By Irdina Hani and Muammar Hadi
GOMBAK, 17 November 2022: 60 students from five different secondary schools successfully launched their rockets in conjunction with rocket 3D printing workshop on 13 November 2022 (Sunday) at the marching field of IIUM Gombak campus.
In an interview with IIUMtoday, the chairman of the workshop, Dr. Nur Azam Abdullah, is hopeful for more future programmes using a total of RM 10,656 financial support from the Malaysian National Commission for UNESCO Grant 2022.
“This programme is not just to cater to students outside the university, but to develop our students’ soft skills in managing events that we couldnt develop during the pandemic,” Dr. Nur Azam said.
The chairman explained the way students organised the programme showed their decision making abilities, particularly when they changed the venue for the rocket launch due to weather conditions.
Dr. Nur Azam also showed plans of future collaborations through a memorandum of understanding with Pejabat Pendidikan Daerah (PPD) Gombak that is still in the pipeline.
“We should do more collaborations with schools so the students outside will get more exposure to this kind of activities,” the program director, Sr. Najihah Binti Abd Razak, said.
Sr. Najihah proudly explained the success of the programme through the numbers of the participants and feedbacks received from them.
“The program went well and I hope it will continue in the next semester,” she concluded.
The workshop promoted 2 important sustainable development goals (SDG) namely ‘quality education’ and ‘industry, innovation and infrastructure’.
All students who joined the workshop were given a chance to design and print their rocket prototypes using 3D printer and received a certificate from the Ministry of Education (MOE)
The program was participated by 60 students from five different schools which included Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Sungai Pusu, Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Kepong, Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Gombak, SMK Darul Ehsan and Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Islam Al Amin Gombak.
The workshop was organised by Mechanical Engineering Students’ Association (MECSA), Engineering Students’ Society 2021/2022 (Enginius XXVII) in collaboration with Ibnu Firnaz Aero Modelling Club (AMC) IIUM and is sponsored by the National Commission for UNESCO Malaysia (SKUM)-SKUM Contribution Grant (GSS). The workshop was also co-organised by Majlis Belia Malaysia (MBM), Kelab Remaja Udara Malaysia (KRUM) and High Energy Material Research Lab (HEMREL). ***