ASTI’s Collaborative Projects

Kids Carnival 2013 was organized by Balsans Events & Productions to develop a sense of inter-religious understanding and harmonious friendship amongst young children.

The details of the event are as below:

Date : 9th November 2013
Day : Saturday
Time : 10 am – 5 pm
Venue : SJK(C) St. Teresa, Brickfields
(behind La Salle Brickfields)

During this carnival ASTI sent the winners of the National Science Fair for Young Children 2013 and the winners of Young Inventors Challenge 2013 to exhibit their winning entries to the kids and the general public. The ASTI President Dr Mohamed Yunus Yasin was one of the Guest of Honor for the event.

ATY Group is an established youth training centre in Asia and is one of the most respected ones in Vietnam. As an effort to cultivate leadership qualities among the younger generation, ATY together with ASTI collaborated for the first time to share their expertise and training experience by organizing People and Leadership Workshop (PaL) in Malaysia.

The initiative marked a pilot programme for ASTI called the “ASTI Edu-tour” designed to inculcate leadership and learning by bringing young people to different locations across the country. A group of 20 youths from Vietnam arrived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to attend the “ASTI Edu-tour” from the 15th to 23rd of July 2014.

ASTI believes that this programme can be a good platform for the young leaders to develop their leadership capabilities, which will help them be an influential and effective leader within their own community and nation.

The Science Film Festival is a celebration of science communication in Southeast Asia, South Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America: In cooperation with local partners it promotes science literacy and facilitates awareness of contemporary scientific, technological and environmental issues through international films with accompanying educational activities. The Science Film Festival presents scientific issues accessibly and entertainingly to a broad audience and demonstrates that science can be fun. The event has grown considerably since its first edition in 2005, becoming the largest event of its kind worldwide.

The 14th edition of the Science Film Festival explores on the theme of Net Zero and the Circular Economy, highlighting the need for climate action and sustainable development. Organized by the Goethe-Institut with support from various partners, including the Ministry of Education Malaysia, government agencies, universities, and film communities, this year’s event runs from 1 October to 20 December 2024.

During the festival period, the films selected by the Malaysian juries are made available on VIMEO for free which can be accessed by schools and the public, along with a range of online and physical activities coordinated by the local partners. In consistent with the institute’s Borneo focus, after the festival opened last year in Kuching (Sarawak), this year the festival will open in Kota Kinabalu (Sabah) in collaboration with Kota Kinabalu International Film Festival (KKIFF) and Society of Performing Arts Kota Kinabalu Sabah (SPArkS), hosted by Kinabalu International School (KIS) on the 07 November 2024.

2016

ASTI proud to collaborate with Petrosains Sdn Bhd on International Science Drama Competition. The International Science Drama Competition is an annual event that allows students to promote science through drama. This is a competition involving teams from primary schools in Singapore, Malaysia and overseas, as well as teams from the public in our brand new Open Category.

We are happy to inform you that our young Malaysian team that is comprised of students from SJKT Taman Permata in Dengkil and SJKT Teluk Merbau in Sungai Pelek has did the nation proud by winning the second prize in the overseas category in Singapore last weekend.

In the overseas category, Laoshan Xioawan Primary School of Qingdao, China, won first place and the Raya School from Manila, the Philippines, came in third.

Vishalan Kumaran from SJKT Teluk Merbau who played Tim, the male lead in the 7-minute skit titled Angkasa Space Food Kids Detective walked away with the Overall Best Performer title.

Their achievement has gained the attention from the Deputy Minister of Education and Higher Learning II YB Dato’ P. Kamalanathan who congratulated the students on his social media accounts yesterday.

2017

The International Science Drama Competition is organised annually by Petrosains in Malaysia. SK Bandar Baru Bangi won the second place in the primary school category at International Science Drama Competition held at Science Centre Singapore. Two actresses from SK Bandar Baru Bangi, Cahaya Kaseh and Lyra Kosai also jointly won the Outstanding Performers award. SK Bandar Baru Bangi was one of the top 10 favourite teams selected out of 20 entries and they eventually emerged as winners in the Malaysian Finals that was held on 13th May 2017. ASTI, as one of the partners, helped in the judging panel and also to reach out to schools.

2018

The International Science Drama Competition (ISDC) is an annual competition aimed to promote science through drama, allowing participants to showcase their scientific knowledge with dramatic flair. The competition involves primary school teams from Malaysia, Singapore and the Asia Pacific region as well as teams from the public. This year the theme was
Science of Sports in conjunction with the various global sporting events held this year. Being the main partners for ISDC 2018, Association of Science, Technology and Innovation (ASTI), as well as KDU University College and freeschool. my(BAC) were invited as judges for both primary school category and open category. Grand Finals was held at the KDU University College, Utropolis Glenmarie on 14th July 2018. Representative from ASTI was invited for the prize giving ceremony. This year, SJK(T) Masai won the competition.

We are proud to be a partner NGO with PETROSAINS on Petrosains Science Festival 2016 from 13th – 18th September 2016. The theme for this year was “Discover, Create and Innovate.” Three teams that participated in Science Fair for Young Children 2016 were given an opportunity to put up exhibition booths to showcase their science discoveries.

The 3 schools that were at this year’s Petrosains Science Festival were SJK (T) Ladang Bee Yong, SJK (T) Mentakab, and SJK (T) Sungai Ara. These schools put up their exhibition booths on the 16th September 2016 from 12.30 – 2.30pm.

ASTI was given a workshop slot during the event. On 13th September 2016, Ms Noorul Huda binti Abdul Jabar, on behalf on ASTI did the workshop titled “Igniting Your 5 Senses” which is a module from Creative and Critical Thinking Camp.

A special Khazanah Tea Talk was organised by ASTI on 17th November 2017 from 3.30pm till 5.30pm at Khazanah Resource Centre. A 2017 documentary film titled Chasing Coral was screened. It’s a film about a team of divers, photographers and scientists who went on a thrilling ocean adventure to discover and to reveal the underwater mystery to the world.

The film was directed by Jeff Orlowski and produced by Larissa Rhodes. This Exposure Labs production took more than three years to shoot and is a result of five hundred plus hours spent underwater, submissions of footage from volunteers from 30 countries, and also the support from more than 500 people from various locations around the world. The film was recently screened at the Science Film Festival in Sri Lanka.

The Science Film Festival is organised by the global non-profit cultural organisation, Goethe-Institute. Association of Science, Technology and Innovation (ASTI) is a partner in Malaysia and it is also one of the civil society partner organisations (CSPO) of Yayasan Hasanah. Programme Manager of Reef Check Malaysia (a CSPO of Yayasan Hasanah), Edmund Lau Chai Ming was at the Tea Talk who spoke that evening and answered some questions about coral reef conservation after the film screening

ASTI was invited to participate in SEADSTEM workshop. SEAMEO (Southeast Asian Ministry of Education Organization) and the Goethe-Institut joined forces in order to establish a regional platform that aims at the development of digital literacy and educational media in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) in Southeast Asia.

The platform titled SEADSTEM – Southeast Asian Digital STEM Platform aims at fostering project oriented thinking among educators for the creative use of digital resources in education environments, at teaching media competence and enabling the exchange of experiences for ICT within the sphere of STEM education.

In collaboration with the SEAMEO, the Goethe- Institut invited experts from seven countries from South East Asia for a workshop for the development of the South East Asian Digital STEM Platform (SEADSTEM). These countries have developed and advocated for STEM education in their respective countries. Experts from Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Phillipines, Thailand and Vietnam took part in the first ever workshop held from 14th – 16th March 2018 in Bangkok.

ASTI collaborated with ScopeIT Education in conducting coding trial class in 2 Tamil schools in Malaysia. ScopeIT Education is a leading digital technologies educator, based in Australia, delivering lessons to more than 14,000 primary school students per week in hundreds of primary and early secondary schools across Australia. The company also operates in Malaysia. The coding trial classes were held at SJK(T) Salak Tinggi and SJK(T) Taman Permata on 20 April 2018. A total of 30 students and 3 teachers from SJK(T) Salak Tinggi
participated in the coding trial. Meanwhile 25 students and 10 teachers attended the coding trial class held at SJK(T) Taman Permata. This class allowed students to explore and enhance understanding of technology and guided them towards creation.

2018

ASTI collaborated with Rimba Project from University of Malaya for a project named City Nature Challenge (CNC). CNC is an international initiative for people to find and document plants and wildlife in cities across the globe. City Nature Challenge (CNC) is a mobile app-based competition where cities around the world compete to see who can make the most observation of nature, who can find the most species, and who can engage the most people. The Mobile-App is called iNaturalist and developed in the US.

CNC is a global challenge with 68 cities participating across the globe. This year Klang Valley, Malaysia is the only Southeast Asian urban metro that had participated in the CNC. Since ASTI is an association related to science, technology and innovation, ASTI gave its full support to University of Malaya to organize this program. The energy and enthusiasm for the City Nature Challenge was amazing, especially from Klang Valley which appeared as the top five in the world (4th place: with 25,287 observations) and top in Asia for observation. Four out of the top 5 observers in the world were from the Klang Valley as well. Another achievement of the Klang Valley team was that it added the largest number of new species to their region in iNaturalist through the City Nature Challenge with 1392 new species.

ASTI approached 38 schools, of which 14 schools participated in the workshop held in Rimba Ilmu Botanic Garden, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur on 25th April 2018. In this workshop, the Founder and Project Officer of Rimba Project, Mr. Benjamin Ong, gave a full briefing of the competition with a demo on how to participate in this competition. The same schools took part in this competition which was held from 27th until 30th April 2018 with certain terms and conditions. The award ceremony was held on 6th June 2018 at University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur.

2019

“The Rimba project” is organized by University Malaya. This year, ASTI has collaborated with the Rimba project for the second year. This initiative was strengthened with a MoU signed last year between two parties on the 16th of April 2018 at Rimba Ilmu Botanical Garden, University of Malaya for a project named City Nature Challenge (CNC). CNC is an international initiative for people to find and document plants and wildlife in cities across the globe. City Nature Challenge (CNC) is a mobile app-based competition where cities around the world compete to see who can make the most observation of nature, who can find the most species, and who can engage the most people. The Mobile-App is called iNaturalist and developed in the US. CNC is a global challenge with 68 cities participating across the globe.

This year, the Klang Valley, Malaysia is the only Southeast Asian urban metro that has participated in the CNC. It was really encouraging for the students who were interested in science and nature. Knowing what species exist in our cities and where they are, helps us to conserve and protect them. As we are one of the association related to science, technology and innovation,

ASTI has given its full support for University of Malaya to organize this programme. For this year’s City Nature Challenge, a total of 35,126 people took part across 159 cities, making a total of 963,773 observations and 31,892 species all mobilizing their residents and visitors to go out and find and document their local nature. Out of the species recorded, more than a thousand species are rare or endangered species.

ASTI’s role in this collaboration with the Rimba Project were as follows: to initiate invitations to primary and secondary schools within Klang Valley (within the municipality of DBKL, MP Klang, MP Kajang, MP Subang Jaya, MB Petaling Jaya, MP Selayang, MB Shah Alam, MP Ampang Jaya, Perbadanan Putrajaya, MD Sepang). ASTI approached 22 schools, of which 9 schools participated in the workshop held in Rimba Ilmu Botanic Garden, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur on 17th and 25th April 2019. In this workshop, the Project Manager of the Rimba Project, Mr. Tan Kai Ren gave a full briefing of the competition with a demo on how to participate in this competition. The same schools have taken part in this competition which was held from 26th until 29th April 2019 with certain bounds of terms and conditions.

Dr. Mohamed Yunus Yasin, the President of ASTI and an advisor of Politeknik Ungku Omar met with representatives from Politeknik Ungku Omar for potential collaborations for 2019 at ASTI office.

2019

In 2019, we were approached by Kolej Tingkatan Enam Zainul Abidin, KTEZA to develop a special programme related to entrepreneurship for the Form 6 colleges in Pulau Pinang. Hence ASTI developed this special programme, YOUTHBIZ STARZ, with the name given by the KTEZA team.

Youthbiz Starz Workshop was held on 10th July 2019 at DISTED College, Pulau Pinang. The workshop started at 8.30 a.m. with the arrival and registration of the participants.
This was followed by breakfast. A total of 16 teams of 5 students in each team registered for the workshop. After the registration and breakfast, the workshop session started. The
workshop was conducted by Dr. Mohamed Yunus Yasin and Mr. Mohamad Hakeem Satya.The teams were trained on how to develop their innovative ideas and designs into a
business plan. Skills that were introduced included things like identification of needs, basic financial planning, building an investor’s presentation, understanding “value propositions”, developing marketing strategy, developing competitive strategic planning and so on.

Youthbiz Starz Competition was held on 24th August 2019 at Kolej Tingkatan Enam Haji Zainul Abidin, Pulau Pinang. The competition started with the arrival and registration
of the participants. This was followed by breakfast and compilations of the students’ presentations. A total of 80 students from 16 teams took part in the competition. The teams were divided into 3 groups and were assigned different classrooms each to present their business pitch to the judges. The judges were also divided into 3 groups to judge the
business pitch. The business pitch started at 9.00 a.m. and ended around 11.00 a.m. The best two teams from each group were selected to pitch their invention again at the final to determine the top 3 places.

2022

Together with Kolej Tingkatan Enam Haji Zainul Abidin, ASTI organised the Young Entrepreneurs (AYE) competition for the second time after a successful event the year before.
As an entrepreneurs competition, AYE seeks to increase the awareness and knowledge of entrepreneurship through virtual training and a business plan competition. All schools in Penang that offer Form-6 or STPM were invited to participate in the competition. A total of 10 schools participated by submitting their business plan and presenting their business ideas. Overall, the judges gave positive feedback on the quality of entries.

2023

ASTI worked with Kolej Tingkatan Enam Haji Zainul Abidin again this year to be part of the Young Entrepreneurs competition for its third consecutive year. ASTI was responsible for overseeing the judging process. The AYE, an entrepreneur competition aims to enhance entrepreneurship awareness and knowledge through virtual training and a business plan competition. The invitations were extended to all Form-6 or STPM offering schools in Penang. A total of 11 schools participated in the competition by submitting their business plans and showcasing their business ideas. In general, the judges gave positive feedback regarding the quality of submissions.

In an effort to cultivate knowledge exchange among the Tamil Nadu’s younger generation as well as exposing the students to Malaysian culture, ASTI organized and completed “Know Malaysia Education Exchange Programme” for students from Tamil Nadu to share its Culture and Language knowledge exchange between both counties. As such, a group of youths from India accompanied by their teachers and a representative from the Ministry of Education, Tamil Nadu arrived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to participate in “Know Malaysia Education Programme” from 5th to 14th May 2019. This programme was conducted with the request from the government of Tamil Nadu.

The target group for the pilot programme was students from Tamil Nadu who were selected by the government of Tamil Nadu based on their talent and capabilities. Their age ranged from 16 to 18 years old. There was a total of 7 male and 18 female students accompanied by 2 teachers that took part in the tour.

As part of Entrepreneurship and Future of Education Think Tank initiative, Lehigh University and the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center hosted TheFuture.education Design Challenge to engage students in a call for open innovation and idea sharing around designing the future of inclusive entrepreneurial education. ASTI is also a proud partner of this initiative as its promoter.

This is an exciting opportunity to learn, get inspired, and create impact through open innovation and idea sharing. Through this event, the participants heard from inspirational speakers, develop their entrepreneurial mindset and skills through innovative workshops, receive mentorship and coaching, and connect with individuals around the world who are working to make a difference through education. There was a total of 22 Students from Malaysia registered and participated in this event.

Quest International University’s (QIU) Foundation in Science organized a 3 min Sci-Story competition in collaboration with National STEM Association. ASTI was the promotional partner. The programme was from the 11th December 2021 to 29th January 2022. The aim of this competition is to encourage school students (Form 4, Form 5 and Form 6) to challenge themselves to “speak” science in just 3 minutes. The competition comprises of three (3) rounds.

ROUND 1: On the 11th December 2021, there was a 3-hour coaching session (Masterclass) from experienced science communicators to all the participants. The speakers shared tips
and tricks to ace a successful presentation.

ROUND 2 : Participants are then required to send in a recording of themselves narrating their favourite science fact in 3-minutes; while avoiding the usage of science jargon/technical terms. The videos should be submitted to the organizer by 31st December 2021 via a link that would be provided on the 11th December 2021. Videos will be judged in terms timing, creativity, originality, and content accuracy. The 20 final contestants will be announced on 20th January 2022.

ROUND 3: During the final round of the competition, the 15 chosen finalists would present their “talk” in 3 minutes followed by 2 minutes of Q&A session from a panel of judges.
Students are allowed to use props or slides during the presentation. Hence, a total of 5 minutes will be allocated for each student. The evaluation criteria includes the content, creativity, confidence and clarity of the presentation. The winner will be announced at the end of the final round. Prize giving ceremony was online. All participants will be provided with a certificate of participation.

The Davidson Inventors Challenge (DIC) is a collaborative school outreach initiative between the University of Cambridge Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology (CEB) and the Association of Science Technology and Innovation (ASTI) in Malaysia. It is also heavily supported by the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE).

This competition is aimed at Year 11 and 12 students (UK schools only). Through a team project, students are required to use their STEM skills to research sustainable development goals, select a problem, and come up with a sustainable, innovative solution that would make a positive global impact.

DIC follows the similar implementation method of Young Inventors Challenge (YIC) in Malaysia. Participants will be required to address global challenges by using science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) skills to develop an innovation or invention. ASTI has been collaborating with Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge since 2021 for the project by providing trainings and modules.

YouTube Link of the Event:

2021-2022: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpqnRhVU43w

2023: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEyJHRExEa4

2024: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTJDJPouHoY

ASTI collaborated with various other organisations under ASTI’s Recovery Projects (ARP) to highlight innovative projects to help our students catch up on their learning
process during this difficult times. One such collaboration project was MATH MONDAYS with Akademi Harimau Asia (AHA) #AHAWORKSHOP.

The workshop was open for all lower secondary (Form 1 – Form 3) students! As a partner, ASTI helped to promote the workshop. The workshop was held on 12th June 2021 at 10.00am via Google Meet.

ASTI was a collaboration partner for the 9th International Conference on Science and Mathematics Education (CoSMEd). The Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization Regional Centre for Education in Science and Mathematics (SEAMEO RECSAM) in collaboration with education and non-education institutions conducted the 9th International Conference on Science and Mathematics Education (CoSMEd) 2021 on 8- 10 November 2021 as a virtual conference with the theme ‘Anchoring Science and Mathematics as Framework: Transdisciplinary Studies towards Sustainable Future In The New Normal’.

The Association of Science, Technology, and Innovation (ASTI), being the Malaysian Partner has officially launched Young Entrepreneurs Scheme (YES) Competition and Called for Registration and “Business Ideas” from PhD students and postdoctoral researchers from any university based in Malaysia on the 15 February 2021.

The Young Entrepreneurs Scheme (YES) is an innovative global competition developed to raise awareness among postgraduate students and postdoctoral researchers of how ideas
from science and engineering can be commercialised. This is the 25th year of the competition and in that time over 5,943 early career researchers have taken part. YES20 is organised in partnership with The University of Nottingham’s Haydn Green Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (HGI), the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK), Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst (SBC) and Syngenta. Through YES, the participants will be competing directly with other universities in the UK.

ASTI has offered scholarship for two teams (consisting of four or five members) to participate in this innovative competition taking place online from 10-12 March 2021. Finalists were given an opportunity to compete for a prize fund of £15k. ASTI has received a total of 5 business plan from various universities in Malaysia. Team AgriBio4Crops from University of Malaya and Team Tesmasoil from University of Nottingham Malaysia was shortlisted to compete directly with universities from UK. The two shortlisted teams from Malaysia participated in Plant, Microbial and Environment Workshop and competition on the 10-12 March.

Cuber Invent LabTM hosted a FREE WEBINAR on EDUCATION 4.0: Skills & Future Jobs for Teachers, Educators & Parents. ASTI was the promotional partner for this event. The Fourth Industrial Revolution has made it imperative that education systems adapt. At the same time, school closures caused by the COVID-19 crisis have further exposed the existing inadequacies of education systems around the world. Without action, the next generation will be unprepared for the needs of the future, creating risks for both productivity and social cohesion. The Education 4.0 initiative aims to better prepare the next generation of talent through primary and secondary education transformation.

The Webinar was conducted as per details below:
Date : 24th July 2021, Saturday
Time : 10.30-11.30am
Speaker : Ts Suresh (Cuberlab Advisor / UPNM Lecturer)

We invited secondary schools to join our pilot program of Picture News in Malaysia. Picture News is an award-winning educational program that promotes critical thinking and global awareness among students using global news events. Its resources are utilized by more than 5,000 schools in the U.K. A free one-year subscription was given to 10 secondary schools on the condition that they integrate Picture News into their classroom lessons and activities and provide us with feedback. Interested schools were invited to attend a training session on How to Use Picture News Resources in their classroom teaching.

ASTI (Malaysia) supported HOPSTAIR (UK) in piloting an innovative app that is pioneering a brand new way to tackle a critical but neglected root factor for good mental health and success – building self-confidence. ASTI assisted in finding interested individuals to pilot the HopStair app for free to help HopStair understand what they can do better on their path to build a platform that is highly engaging and effective. Participants were offered six (6) months’ worth of free access to the app after the pilot.

ASTI in collaboration with Benefit Prep (M) Sdn Bhd Executive Director Benjamin Eqbal, offered coaching sessions to twenty (20) selected teachers to empower, enhance and elevate their teaching skills. Each teacher received 5-10 one-hour sessions with the Master Trainer.