On August 12th and 13th, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Swinburne Sarawak Student Branch organized the STEM Outreach Robotics Challenge in Swinburne Sarawak. The event supported the 2019 IEEE R10 Educational Activities, IEEE Sarawak Subsection and Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus. The initiative of this event is to encourage learning-by-doing experience as part of the effort to promote STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education in Sarawak.
The Robotics Challenge was a 2-day program with both training and challenges. It was open to the high school students from Form 1 to Form 3 across the Kuching, Kota Samarahan and Serian districts, and 56 students were in attendance. During the Robotics Challenge, students were challenged with designated problem-solving tasks in three different categories.
At the end of the event, all participants received a certificate of participation awarded by IEEE Sarawak Subsection and Swinburne Sarawak. Team 2 from Jalan Arang Secondary School won the 2019 Robotics Challenge Gold Award, and Silver Award went to Team 14 and Bronze Award was won by Team 9, both from Kuching High Secondary School.
A post-event survey was conducted. The survey findings indicated that all participants enjoy the event, acquire new robotics-related knowledge and wish to join a similar event in the future. Noel Brooklyn Tan from Kuching High Secondary School commented that “Nice food and enjoyed the activities much. Hope next time could have more new activities.”.
