The Role Of Engineering In Society
Engineering plays a core role in everyday life. When we think about technology, we conjure up images of advanced robotics, flying drones, AI and the exploration into profound scientific experiments. All of these are possible because engineering is the means for scientific principles to come to life. Going beyond the role of developing products, manufacturing materials and building construction, engineering also plays a key role in the direction of a country’s economic development as well.
ASEAN is one of the strongest emerging regions in the world with the average GDP growth of 6.5% for numerous members including Vietnam, Cambodia, Philippines and Myanmar. With the shifting of manufacturing into ASEAN and the regional needs to develop and upgrade their infrastructures, engineers are going to be one of the key people needed to solve the issues in society. However, one of the difficulties that the region is facing is the decreasing interest in engineering by students. This could have large implications for the region and will cause a large demand for engineers in the near future. One of the reasons why engineering could be of dwindling interest is because the way engineering is being pitched and taught isn’t conducive. It does not show how imaginative engineering can be and how it can bring dreams to life. To tackle this issue, we interviewed Abdul Hakim Sahidi from Leave a Nest Malaysia, Darween Reza Sabri from My Conceptual Robotics Sdn Bhd (MyCRO) and Zamisyak Oby from CV Indobot to understand how they are making a difference in engineering education in ASEAN.
People With The Passion To Make A Difference
Leave a Nest is a science bridge communicator company with the mission to “Advance science and technology for global happiness”. One of the key activities that Leave a Nest Malaysia does is to promote NEST education where they bring the fun of learning Engineering, Science and Technology to the students. MyCRO (My Conceptual Robotics Sdn Bhd) is a next-generation prototyping company. They offer full service hardware prototyping based on their customer’s needs and requirements. MyCRO’s vision is to be a “Pioneer of technology to drive innovation”. CV Indobot is a robotics and coding education company with the focus on programming electronic devices. They provide educational electronics engineering for vocational high school and college and use the online platform to deliver their education content. CV Indobot’s vision is to be “The number one education platform for engineering in the world”.
When the partnership was analysing the engineering scene in ASEAN, they realised that it is key to begin sharing the passion about engineering to the younger generation. This will give students enough time to develop an appreciation for the engineering field and pivot their educational choices towards it. If the partnership were to target students just entering university, many of the students would have already made up their mind to study other specialisation and it would be too late. In all of these, Leave a Nest Malaysia, MyCRO and CV Indobot each brings a unique skill set and expertise to educate secondary school students engineering principles and the enjoyable prospects of it. After studying different pedagogies and methodologies, all three companies had realised that the path forward is to develop a 2-day hands-on workshop that will immerse students into the fun and exciting world of engineering.
Makerthon – Planting Engineering Seeds Into Students
Makerthon is a 2-day experiential workshop with the aim to educate participants in different engineering disciplines and apply them for a fun internal competition. Some of the skills that the participants will learn from this workshop includes: Programming, Advanced Prototyping with 3D-printing and laser cutting, Internet of things and the Operation of a robot. Each member of the partnership will play a different role in the workshop. Leave a Nest Malaysia will be teaching the engineering concepts and its importance, MyCRO will teach 3D designing and CV Indobot will teach programming. Together, they believe that participants will learn to be passionate about engineering, learn new skills and meet new friends.
What makes Makerthon stand out from other similar events is it’s desire to nurture participants to be passionate about engineering by understanding the importance of engineering itself. In Makerthon, participants will focus on functional hardware prototyping – designing, building and coding their robot from scratch. There will also be a pitching session at the end of the workshop.
Join the Platform – Enriching the next generation
Leave a Nest, MyCRO and CV Indobot aim to bring innovation into engineering education in ASEAN and share the real wonders of engineering through their programs. With this collaboration, they hope to make a dynamic shift in the engineering trajectory in ASEAN and help local ASEAN countries to grow and accelerate over the next few decades. To further advance their mission, the support of the local government and corporations will be of paramount importance for them to deliver their initiative to a wider audience. For government officials, corporations and schools who are interested to partner up with this platform, kindly contact Leave a Nest Malaysia through the e-mail: info-asia@lnest.jp
Source: https://nestgarage.com/reimagineering-engineering-education-in-asean/
