Oil and Gas Competition and Exhibition (OGCE) 2015 By: Vishnu Rao (Chemical Engineering 2nd Year/ 2nd Semester)

Oil and Gas Competition and Exhibition (OGCE) 2015

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

UTP, 3^rd-5^th November – The 2015 edition of Oil and Gas Competition and Exhibition (OGCE) took place in the middle of the first week of November lasting two days. Delegates from all over Malaysia and the world came to UTP to participate in OGCE. The theme for this year’s OGCE is ‘Enhancing Future Energy’.

Some of the highlights of the first day included the inaugural of National Oil Rig Competition (NORC) which involved delegates from secondary schools in Malaysia, Paper Contest Final Presentation and SCOMI Mud Laboratory Session. For NORC, the delegates were required to build a model of an oil rig which was judged by adjudicators in a presentation in Chancellor Hall. The models were then tested in the only Offshore Tank Simulation Facility in UTP. A separate group of delegates were taken to Multipurpose Hall (MPH) to sit for the Smart Quiz Assessment.  The Paper Contest involved delegates presenting the findings of their research papers to a panel of judges while the SCOMI Mud Lab Session involved delegates preparing mud used in oil rigs, the result of which would be presented the following day.

The officiating ceremony of OGCE 2015 was held in the afternoon and was immediately followed by the NORC awards ceremony. The results of NORC saw SMJK Chung Ling, Pulau Pinang claim the place of champions. The day concluded with the Networking Night held during dinnertime. This provided a platform for the delegates to socialize and get to know one another better.

Baker Hughes PetroQuiz took place the next day. After four rounds of intense competition, the delegates from Palawan State University (PSU), Philippines triumphed over Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). The UTP-EP team managed to snatch third place from Universitas Pembangunan National ‘Veteran’ (UPN) A team. The SCOMI Mud Presentation took place simultaneously where the delegates presented the results of their lab session to a panel of adjudicators. Shell and PETRONAS held a career workshop before an internship sharing session by Halliburton. The afternoon saw the coming together of guests from four major Oil and Gas companies such as PETRONAS, Halliburton, Baker Hughes and UMW Oil and Gas for the Professional International Forum held in Chancellor Hall.

The day was capped off with a Gala Dinner & Awards Ceremony in WEIL Hotel, Ipoh. The delegates and VIPs were treated to good food and great performances. The awards for the winners of the competitions over the last two days were also presented. All in all OGCE 2015 was a resounding success.

Full List of Winners

NORC

Champion – SMJK Chung Ling, Pulau Pinang

1^st Runner Up  – SMJK Chung Ling, Pulau Pinang

2^nd Runner Up – SMK Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Kuala Lumpur

Paper Contest Final Presentation

Champion – Ricki Aditiya Fandi, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia

1^st Runner Up  – Muhammad Ghifari Ridwan, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia

2^nd Runner Up – Tamil Alagan, Universiti Teknologi Petronas, Malaysia

SCOMI Mud Innovation Challenge

Champion – Curtin University Sarawak, Malaysia

1^st Runner Up – Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia

2^nd Runner Up – Universitas Pembangunan Nasional ‘Veteran’ Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Baker Hughes PetroQuiz

Champion – Society of Petroleum Engineers-Palawan State University Student Chapter, Palawan                             State University, Phillippines

1^st Runner Up – UTM-2, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia

2nd Runner Up – Expecto-Petroleum, Universiti Teknologi Petronas, Malaysia

Participants of the National Oil Rig Competition from SMJK Ave Maria Convent, Ipoh

The advisor presenting token of appreciation to the representative from Halliburton

Participants of Baker Hughes PetroQuiz competition

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UTP GENESYS by Mohamed Yeslem Abbad, Mechanical Engineering, 2nd, 2nd.

UTP GENESYS

by Mohamed Yeslem Abbad, Mechanical Engineering, 2^nd, 2^nd.

       Every semester we hear complaints about the bad state of the internet connection that has been provided to the students in their hostels. Students have struggled to register their courses on the PRISM portal and they have to deal with a list of online technical problems.

       However, we might be on the way to experience less of those discontent-inducing occurrences. Highlight to the previous statement that has happened during this semester; a tremendous improvement of internet transferring speed in campus. And if things go accordingly to the plans of public management, we will not have to face either internet problems or any technical difficulties again. 

       All thanks to “UTP-genesys” which was officially launched by our chancellor YABhg Tun Dr Mahathir during his latest public lecture last August, and there was a stand inside the IRC. “UTP-genesys is an IT transformation initiative aimed at improving staffs and students experience. This a 3 phase program spanning across 5 years and we are currently at phase 1. Phase1’s main focus is on you, our students. 2016 would be an exciting year, bringing you to faster internet on campus, Wi-Fi in your residential villages, we’re also replacing prism with a world class system (campus management system used by top 100 universities in the world), access your student portal via your smartphone and tablet With the new student portal, tired of long queues when paying your fees (ohh..yessss), with the new student portal you can pay your fees online.

Excited yet? Because we are. More information on program genesis is coming your way! For enquiries email us on: UTPProgGeneSys@petronas.com.my”

       As an official description of the initiative, a video was made and can be viewed on the Student Support Services Department’s Facebook page with more details. According to official sources, the project will revolve with the change of UTP’s core Student Information System, which manages all information and activity of a student’s life in campus; from graduation to an alumnus. 

      Other projects were included such as a new library and content management system along with a campus-wide upgrade of the network and wireless infrastructure. UTP-genesys seeks to solve some really serious problems, ones that really ought to be solved. Therefore, we all cross fingers for its successful implementation and that we finally get a decent IT services deemed worthy of the image UTP is trying to reflect.

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A Chance to Give Back By Afiq Shahril

A Chance to Give Back 

By Afiq Shahril 

       In this modern era, we live a very privileged life. We have sufficient food supply and comfortable shelter. Not to forget, we are very fortunate to live in a peaceful country. Every morning, we are not awakened by bomb explosions or gun shots. That should be fortunate enough, I guess. As students, we are now not only learning the academic aspects but every single aspect of life. Life is not always about getting good grades but it is also about how we treat others. Every single one of us is developing into a better person and what would be a better way to do so than to start giving to those who need?

       Though most of us live under a decent shelter and eat good food, there are still others who struggle 24/7 just to have a bowl of rice. These people have never tasted the richness of good food or the comfort of sleeping on a bed. It would mean the world for them to just have a full stomach before going to sleep at night. So the question is, do we oversee this or should we do something? Indeed, this is the chance for us to give back to the community. Some of us might question whether we have the capability to solve this unfortunate issue considering that we are only students. Well, we can at least participate in the charity events.

       

       Lucky for us because Universiti Teknologi Petronas is one of the many universities that has always reached for the needy. We have numerous programs and events that involves charity as one of the main purposes. Therefore, it is only good for us to start participating and do our parts. The Student Representative Council of Universiti Teknologi Petronas (SRCUTP) has quite a number of charity events yearly. Titian Kasih and The Kasih Project are one of the few events that is held annually by SRCUTP to help the underprivileged villagers living nearby Tronoh. Residential College Support Unit (RCSU) does not miss the chance to help the poor. RCSU organizes Residential College Mesra Outreach or better known as RECMO annually. Meanwhile, there are also events that helps students from rural areas in improving their education. Cybergen, organized by the Media and Technology Club (MEDTECH) holds the objective to expose students with technology while Sehari Bersama organized by Sekreteriat Rakan Muda (SRM) is one of a few initiatives to help the Ujian Penilaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) candidates to prepare themselves for UPSR. So, why not use these channels as an opportunity to give back to the community? We will be able to explore life more by joining these events rather than lingering  in our rooms catching the sunset.  

       Joining these events will definitely create delightful and memorable moments based on my experience. These events would help us to build sense a of gratitude which can be hard to find these days. We might not be able to improve everyone’s life but our good deeds will never be overlooked. Our efforts will definitely restore faith in humanity as we can see a lot of cruelty going on. The little help we contribute now could affect the world tremendously in the future. In a nutshell, we can never walk in others’ shoes but we can always walk with them. 

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ConvoFest - 2015 By Imaiccarani Manaharan ( ICT 2nd year 1st semester)

ConvoFest - 2015

By Imaiccarani Manaharan ( ICT 2^nd year 1^st semester)

Village 4 Car park, 23^rd October 2015 – Morning 8 o’clock the vendors have started to set-up their business stall at their respective tents. At 9 o’clock games and exhibitions started. The Convofest crew was busy preparing the things.

There was a blood donation and health check center going on at Village 4 foyer. The officiating ceremony was started at 3 o’clock. Convofest was officiated by Dato Dr Muhammad Amin Bin Zakaria the State Committee Chairman for Education, Science, Environment and Green Technology. At night, there was a talk by Ustaz Azhar Idrus. The talk was started at 8.30pm and ended at 10.30pm.

On 24^th October 2015, there was an aerobic session done by Isa Jomfit in the morning. The national nasyid festival started sharp at 2.30 p.m. The preliminary round of that nashid festival was from 2.30 pm to 6.00 pm and the grand finale started at 9.00 pm. The whole festival was ended at 11.00 pm. The students were very excited during the festival.

On the third day of Convofest, there was a coloring competition for the kids started at 8.30 in the morning. The competition had finish around 12 o’clock in the afternoon. The winners of coloring competition got their prices from a Spongebob mascot. English JER! slot was from 2.00pm to 4.00 pm. For the closing ceremony there was a concert by Warner Music. The concert started at 8.30pm. 

A participant is taking picture with Spongbob mascot. 

Hamper is being given out to the Festival Nasyid contestant

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Lantern Fest By Proshini Nadesan, (Petroleum Geoscience 3rd Year 2nd Semester)

Lantern Fest

 By Proshini Nadesan, (Petroleum Geoscience  3^rd Year 2^nd Semester)

More than 200 people released Chinese lanterns into the sky Saturday night, lighting up the whole Oval Park for The Lantern Fest, an event organized by Chess Club. Nirosha, Foundation July Intake said she and her friends were very excited to create magical moments as it was their first time participating in a Lantern Fest.

However, the Saturday night’s weather was unforgiving when it started raining around 9pm, delaying the lantern releasing and canceling few other activities that was planned to keep the crowd entertained. Noor Ameera, The Project Manager said, if it rained heavily, the Lantern Fest was to be postponed to the next day and the other plan was to just give the participants their lanterns on Monday. There was 3 food truck serving western food and drinks around the Oval Park’s parking lot.

Despite the excitement of participants, safety and environmental concerns surrounded the event and the organizers assigned their members to follow the glowing lights and collect the debris. “There were possibilities for the lantern to get stuck on trees and start a fire. That is why we have fire extinguishers surrounding the parameter” Muhammad Azim Azrai, Head of Department for logistic said. There was also concern by the locals nearby about possibilities that the motorist on road near the launch site maybe be distracted by the sight of rising lanterns. Fortunately, there were no traffic problems and no fire reported.

The First Lantern to be released

                                          Foundation Student’s releasing their first lantern

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ConvoRun-2015 By Suhail Mohammed Gubari, 2nd Sem/2nd Year, PE

ConvoRun-2015

By Suhail Mohammed Gubari, 2^nd Sem/2^nd Year, PE

Chancellor Complex, 17^th October, 2015 – In conjunction with the prestigious 15th Anniversary of UTP Convocation, many participants joined one of the biggest charity run in UTP supported by YAYASAN UTP. Datuk Rahim, the Vice Chancellor and Dato' Shahrul, Perak Exco for Youth & Sports were among the early participants.

Over 350 participants came to join this charity run. Organizations like Kelab Kecergasan- Fitness Club, an external club also joined the run. The registration fees which include the T-shirt, medals, certificates, drinks and vouchers were sponsored by McDonald and IM4U association. The registration started at 7:00 am and followed by a warming up session at 7:45 AM. There were 2 categories of participants; those in blue T-shirt participated in 5 km run while those in black T-shirt ran for 10 km. "I was so tired but I was excited to finish the race" said one of the 10 km participants. 

After all the participants reinstated, the run was closed by lucky draw among the participants. Later on, everyone gathered for a picture to celebrate their achievements. "Some participants mentioned that this is their first time to be in UTP and it was a wonderful experience. “ The committee did a great job indeed to make this ConvoRun successful”, said Sugentther Chanthra, Project Manager ConvoRUN 2015.

Datuk Rahim, Vice Chancellor and Dato' Shahrul, Perak Exco for Youth & Sports with other participants.

Lucky Draw session

Group Photo with all the participants 

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“BossBabe Makeup Workshop”-2015, (Myat Thiri San, CE 2nd year, 2nd semester).

“BossBabe Makeup Workshop” (Myat Thiri San, CE 2^nd year, 2^nd semester).

Undercroft, 10^th October, 2015-“A private makeup party where girls can learn how to do makeup and be confident.” featuring  Titi Athirah who is a renowned Makeup artist under Bossbabe Makeup. This was the very first ever makeup class in UTP which was held under Convofest UTP 2015, mainly sponsored by L’OREAL, CarloRino, Restoran Rizqullah and other sponsors were Urban Decay, Shikin Saerah, AYNE and Pakar Cheese Leleh. The whole event’s main theme was black, thus everyone must wear black.

Around 88 enthusiastic female participants came over to attend this event. Registration started at 9:00AM.  After registration, ceremony started at 10:00 AM and speech was given by Pn Maznah Ramly, Senior Executive, Student Support Services Dept. After that, Titi Athirah gave a speech and make up demo. This was not a formal event, everyone went around, enjoyed and learned. The lucky person was able to go up on the stage and be a model for makeup tutorial for “everyday look”.  All the lucky draw prizes were famous cosmetic brands such as “Urban Decay powder foundation”, “lipsticks”, “L’OREAL mascaras” and so on. Others won the respective prizes too. After the lucky draw section, there was activities and games session too. Foundation makeup, powder and lipsticks were given on each table and the papers of the girl’s face sketch were given to each of them. Everyone had to paint on the paper nicely and submit it within 20 mins. The best artists were given prizes. There was another activity “selfie contest” where students must take selfies and post on instagram with hashtags. All the prizes of games and selfie contests were given before the end of the session. Photography session and video sessions were taken after the ceremony. Breakfast and lunch for the whole event was sponsored by Restoran Rizqullah.

This “makeup party” can enhance your basic makeup skills that every girl should know. “Makeup can make you confident and glorious”. The event was successful and every student who attended this event was satisfied and knew how to do the basic makeup at the end of the event. “Be bossbabe and be confident”. 

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UTP Table Tennis Challenge By: Nesha Priya Arasu (Chemical Engineering 1st Year/2nd Semester)

UTP Table Tennis Challenge

By: Nesha Priya Arasu (Chemical Engineering 1^st Year/2nd  Semester)

Block B, 10^th October 2015- UTP Table Tennis Challenge, an event for table tennis enthusiasts to spark their talent and passion in sports was held from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.  The event organized by UTP Table Tennis Club for the second time is fully sponsored by the Co-curriculum (Co-Q) unit. This event aligns with UTP's aim to create a conducive environment to produce well-rounded students by organizing non-academic related activities. It also encourages the community to eliminate the differences between races and culture and tighten the bond between people with different cultures in conjunction with One Malaysia concept. Yeoh Jhin Xern, the Project Director extended his appreciation to the Co-Q unit for their unwavering support towards this event. He also thanked the participants for displaying good sportsmanship throughout the event as well as his dedicated committees for their excellent commitment. Needless to say, all those who participated in this event had a great time.

The list of winners are as follows:

Mixed Doubles Category :-

Champion : Muhammad Atif Bin Baharuddin & Sharifah Nurfarhana Binti Syed Mansor

First Runner-up : Ken Irok Sendal & Ee Ming Sun

Men's Doubles Category :-

Champion : Wong Dai Le & Lau Jia Shen

First Runner-up : Muhammad Arif Bin Nasrudin & Mohammad Ashraf Bin Salehuddin

Second Runner-up : Muhammad Hakim Bin Mat Tasir & Muhammad A'izuddin Bin Nizan

Women's Single Category :-

Champion : Nur Fazlin Binti Rahim

First Runner-up : Hany Liyana Binti Mohammad Masri

Second Runner-up : Nur Atikah Binti Yusa

Men's Single Category :-

Champion : Wong Dai Le

First Runner-up : Ahmad Imtiyaz

Second Runner-up : Lau Jia Shen

Men’s Singles Match

                                           Registration committee                                       

Tired but happy faces.

Men’s Doubles Match

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Minggu Mesra Kampus Sept 15 By: Vishnu Rao (Chemical Engineering 2nd Year/ 2nd Semester) Kalai Varma (Mechanical Engineering 2nd Year/ 2nd Semester)

Minggu Mesra Kampus Sept 15

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

Kalai Varma (Mechanical Engineering 2^nd Year/ 2^nd Semester)

Pocket D, 29^th September – The September 15 edition of Minggu Mesra Kampus was held as usual in the second week of September semester from Tuesday to Thursday. Held in Pocket D, the event was a showcase allowing many student bodies, organizations and student interest groups as well as events that are held in Universiti Teknologi Petronas an opportunity to attract members and participants.

  It all started the night beforehand as clubs gathered in order to set up their booths in preparation for the next day. Things started as early as 9a.m. the next morning as various clubs and organizations began to open their booths. Some of the many booths open for students were the Rotaract Club of UTP, SPE, AAPG, IChemE, Wushu club and Aiesec. The student bodies of UTP such as the Student Representative Council(SRC) and Rakan Masjid also opened up their respective booths. Some booths set up games such as the Chess Club. They had rapid chess games in order to attract members. One of the most attractive booths opened during MMK was undoubtedly the one by Virtuoso. They allowed visitors to play the instruments that were on display as well as to perform.

The third and final day of MMK coincided with Go Halliburton which was organized by SPE UTP in conjunction with Halliburton in order to educate students about career pathways and choices in Halliburton. They held technical talks on the Oil and Gas industry in Lecture Theatre D5 and D6 as well as an exhibition in Pocket D foyer throughout the day. Representatives from Halliburton were brought in to demonstrate some of the displays during the exhibition as well as to deliver their talks. A lucky draw was held for those who attended the technical talks. MMK September 15 wrapped up at 5p.m. on Thursday and will return once more on January 2016.

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Making Different Friends: Putting Timidity Aside By Dario Jose Manuel Garrine ( Petroleum Engineering, 2nd Year/2nd Semester)

Making Different Friends: Putting Timidity Aside

By  Dario Jose Manuel Garrine ( Petroleum Engineering, 2^nd Year/2^nd Semester)

I recall talking to a good friend of mine few weeks ago about social life in UTP and suddenly hearing him saying: “whenever I find somebody whom I don’t know and that person greets me, I know immediately that he is a newcomer”. Sadly I had to agree with that statement to some degree. It seems that the first days in UTP are the most social for most of the students. As time passes, UTPians tend to give up on making new friends and start giving in to timidity. We decide to get attached only to that small group of friends from our own country, state, home-town or even race. All the aspiration of having many friends from different background and learning many things through those friendships is then quenched by the idea that we are safe when we have friends from similar background as us. However, we fail to realize that embracing that philosophy might be the closing of a gate that could lead us to a better perception of life and other things. Furthermore, having friends from different background can teach us how to deal with differences, help us getting more interpersonal skills and influence us to dream higher.

It’s no news that interpersonal skills play an important role in our lives and carriers, but did we know friendship can be the key to good interpersonal skills? I mean the right type of friendship. The type of friendship that places a challenge before us forcing us to learn how to hear and evaluate new ideas, how to organize our ideas and speak clearly in a way that everyone understands, how to reject and have our own ideas rejected and even how to lead, as in those situations where we give our friends some ideas and they look back at us and say “okay, you show us”. Yet we see many people taking online courses to acquire skills that can easily be learned without much effort in their daily lives, by making different friends.

Friends from different backgrounds inevitably learn to deal with differences. They learn to quickly recognize boundaries and respect them. Hence, by the time our university years come to an end we already know a bit of many kinds of people and are aware of their sensitive areas. For example if we have a very feminist friend in university, when we meet another outside the campus we will recognize them more quickly and know immediately how we should and should not address certain issues.  In this sense, having friends very different from us makes us wiser in dealing with others similar to them.

Another great advantage of having friends from different backgrounds is that they can influence us to dream higher. That can happen through conversations in which you get to know about different opportunities that only those friends know about. It can be a job opportunity that offers a salary that you never thought of, or it can just be a simple business idea that you think you could have good chances to implement. Moreover, it’s important to bear in mind that your university friend today will be professional worker tomorrow and their collaboration can be very important to you in the future. “Life is box full of surprises”.

Why then do we choose to give in to timidity and close ourselves from making new different friends and even influence newcomers into the same path? Isn’t it because of fear and emotional laziness? Fear because all that is new and different to us raises the question of whether it will work or not and when we realize the only way to know it is by trying we then give up because we are afraid to fail. And emotional laziness because we know building friendship with people from different background from ours inevitably brings us many challenges due to our cultural differences and we are lazy to deal with all those emotion that might come along with the challenges. Nevertheless, overcoming this fear and emotional laziness can render us many advantages.

Life has a lot to teach us and the best way it does so is by others. It is time for UTPians to realize that socializing more and having more friends who are different from them (either in ethnic group, state or country) is the best for them and even safest, considering the era of globalization in which we live today. So, why should we not put timidity aside and allow ourselves to have exciting experiences? Why not making new and different friends and getting the best from our university years?

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Painful Pleasure

Painful Pleasure

Humans are fragile and tend to crack when we faced difficulties at times. It’s in our nature that we choose a path that strays away from pain. But pain isn't necessarily bad at all times. Pain is just a feeling that we, humans experience, both emotionally and physically. Truth be told, pain and pleasure have a very close relationship. If you want to taste the sweet nectar from the bees' hive, you must endure the sting from an army of bees. Pain will lead you to pleasure if you are willing to work for it, change for the betterment and get up each time you fall.

To master pain, sometimes you need to apply the art of 'i-don’t-care'. How do you think those Shaolin monks are able to withstand all those inhumane pressure on their body? They channel all the pain from the source to the 'i-don’t-care'-care' area. Genuine grandmasters call this phenomenon as finding your inner peace or master your senses. It's possible to apply it and you will gain a temporary time of trance. The art of 'i-don’t-care' is basically ignoring your dilemmas and have time for yourself. So, you can do whatever you like, to get out of pain and let time or luck to solve the problems for you because ignorance is bliss. It can be useful at times and save one's life. Imagine you are on the edge of a building's top platform. You had just being dumped by your loved ones or you had a really rough day. Before you take another step to hell, use the art of 'i-don't-care'. Say to yourself, “I don't care about her anymore. I got a four legged bitch to worry about. I don't need a two legged bitch." All the shoulds, coulds or woulds will not matter anymore. Salvage what you can and move on with your life.

To cope with pain, sometimes you need to surrender yourself to it. The journey is rough and you will face ups and downs but the ending will be worthy. This defensive mechanism has been going around for ages. Mammoths have thick fur to survive in the cold, chameleons change their skin's color to the surrounding. Adapt yourself is always great when you are stuck in a foreign situation. You can't change the game but you can change how you play it. If you have being stung by bees a thousand times, what could a stung or two do to you? That's how adaption works. You trained yourself harshly or learn from experience to tread softly in the future. As your plate mail grows stronger and harder, you will only feel a tickle when an arrow hit you in the chest. Adaption isn't easy and it takes some time. Patience will get you there.

Some people pray when they are in deep trouble asking for mercy or some miracles to happen. Some take pills to ease their mind. Others might eat down their troubles to their stomach or smoke some pipe. There are thousands of ways to get pain out of your system. Unethical, unorthodox ways will make you a freak to society. Hence, control your addiction and keep reminding yourself that you are stronger than you look. Break some rules but not the law and have fun for once in your miserable day. Those people who seem joyful even though they are actually poor and sad, they are the real MVP. It’s all about the little stuff which everyone likes. How often do you get a free meal because a waitress messes up your order? How often do you get to skip classes, not knowing that there are actually no classes going on that day? Call it God’s work, fate, destiny or luck, I called it a sign. A triangle will bring up the Pyramid of Giza or the Illuminating, as for me, the first thing I will think of is the Pythagoras Theorem because that’s how deep I am into engineering.

 

I trust in the signs that keep on happening to me. Failure to being accepted into an organization or clubs isn’t that bad for me since I do not know those clubs will actually need me to work my ass off. Forgetting to bring my wallet which save me from food poisoning. The Internet being down which signals me to study for finals, so I can focus on my revision without much distraction. These are some signs which I believe in.

Everything that’s happening around you is all for a reason. Look it up and if you believe in it or the cause of it, pain will always be a pleasure to you.

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Make the Change

Make the Change

Learning and curiosity has been the pulse of all humans that push us to understand our surroundings. However the meaning of education has been warped the past few decades.

There is no denying that many of us, have an agenda about education that we may even call it a ‘personal conflict’. We all thoroughly understand that we have to ace grades to be on top and at the end secure a job for our future. But somehow many of us do feel that in the end, going through the learning process does ware us mentally, whether it’s during high school or college.

The constant pressure of keeping up with assignments and quizzes and test, just pushes most of us to just make it, and many students even at a very young age just desperately want to leave school once they get into it.

We all suffocate our self into memorising facts that will be tested for exams only and ignore the rest that of the information. Familiar with the words ‘What‘s coming out for exam teacher‘? In this process many students fall sick and for serious cases have mental breakdown, and later forget what they had learned the very second after writing the exam.

What had happened? Why the torture and torment?

First, let’s start off with how did this particular educating system popped up. How and why did everyone consider that lots of technical teaching and test will determine if you were smart? Well according to TED talk winner of 2013, he mentioned that the current educating system came about during the reign of the last greatest empires on earth , the British empire. The empire need to run smoothly, as it was a huge empire. The most effective way was to pass information and data were through ships. He puts this in an interesting way by saying that this giant system was like a machine that was made up of humans, called the bureaucratic administrative machine. Now the machine, as we all know will wear out , so to have its ‘parts ‘ fixed. The “part” that was to fit in this machine had to be exactly identical with the one before. Hence schools were created to create many identical copies of people, so that this system will continue to run smoothly and instantly functional, even if the new recruit came from far ends of the world .The empire is now gone , but we still choose to hold on to such obsolete way of learning.

This way of learning deprives students of the actual joy and thrill of learning. But when we do ask ourselves, ‘Well is there any other way of learning?’

We can’t think of any. However Education researcher , Sugata Mitra made an astounding research about the way we see education. His famous experiment called Hole in the Wall, is where he places a computer in a very rural village where none had ever seen a computer, and then leaves the children with the computer for several months. He found that this children figured out many things about the system and structure of the computer and even its internet wonders.

He has gone far and deep in his research, by going further in placing a computer in another part of India in a rural village and filling the computer with information of only the DNA replication in English. A language they did not understand. After coming back to the village in several months, the kids managed to figure out the processes of DNA all by themselves in a different language and were far ahead of their time. This is because genuine curiosity and verbal communication with all learning partners.

We can’t drastically change our education system, but it has been pretty clear that more cohesive involvement in learning should be practiced, rather than an ugly fight to race and be on top. Many students in Malaysia are used to memory based education and are not used to more hands on activity. Hands on activity are simulating, but we need to do them right. In UTP, having a lab for my Chemistry and Physics subjects were amazing. I personally liked holding the flasks and filling them with chemicals and usually fight to be the one filling up the flasks.

But all we do is actually, take orders from the instructors and be forced to finish the lab before the time is up and write a report on something we genuinely cannot understand. Then at the end of lab, you can ask all students of what they learnt, many can’t say much and will just briefly describe that they did in lab. It is pretty much a waste as students finish their lab work to make sure the marks are secured and nothing more.

I would really love to suggest that if it will be possible that one day, the lab instructors leave us with the necessary precautions and just guide us in our experiment finding, not to be desperate to fill up any tables or charts but to slowly understand the process and be allowed to go even further and adventurous if time permits. Students will actually have time to enjoy the playing out of their curiosity with the experiments they conduct with a much deeper understanding.

Other than the constant race to be on top, we also have strongly held to a flaw that kills the genius of all the young minds. The fear of losing and failing. It grips us all. We are all very familiar with the embarrassment of not getting good grades in class and have yourself being judged by other students and nosy parents. We have all heard Thomas Edison said” I haven’t failed. I just found ten thousand ways that won’t work’. We all get inspired by it for a moment.

But when reality hits, there is no time to take your own understanding and interest in the system, you have to catch up and force yourself to the top. We have all heard the devastating stories about young kids who commit suicide because they feel humiliated with their results which causes mental breakdown. We then have counsellors telling us that you have a lifetime to prove yourself and not to waste it by committing suicide is hilarious. These kids have their life intertwined in the system that just teaches them how to score a test and to figure out life by themselves. And the best advices from counsellors can say is to just ignore them?

In the end, we all must come to terms in creating a healthier environment for the development of true genius and creativity .We cannot continue a system that mostly causes stress and humiliation to all young learners .We need more researchers in the education department that will guide our nation to a better structure of education and not be afraid to take these steps.

I genuinely hope that this article could have ignited some spark to students to understand the true meaning of education, and to conduct their own research in the education system that we have and be bold to take a different paths of learning and embracing curiosity in their own terms for themselves or their future generation.

I leave a small challenge to all learners at heart that, you actually take some of your time to learn something that you have always wanted to learn and understand, because if you do, your natural tendency to figure things out will kick in and this time no matter how many times you fail, you and with all your natural animal instincts know that you will pursue and succeed.

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