Initiatives Bringing Drones to the Classroom. It’s more than a hobby
When everyone was busy stocking up groceries, sanitizers and face masks on their household, a researcher from Sports Innovation & Technology Centre, Dr. Jaysuman Pusppanathan thought what can be done during this pandemic COVID-19. With schools closed, parents were busy occupying their children with numerous kind of activities, just so they can have a peace of mind while working at home too, a skill yet to be mastered by all parents.
Drone Edu Challenge IR 4.0 was introduced as a program to make secondary school students understand and learn how to fly a drone by participating in series of webinars, quizzes and programming tasks as final assessment. A total number of 2,888 students registered, an overwhelming response throughout the nation.
To understand more on Drone Technology, participants were required to watched videos on various topics recorded by UTM experts such as Components of Drone, 4th Industrial Revolution, Internet of Things and future of STEM in Malaysia. They were then required to answer quizzes based on the topics and 30 best students were selected as final, each has to complete drone programming and fly their own drone, for free! Registered students were also eligible to stand a chance to win Lego Mindstorm, three sets of drones, tickets to Vrinity and MyHeroBadges from MDEC during #mydigitalmaker fair.
As the program director for Drone Edu Challenge IR 4.0 itself, Dr. Jaysuman believes drone technology should be introduced as early as possible to younger generation as the world is evolving rapidly towards new technology and development in this 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR).
This program received full support from the Ministry of Education as well as Iskandar Investment Berhad as their main sponsors. Other than that, Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation Sdn Bhd (MDEC), Vrinity Medini, Centre for Engineering Education (CEE), School of Education, UTM, OFO Tech Sdn. Bhd., Archidrone Sdn. Bhd., Kelab Remaja Udara Malaysia (KRUM) and Malaysia Unmanned Drones Activist Society (MUDAS) also contributed as strategic partners.
“Drone technology should be introduced as early as possible to younger generation as the world is evolving rapidly towards new technology and development in this 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR).”
