YIC2013 Report A4.indd 1 1/7/2014 1:47:54 PM

Compiled by: Vanitha Vasu
YIC2013_Report_A4.indd 3 1/7/2014 1:48:10 PM
Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation
Ministry of Education
Four Fifty Movement
Creative Visual
Our Heartfelt Thanks!
Our Heartfelt Thanks! Working Group Committee of YIC
2013
Mr. Naidu Appanan Mr. Velu Perumal
Ms. Umahsankariah Muthunaikar Ms. Vanitha Vasu
Table of Content
Executive Summary 1
1.0 Introduction 2
3.0 Mode of Implementation 5
4.0 Training Workshop for YIC Participants 6
5.0 Event Day 9
5.2 Event Day Summary 13
5.3 Survey Evaluation 15
5.5 Public Relations 17
7.0 Volunteer Management 20
8.1 Funding 21
9.0 Recommendations 23
-Training Recommendations 23
Executive Summary
Young Inventors Challenge 2013 (YIC2013) competition is a pilot programme to encourage young people to think innovatively and become inventors. The project is designed for the students to use their scientific knowledge to produce something for the benefit of mankind. The theme chosen this year was “GREEN INVENTIONS: IDEAS ON SUSTAINABILITY”. A total of 12 teams from all over the country participated in this pilot project.
The project began with awareness raising for this programme via the Science Fair for Young Children’s zone level training and events. Students were encouraged to form teams of up to 5 young people and write a proposal for an invention of their own. They used the student manual developed by YIC working group as the template for the proposal. These proposals were vetted and 14 teams were invited for the training.
During the training, the young inventors were taken through the invention process and were introduced to the idea of sustainability and the importance of it. After the training, they were given a seed fund of RM300 each to develop their ideas. This seed fund exposed them to financial management as each team was required to submit their invention accounts as part of the project.
A separate independent video log competition was also held to help teams learn how to communicate their invention to the outside world. We were very impressed with the ability of the young students to rise to the challenge and produce their own edited videos.
The judging was done independently utilising a Judges Score Sheet(JSS), developed for the project, and the judges were trained on its use. The training was done in a participatory manner where judges concerns were taken into account when developing the final judging methodology in order to make the judging process more robust.
We were happy with the end result on the event day when the students were able to produce and present their inventions in a confident and clear manner to the judges and visitors. Funding organisations including the US Embassy, and the visitors expressed that the project had been successful in achieving its objectives as it had captured the interest of the various stakeholders .
As a whole, the project was a resounding success, with all the lessons learnt documented in detail in order for the project to be up-scaled effectively in the future.
Young Inventors Challenge 2013 REPORT1
Introduction1
Science Fair for Young Children, (SFYC) is a project designed for primary school students, and about 200,000 participants have taken part in this initiative since the first SFYC in 2007, both at the school, regional and national level. Those SFYC participants are now in secondary school and are collectively known as the Science Fair Alumni.
As a follow up to the SFYC, a competition at a more advanced level for the Alumni was proposed in the form of the Young Inventors Challenge (YIC), Which requires teams of up to 5 Alumni each to put their minds together and come up with an invention under the Young Inventors Challenge 2013 (YIC 2013) theme “GREEN INVENTIONS: IDEAS ON SUSTAINABILITY”. A total of 12 teams from all over the country participated in this pilot project, showcasing their green inventions.
Young Inventors Challenge 2013 REPORT 2
Aims & Objectives
Among the main aims and objectives of YIC are:
• To give an opportunity to young inventors to develop and showcase their inventions in the area of sustainability.
• To help young inventors to experience the inventive cycle, from conceptualisation to product/prototype.
• To introduce the concept of sustainability to the participants • To give opportunities to young adults who are inventive to promote
their ideas to the outside world.
By participating in YIC, it was hoped that the participants would:
• Produce an original invention and receive recognition for participating in the event.
• Develop creative and innovative thinking skills. • Develop teamwork dynamics to solve problems. • Use resources such as the internet and library to hone their research
skills. • Learn to document their invention project. • Enhance self-esteem. • Acquire public presentation and writing skills.
To achieve the above objectives it was realized that the participants need to be exposed to non-formal aspects of innovation as well, so a Video Log competition was proposed where participants are required to record their “invention journey” in a 5 minute video. This video would also be a ‘template’ to show future participants the journey taken by this year participants to take part in YIC 2013.
The target group for YIC consists of:
• Young people aged between 13 and 20 • SFYC Alumni
Preferred Output Preferred Outcome Understand the invention process Creation of a network of
young inventors (Ambassador Programme)
Creation of Inventors with their own IPs
Learn to communicate their invention process via video log
Young people with confidence to think/act “outside the box”
A platform for SFYC Alumni to keep in touch
A community of young thinkers who would benefit their community and nation
2.1 Target Group
Mode of Implementation
3
• Information flyers were distributed to the teachers during the Zone Level SFYC 2013 Teachers Training workshop and the teachers were briefed on YIC. We requested the teachers to promote YIC to their ex-students who had participated in the Science Fair in previous years.
• Interested students were required to form their teams with at least one Mentor, come up with a basic idea for their invention, and send ASTI a proposal of their idea. They were guided by a “Students Manual” that was prepared by the Working Group Committee.
• A total of 19 proposals were initially received, which was then shortlisted to14. All the 14 teams were invited to participate in an “invention” workshop session. The workshop was organized to guide the teams in their efforts and answer any questions they may have. After the workshop 12 teams proceeded on to a post- workshop.
• Post-workshop guidance by the Working Group Committee was via phone conversations and emails to resolve problems faced by the teams.
• The teams were then required to finalise their inventions and send in an Invention Report, which was forwarded to the judges for an early review of the inventions and also to grade the “invention report” which was part of the scoring system.
• The teams were also encouraged to send in their 5-minute video on their invention journey for the separate Video Log Competition, to be judged by a production expert from ASTRO and a design and multimedia expert. On the event day the teams who produced the top three winning videos were presented with cash prizes and certificates. The judging for the Video Log Competition was independent and did not have any bearing on the main YIC competition. A total of 12 video logs were received.
• On the event day the teams were required to exhibit their inventions, to be judged by the judging team. The top three winning teams were awarded a trophy, cash prizes and a certificate for each team member. The champions also received a revolving challenge trophy.
Training Workshop for YIC Participants
4
Date: 18 MAY 2013 (Saturday)
Venue: Dewan Kuliah C, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University Malaya
Training was conducted by: Dr. Mohamed Yunus Bin Mohamed Yasin Mr. Velu Perumal Mr. Naidu Appanan Mr. Anandan Shanmugam Ms. Vanitha Vasu Ms. Umahsankariah Muthunaikar Ms. Thinaheswary Gunashakaran
Participating Teams List 1. Beyond Science (Penang) 2. Kangar Pulai Young Scientist (Johor) 3. Alpha Innovation (Selangor) 4. Vivekananda (Selangor) 5. Albert Einstein (Selangor) 6. Green Inventions (Penang) 7. Seri Inventors (Penang) 8. Young Newtons (Johor) 9. The Salvagers (Negeri Sembilan) 10. Juven Science (Johor) 11. Garden Friend(Johor) 12. Green World Savers (Johor) 13. Elites From Science World (Johor)
Strength • The workshop was concluded on time • The organizing team was adequately prepared • Attendance was good with13 out of 14 teams attending • Timing of the training kept to the planned schedule of 9am to 4pm • The presentations received good feedback • University Malaya was found to be a suitable and strategic location
Weakness • There was surplus of food • The air condition was too cold • The lecture hall used was rather narrow and uncomfortable; a seminar room
would be more suitable for future workshops • The Workshop should be more activity based rather than lecture based. • Interactions among the participants was poor • The Survey Form for the effectiveness of the Workshop had to be sent to the
participants by email due to time constraints on the day.
Programme Flow Description
SWOT Analysis A swot analysis was conducted on the training. The results are as follows:-
Time Programme 9.00am to 9.50am Arrival, Registration and Breakfast 9.50am to 10.00am Introductory address by Dr. Mohamed Yunus Yasin
10.00am to 10.10am Welcome Speech by Dr. Mohana Dass Ramasamy
10.10am to 11.00am Presentation on ‘Understanding Design and its Creative Processes’ by Mr. Velu Perumal
11.00am to 11.45am Presentation on ‘Judging Criteria’ by Mr. Velu Perumal
11.45am to 12.30am Presentation on ‘Sustainability and the Environment’ by Dr. Mohamed Yunus Yasin
12.30pm to 1.00pm Question and Answer Session 1.00pm to 1.30pm Lunch
1.30pm to 1.50pm Presentation on ‘Better Proposal Writing’ by Mr. Anandan
1.50pm to 2.15pm Examples of ‘Innovation Project Case Studies’ by Mr. Anandan
2.15pm to 2.45pm Presentation on ‘Basics of Intellectual Property’ by Mr. Naidu
2.45pm to 4.00pm Presentation on ‘Flow of the Competition’ by Ms. Vanitha and Q & A with emphasis on how the teams can improve their inventions
4.00pm Signing of agreement on Seed Funding of RM300 per team and disbursement thereof
4.30pm Tea Break and programme conclusion
Opportunity • Ice breaking session to be held during breakfast time • Get more teams to participate next year
Threat • The participants’ understanding of what constitutes an invention and the
inventive process could be poor • The participants’ understanding of science was poor • The participants appear not to have read and/or understood the Students
Manual • Limited funding • For YIC event - getting the public to visit the event
• Preferable day for the YIC final: Saturday • Agreed date: 24th August 2013 (Saturday) • Agreed Time: 8.00am to 6.00pm • Check in: the Friday evening before the event day • Agreed venue: Kuala Lumpur
Discussion with the Participants
Event Day5 5.1 YIC Pilot Project Participants The details of the participating teams are listed below:
PENANG Beyond Science
SPILAGE OIL ABSORBER
JOHOR Kangkar Pulai Young Scientist
PLASTIC PILLOW/ SMART PILLOW
Suvaathy A/P Poongan Messhvina A/P Moorthy Sharankumar A/L Manisegaran Sajeeth A/L Revindran Mahaletchimy A/P Murugan
SELANGOR ALPHA INNOVATION
PORTABLE AIR FILTER
Thinnesh A/L Muniandy Subash Rau A/L Venkata Rao Naagavendhan A/L Raveendrakumar Muralidharan A/L Subramaniam Thiagu A/L Dewaras
SELANGOR VIVEKANANDA
GREEN GARDEN
SELANGOR ALBERT EINSTEIN
JOHOR YOUNG NEWTONS
SOLAR OVEN
Sashneeta A/P Subahar Meshelle William A/P Mickel Raj Darshan A/L Shankar Vithiya A/P Easwaran Ashwwarran A/L Suntharaju
NEGERI SEMBILAN THE SALVAGERS
Mohd Arsyad Bin Mohd Anipah Satyaseelan A/L Sivam
Rohind Raj A/L Veramani
Aravind A/L Selvam Thivanisan A/L Mahendran
Raxshanaa A/P Mohgan Juveeta A/P Nadarajan Juvenita A/P Nadarajan
JOHOR GARDEN FRIEND
4R AGRO POT
Jehgathisan A/L Sivakumaran
MAGAZINE BOOKSHELF (Multipurpose)
PENANG GREEN THINKERS
Sharran A/L Loganadza Yugeswaran A/L Puspanathan Yaesvini A/P Marimuthu Diviyaa Sri A/P Kalaimani Dhinisya A/P Kalaimani
JOHOR GREEN WORLD SAVERS
WASHING MACHINE WASTE PURIFICATOR
Hariharan A/L Surais Kumar Yamunan A/L Selvanathan Resmah A/P Gunasegaran Diven A/L Mohan Sudhasni A/P Kanivel Anantha
i
5.2 Event Day Summary
The YIC2013 started with the arrival, registration and checking-in of the participants on the eve of the event, 23 August 2013 (Friday), 7pm onwards at the event venue, Wisma Belia, Kuala Lumpur. After dinner, the participants adjourned to the event hall for a short briefing on the programme for the following day and a short presentation by Joota.
Joota is a Malaysian initiative that aims to build a web-based community, like Facebook, but content-orientated, based on subjects of mutual interests among users. Joota helps users build meaningful social networks around subjects of interest, so they can focus on what matters to them. Users can easily collect and socialize around images, videos, text and more. Joota is a tech start-up headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with a presence in Portland, Oregon, USA.
There was another briefing for those who arrived late and could not participate in the first session. After the session the participants adjourned to their rooms and the Event Committee continued with the preparations for the Event.
Next day, 24th August at 7am, all teams started setting up their booths. At 9am there was a short opening ceremony. Then the floor was officially handed over to the judging team.
The inventions were judged by a team of about 20 judges made up of university lecturers, engineers, environment consultants, intellectual property specialist, etc.
Following the judging the hall was opened for public viewing and at around 2.30pm our guest of honour YB Datuk Dr. Abu Bakar Bin Mohamad Diah, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) viewed the exhibits. Mr Arend Zwartjes, Cultural Affairs Officer from the Embassy of the United States of America, Datuk Tharumah Rajah, Managing Director, Asia/Africa of Hay Group and Ms Sujitra Jayaseelan, Head of Vijayaratnam Foundation were among the VIPs who also visited the event. After viewing the exhibits the guest of honour YB Datuk Dr Abu Bakar officiated the Prize Giving Ceremony and presented prizes to the winning teams. A trophy, cash prize and certificate were presented to each winning team member. The champions also received a revolving YIC Challenge Trophy. The Winners of the Video Log were also announced and presented with their prizes at this time.
Winners Of Young Inventors Challenge 2013
Champion team : GREEN WORLD SAVERS Invention title : WASHING MACHINE WATER PURIFICATOR State : JOHOR
1st Runner-Up team : GARDEN FRIEND Invention title : 4R AGRO POT State : JOHOR
2nd Runner-Up team : THE SALVAGERS Invention title : AUTOMATED WASTE SORTER State : NEGERI SEMBILAN
Winner Of Yic Video Log Competition 2013
Champion team : GREEN WORLD SAVERS Invention title : WASHING MACHINE WATER PURIFICATOR State : JOHOR
1st Runner-Up team : ALPHA INNOVATION Invention title : PORTABLE AIR FILTER State : SELANGOR
2nd Runner-Up team : GREEN THINKERS Invention title : S2YD AGRICAR State : PENANG
5.3 Survey Evaluation
A survey was conducted during the event targeting all the participants. An analysis of the survey feedback from the 53 members of the 12 participating teams is shown below:
Satisfaction Level of Participants on the Venue and Event Day
Based on Figure 1, the participants were not very satisfied with the venue and the surroundings because they felt the venue was not comfortable and suitable for the event. However, the participants were very satisfied with the registration counter, event agenda and facilitators. They commented that there were facilitators present at the registration counter all the time and all facilitators guided them well throughout the event.
Figure 2 shows the participants’ opinions on the Students Manual and Students Training Workshop. The participants were emailed the Students Manual after their teams were selected to participate in the YIC competition. 90.5% of the participants rated as good or very good when asked whether the manual was helpful to them to come up with their invention. The participants also showed a high level of satisfaction with the Training Workshop that was conducted for them on 18th May 2013.
Figure 1: Satisfaction Level of Participants on the Venue and Event Day
Figure 2: Participants Opinion on Students Manual and Training Workshop
V en
Lo ca
tio n
Su ita
bi lit
y
11
2 1 3 3 3 3 3 3 32 21 1 1
15
10 10
Participants’ Satisfaction with Invention and Video Log Competition
Participants’ Opinions on How Much YIC Helped Them to Gain: Certain Qualities
N um
43 45 48
solving skill
Report Writing
inventor
Figure 3: Participants’ satisfaction with Invention and Video Log Competition
Figure 4: Participants’ Opinions on How Much YIC Help Them to Gain Certain Qualities
Based on Figure 3, 92.5% of the participants were highly satisfied with the assistance given by the organizer and almost all of them felt YIC was a very useful programme for creating future inventors. They also mentioned that writing the Invention Report had made them understand the inventing process better. Besides that, the participants also rated as “good” or “very good” when asked whether the Video Log Competition had contributed towards their ability to communicate their invention to the judges and public.
Figure 4 shows how much the participants gained in terms of Self Confidence, Leadership Skills, Team Work, Presentation Skills, Report Writing Skills, Video Making Skills, Creative & Out of the Box Thinking and Problem Solving Skills by participating in the YIC competition. Between 56.0% to 90.5% rated that they had gained many of the said skills after participating in the competition.
Moreover, all the participants mentioned that they would like to participate in YIC 2014 and all of them were willing to promote YIC 2014 to their friends in order to increase the participation. Generally all the participants responded that YIC was a very good event.
Based on feedback from the Mentors to the teams, they are very interested to participate again as mentors for YIC 2014. They also requested for a Mentor Training Workshop for next year. Generally they also were very satisfied with the YIC event.
5.4 Video Log Competition
5.5 Public Relations
This was a non compulsory competition that was conducted independent of YIC. The participating teams were requested to come up with a 5 minute video documenting their 5 month inventing journey. Although they had only two weeks to submit their video, all the teams were able to submit their videos on time. All the videos were uploaded on YouTube and hyperlinked to the ASTI website.
A production team from ASTRO and a design and multimedia expert judged these videos and the best three video were selected to be given prizes of RM 500 for the Champion, RM 300 for the 1st Runner-Up and RM 200 for the 2nd Runner-Up.
The Young Inventors Challenge Competition was promoted during the Zone Level Science Fair Teacher Training in all the 9 zones. The teachers were given flyers containing information about the YIC Competition and were requested to promote it to the past participants of Science Fair for Young Children and also to the Alumni of Science Fair for Young Children.
Additionally, the event was also promoted to the general public during the National Science Fair for Young Children 2013 via flyers containing information on the YIC Final event.
ASTRO also played an effective role in promoting YIC by airing promotional videos on ASTRO Vaanavil during the week prior to the event. Dr. Mohamed Yunus Yasin and Mr. Anandan Shanmugam were also interviewed live on the ASTRO Vaanavil Vizhuthugal show.
During the YIC event day, ASTRO 360 covered the full event and there was a broadcast on ASTRO Vaanavil. All the winning teams, parents, mentors, and organizers were also interviewed by ASTRO 360.
6.1 Judges Selection
6.2 Judges Training
Information Flyers about Young Inventors Challenge (YIC) were distributed to the Zone Level Science Fair judges during the Zone Level Science Fair for Young Children 2013 and interested individuals were invited to send in their details to ASTI via email. A total of 17 professionals responded to be judges for YIC 2013.
A Judges Training Workshop was conducted on 3rd August 2013, Saturday, and all the 17 judges attended the training session. Upon their arrival, the judges were given a “welcome exercise” to straight away put them in an active mindset for the rest of the workshop. Then there was a small introduction session about ASTI and YIC by Dr. Mohamed Yunus Yasin followed by a presentation on “Definition of Invention” by Mr. Naidu Appanan. This session was to develop a common understanding amongst all the judges as to what constitutes an invention, so that judging would be carried out uniformly.
Mr. Naidu then explained in detail the judging parameters in the Judging Score Sheet (JSS) for evaluating the inventions. Next, Mr. Anandan Shanmugam briefed the judges on the event day judging processes. The Judges Training Workshop concluded with a Q & A session prior to lunch.
Judging6
6.3 Event Day Judging
• After breakfast, judges were quarantined in the judges room. The judging teams, Alpha and Beta, each judged 6 inventions, with each judging team being split (i.e. Alpha-1, Alpha-2 and Beta-1, Beta-2) for cross judging.
• The judging teams were then escorted
to the event hall, which was cleared of visitors for the judging to take place.
• Each judging team had an average of
15 minutes to judge each invention. For each judging team, time was kept by a facilitator from the Event Committee.
• Scores were entered into each judge’s
Judging Scoring Sheet (JSS) and had to be completed before moving to another team/booth.
• After the judging process was
competed the judges adjourned to the judges room.
• Each judge then signed his/her completed JSS and handed it over to Chief Judge, Mr. Ananthan Shanmugam, who countersigned the JSS as acknowledgement of receipt.
• The JSS were delivered to the Scoring
Team comprising Ms. Thinaheswary and Ms. Mahela Uthamasilan and supervised by Working Group Committee member, Mr. Naidu Appanan for tabulation of the scores.
• Final scores were presented by
the Scoring Team to Mr. Ananthan Shanmugam and Mr. Naidu Appanan, Working Group Committee members, for scrutiny, and arbitration as necessary.
• The final winners list was drawn up
including the pre-judged winners for the Video Log competition
Volunteer Management
7
ASTI strongly believes in developing its volunteers to be future leaders of society. During the Young Inventors Challenge 2013, ASTI formed an Event Committee comprising volunteers from various fields. The volunteers headed departments within the YIC Event Committee as per below:
There were three meeting held before the final event to discuss on the implementation process on the event day. Each Head of Department(HOD) was given the task of coming up with their job scope under the supervision of the YIC Working Group. During the event day another 10 volunteer facilitators attended the event to assist the HODs. All the volunteers were very helpful in making the event a success.
No Name Department
2 Ms.Vanitha Vasu Assistant Head of Event Committee
3 Ms.Thinaheswary Judging Department 4 Mr.Sivaraj Hall Management 5 Mr.Vikneswaran Hall Management 6 Mr.Jegatheswaran Crowd Management 7 Ms.Archana Stage & Prizes Management &Ushering 8 Ms.Noorul Huda Games & Quizzes 9 Mr.Thirunauarasan Media Management
10 Mr.Jayaseelan Food & Beverages 11 Mr.Sharvin Transportation 12 Mr.Ragavan Pandian Survey Department & Press Management 13 Mr. Nutanaya Sivaceyon Survey Department & Press Management 14 Mr.Puvaneswaran Registration and Accommodation
No. Sponsors Grant Allocation (RM)
*Pending Receivable (RM)
1 Embassy of the United States of America & Four Fifty Movement via Ms. Thinaheswary Gunashakaran
15,375.00 1,575.00
Operative Society Ltd 2,000.00 -
5 Mr. Anandan Shanmugam 1,200.00 1,200.00 6 Embassy of the United States of
America & Four Fifty Movement via Ms. Thinaheswary Gunashakaran
4,000.00 4,000.00
7 ASTI Seed Funding 1,000.00 8 Mr. Elenjelian Venugopal 500.00 500.00 9 Captain Surendran Menon 500.00 500.00
GRAND TOTAL (RM) 40,750.00 7,775.00
Funding and Budget
8 8.1 Funding
Young Inventors Challenge 2013 was funded by the Embassy of the United States of America, the Four Fifty Movement, the Hay Group, the Vijayaratnam Foundation and the National Land Finance Co Operative Society Ltd. They represent the main sponsors for this prestigious event. Besides that, a few targeted funders were approached through email and some funding was obtained from them. These funding organizations and the external funders are the backbone of the achievement and success of the event. The funds pledged and disbursed by our major sponsors and the external funders are shown below:
8.2 Account Statement of YIC 2013
Income 2013 (RM) % Embassy of the United States of America & Four Fifty Movement via Ms. Thinaheswary
13,800.00 40.31
Vijayratnam Foundation 6,175.00 18.04
2,000.00 5.84
YIC T-Shirt Selling 960.00 2.80
ASTI Seed Funding 1,000.00 2.92
Total Income 34,235.00 100.00 Less: Expenditure Open Category Manual 200.00 0.58 Judges Training 210.80 0.62 Students Training 2,820.00 8.24 Seed Funding for Participants 3,600.00 10.52 Venue 4,900.00 14.31 Exhibition Booth 3,900.00 11.39 Prizes and Souvenirs 8,955.00 26.16 Insurance 444.00 1.30 Accommodation 2,298.00 6.71 Meals 3,155.00 9.22 Audio/Visual Rental 2,650.00 7.74 Printing & Promotion 5359.50 15.66 YIC Report Proofreading 300.00 0.88 YIC Report Designing 400.00 1.17 Contingency 2,289.20 6.69 Total Expenditure 41,481.50 (121.19) Excess of (Expenditure)/Income (7246.50) (17.47)
Income and Expenditure account Total Income (as of 30th October 2013) : RM 34,235.00 Total Expenditure : RM 41,481.50 (Deficit)/Surplus : (RM 7,246.50)
Statement of income and expenditure account for the year ended 30 October 2013.
Note: • 46 unsold T-Shirt valued at RM1,334.00 to be used next year and for other ASTI events. • After receivable of the pending payment of RM 7775.00 the YIC account will show net
surplus of RM 528.50. • *As of today RM 5,575.00 of the pending receivable shown in the table on page 21 has
been received.
Recommendations for the Future
9.1 Training Recommendations
• Promotion of the Young Inventors Challenge should be enhanced so that the participation increases as well
• Survey Forms must be prepared earlier and the survey should be conducted on the day itself
• Participants prefer workshop sessions with a lot of hands-on activities
• Participants and the organizer suggested having workshops/training sessions in seminar rooms rather than auditoriums.
9.2 Event Committee Recommendations
• Multitasking by the Heads of Department should be avoided
• Event EMCEEs should be given tokens of appreciation after the event
• Rehearsal for the event should be compulsory
• PA system should be controlled by the Head of Department and not the vendor
• Must have written letter from top management for special requests
• Judging postmortem should be conducted on the day itself
9.3 Judges’ Recommendations
• Split the participation into 3 zones such as North Zone, Central Zone and South Zone.
• Provide courses to the participants to teach them about science and inventing in an innovative way.
• Provide enough support to teachers & teams to help overcome weaknesses and problems
• Enhance publicity on the event to attract more participation.
• Open the event to non-Indian participants to allow for more learning and exposure for Indian students.
• Have seminars and trainings in schools to improve awareness of inventing.
• Have workshops for mentors to enhance their effectiveness in guiding the young inventors.
• Expose the YIC participants to the next level of competition such as MTE or ITEX for more exposure to invention or innovation.
• Give young people a platform to present their skills and inventions.
• A standard report format should be given to the participants prior to the competition and it should be evaluated accordingly.
• ASTI should appoint a mentor for each team to guide them in creating their inventions.
• Proper definitions of Invention and Innovation should be given to the participants.
Strength
• Continuation from Science Fair and Opportunity for Past Participants of SFYC
• Innovative project-Not Done Elsewhere in Malaysia
• Good response from participants and parents
• Participants showed independence • Event Committee was well managed • Judges Training was conducted earlier • Proper documentation • Good selection of VVIP • Video Log Competition showed a lot of
promise and talent. • Students Training was effective • Managed to complete the pilot project
with limited funding • Good Working Group Committee • Event agenda was good/proper • Mentoring was helpful for the participants • Student Manual was helpful for the
participants • Parents involvement was very good • A group of under privileged participants
were able to compete and participate • Because it was team based, parents
were involved very much • Seed Funding for the participants • Participants learned to manage their
seed fund and show accounts
Weakness
• Judges have to be more carefully selected
• Judges need to be briefed on objectives and outcomes of the event
• Poor venue and accommodation • Publicity lacking • Lack of time for participants to come up
with their inventions • Unclear definition of invention and
innovation • Training-not enough group activities,
more on lectures. • Training venue-Auditorium style not
convenient • Lack of continuous mentoring due to
distance/logistics • Judges manual was not really used and
followed • Judges postmortem was not done on
the day itself • Judges consistency of judging process
may be an issue • Scoring methodology needs
improvement • Judges taking too long to judge • Too much focus on prizes • Not enough public participation • Some facilitators felt that they were not
appreciated and guided • Parents requesting for more seed
funding • Event Committee can be better
organized
Opportunity
• Becoming a bigger project next year, more participants and volunteers
• Interest for more funding • Potential follow-up on existing
participants to further develop their inventions
• Potential long term partnership with Joota On social media:
• To develop ambassador programme for the participants
• To develop better relationship with MOSTI
• Some judges showed interest to be in Working Group Committee
• To include other races to be participants in future YIC events
• Teams and Judges can be multiracial
Threat
• Event becomes too competitive and less on learning and participation
• Too much focus on competitiveness • Lessons learned from pilot not utilized for
next year • Too dependent on a few people-
process not in place and followed • School-based participation • Schools not supportive of the teams’
participation • Over emphasis on Science Fair mindset
by SFYC Alumni
Suggestions
• Produce check list and flow chart for YIC • Standardise 3-4 page report format (text) • Produce document for invention cycle/process for participants and judges • Make it clear that YIC is an educational project to all stake holders • Define properly innovation and invention • Reconsider the giving of seed funding to the participating teams • Next year keep the same theme as this year • Revise all the documents • Find out about other invention competitions and inform the participants (ITEX & MTE) • Follow-up on possibility of further develop selected inventions from • YIC 2013 for commercialization - develop a relationship with Captain Surendren’s
Koperasi • Develop the ambassador programme - first activity, help the teams participate in ITEX &
MTE • Develop TOR for next working group members
Conclusion10
In general the Young Inventors Challenge (YIC) 2013 was a successful pilot event. One of the successes was that the Working Group Committee exceeded its target of 10 participating teams for this pilot project, as 12 teams participated.
The aim to reach and inspire secondary school students to be inventive and to be involved in the inventing process seemed to bear fruit. The pilot groups were motivated to solve environmental problems by providing solutions via their inventions. Even though many of the inventions were actually innovation, their efforts are commendable.
It is hoped that future YIC events will increase the inventive skills of secondary school students and contribute towards our nation’s goal of becoming a knowledge base economy.
Association of Science, Technology & Innovation (ASTI) (PPP-012-10-25102012)
No 16A, Jalan 21/12, Sea Park 46300 Petaling jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan. Email : [email protected] Tel/Fax : 603-7877 8571 603-7865 5557 (9 am – 5 pm)
www.asti.org.my YIC2013_Report_A4.indd 34 1/7/2014 1:53:12 PM

Documents

YIC2013 Report A4.indd 1 1/7/2014 1:47:54 PM