By Zareef Muzammil
SHAH ALAM, March 26 — Universiti Selangor (Unisel) through its Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) squad has bagged two gold awards through the Asia Youth Innovation Award category during the 2021 Malaysia Technology Expo (MTE).
The team led by Dr Hazeep Hazwan Azman also won the Special Award from the Chinese Association of Invention and Innovation in the inaugural expo, which ran virtually from March 22 until today.
Unisel corporate communication director Hasril Abu Hassan said the kits that won the gold were the STEM Microworld Kit and STEM Plant Biotechnology produced by the innovative squad as teaching materials in STEM education.
“It has added value to the existing STEM Query Module and can even be used in the STEM 2020/2021 mentor-mentee programme which received a grant funding injection from the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry (Mosti),” Hasril said in a statement.
The winning by STEM Unisel this time was similar to the previous MTE win last year although in a different category. The team that started participating in the innovation competition in 2018 and had also won the Special Award: Most Innovative Project (MTE 2018) and got a gold medal during MTE in 2019.
Dr Hazeeq Hazwan said the online competition this time posed a big challenge for them especially in terms of preparation as the lecturers and students had to communicate online while having to deliver the module materials using postal delivery due to the movement control order (MCO).
However, he said the team members had shown great commitment and managed to defend their straight records since 2018.
“The victory in this international innovation competition signifies Unisel’s excellence in the field of research especially in the area of national STEM education,” he said.
The Unisel delegation comprised 12 students and 15 lecturers from the Centre for Foundation and General Studies, Faculty of Engineering and Life Science, Faculty of Health Sciences, Faculty of Communication, Visual Arts and Computing as well as the Faculty of Business and Accounting.
