change the rules of life, death will no longer be necessary, we could create a world without loss, without those encounter with grieves. That may sound like a sort of manic fantasy. But that is the reason why we write poetry and build cathedrals to try to create transcendence as topographical statement. That why we eternalize beautiful moments, make gorgeous status and write amazing songs, we long to eternalize ourselves. We want to say, as Alain de Button said, we want to carve our names, we want to say “I was here, I exist, I felt something and I matter”.

I think man has a mind that soars out to speculate about atoms and infinity, who can place himself imaginatively at a point in space and contemplate bemusedly his own planet. This immense expansion, this dexterity, this ethereality, this self-consciousness gives to man literally the status of a small legend in nature...Yet, at the same time... man is a worm and food for worms.

Socrates said “an unexamined life is not worth living”. The question here is not only how are going to deal with death but also with the expansion of life. We all at some point or many of us at least went through an existential crisis of our own, we thought about death and our first reaction about is upsetting. I am a miserable speck of dust in a large universe, I am culturally constructed meat poppet marching to the beat of somebody else s drums.  I think there is a relationship between the amount of death anxiety or death panic and the degree of unlived life inside of us. If you have sense that you have not lived your life to fullest, there is a terror of dying before you have really lived. Luxury to procrastinate is our darkest secret. “Everything has been figured out, only how to live?”, so perhaps the better question is not what to do with death but what do with life? Why if we can enjoy life to the fullness like no other organism do we often fall to achieve that? Life exist in individual moments and it is up to us to make sure those moments are vital, interconnected and beautiful, that our process of living of contributing to the collective experience of life is embracing, nurturing and meaningful, to create a masterpiece out of life, a life we are willing to repeat if we had to live again and again for all of eternity, this is what we can strive for. I did not came here by my own and will not go by my own, so who ever brought me here, I am thankful to him. I think we only realise the meaning of life only when it has left us, it is not a question of meaning, it is a question of fullness or emptiness, so my dear be brave enough to look into the deep dark truth of yourself and bring it to the light.

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Technopreneurship in Malaysia By Nesha Priya

Technopreneurship in Malaysia

By Nesha Priya

Digital Malaysia Masterplan, is a plan mapped out by our government to accelerate the economic growth by inciting innovation. One of the schemes under this plan is to create more technopreneurs from the millennial generation and plenty of funding have been allocated to make it work. Technopreneurs, in case you’re wondering, run businesses (start-ups) by applying technology and innovation as the business’ core operating model. (Think Groupon).

Start-up owners generate their income by offering people better technology than what is already available. The issue faced by Malaysians is that we have plenty of resources but they are paired with poor service and management. For example, taxi dispatch services in Malaysia are inefficient despite having a large number of taxis. To improve things, MyTeksi's founder simply developed an app to create a platform that facilitates booking and dispatch services and ended up making a whole lot of money. Anyone could've thought of that right? The trick is to be ahead of others. 

Why is the government willing spend almost a hundred million ringgit on Gen Yers who are said to lack commitment? (Putting all political agendas aside) In Malaysia, technoenterprises are represented by ICT and multimedia SMEs that employ 56 per cent of the nation’s workforce and generate 32 per cent of the nation’s GDP. This means start-ups do not only accelerate our economic growth but also lower the employability rate. 

 Want to be your own boss and have always wanted to execute a kickass idea? Technopreneurship is the thing for you. Want to work at your own pace and place? Start-up employers emphasize on the quality of the work rather than the amount of time spent on it so it is feasible to have a flexible working schedule. Also, hierarchy is cast aside when it comes to brainstorming in most start-ups so employees can directly discuss their ideas and opinions with the CEOs, which isn’t hard to see why start-ups rev up innovation.

The best time to initiate your business is probably now, when you’re still an undergraduate student. Liabilities increases as you start working. This is the perfect time to experiment, expand your business network (University mates are more often than not supportive of their peers) and fail, terribly. If you succeed, great but if you don’t, it becomes an experience. Not to forget the free consultation you get from the lecturers that will cost a bomb once you leave University.

A financial expert once quoted “With technopreneurship, the world is the market. You just cannot go wrong”. So what are you waiting for?

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M2STTG’s Raya Fest 2015 (By Sharvnee Raja Mohan, Petroleum Geoscience 1st /1st)

M2STTG’s Raya Fest 2015

(By Sharvnee Raja Mohan, Petroleum Geoscience 1^st /1^st)

Tronoh, 1^st August 2015-Students from UTP organized M2STTG’s Raya Fest which was led by Norliana Mahmud, 3^rd year Petroleum Geoscience student.  This event started at 8.30pm at Kampung Titi. A total of 37 committees were involved in this event with an objective to tighten the relationship between them and the villagers. Besides sharing the happiness of Raya with them, UTP volunteers also wanted to foster a closer relationship among the community outside UTP. According to the Project Director of M2STTG’s Raya Fest, all the villagers and the committees gave full cooperation throughout the event. She further added that the villagers, committees of M2STTG and representatives from Pertubuhan Gerakan 4B(M) Cawangan Parit 8 Sepakat worked together to make this event a successful one. On the other hand, the person in charge from the village, Kak Zila said Raya Fest got a positive feedback from the villagers and they wanted more events like this near future. 

Committees of Raya Fest 2015

Committees preparing food for Raya Fest lunch and dinner

 M2STTG’s committees with the VIPs present

                                            

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