Digi and Petrosains kickstarts Robotic Programme for PI1M

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Press Release
February 3, 2017
https://digi.com.my/media/articleURLhereWhichCanbeReallyLong

  • Expanding the role of PI1M as Agent of Change to transform the communities
  • Involving a minimum of 144 students and to culminate with a nationwide competition for all participating teams end of the year

KUANTAN, 4 February 2017 – Digi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd (Digi) together with Petrosains, The Discovery Centre (Petrosains) today announced the start of the nationwide Digi-Petrosains Robotic Programme, which has been customised to provide form four school students from schools surrounding the 1Malaysia Internet centres (PI1M), with basic designing, coding and sensor training in robotic development.

Digi-Petrosains Robotic programme was launched in conjunction with the opening of the new PI1M in Semambu, Kuantan by YBhg Dato’ Mohd Ali Hanafiah Mohd Yunus, MCMC’s Chief Digital Communication and Ecosystem accompanied by Eugene Teh, DiGi’s Chief Corporate Affairs Officer and Kamaruddin Kassim, Petrosains Sdn Bhd’s Director of Programmes.

Through a 3-day workshop, the participating students will go through basic designing, coding and sensor training in robotic development and are required to assemble and programme their own robots under the guidance of experienced trainers from Petrosains. To start in March, this programme will involve about 144 students from 48 schools located around 48 PI1M centres managed by Digi throughout the country.

Digi’s Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Eugene Teh said the collaboration with Petrosains has enabled Digi to further develop the PI1M to be an innovative and creative learning hub. “This is part of Digi’s continuous effort to empower the communities and create positive social change by ensuring that the internet centres can act as the catalyst to transform the communities through capacity building, knowledge learning and upskilling.

“This programme is built in a way that is exciting, easy to understand and more hands-on requiring the students to explore and make their own decision. I believe it will provide opportunities for students especially those in the rural areas to get to know and develop interest in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) related subjects, which would be vital in the government’s national transformation efforts,” he added.

For this programme, Digi provides the training facilities in terms of space and workstations at the PI1M centres, while Petrosains contributes the robotic training programme, modules as well as trainers.

Tengku Nasariah Tengku Syed Ibrahim, Chief Executive Officer for Petrosains said, “This partnership with Digi at the PI1M centres will offer students a customised robotic program that encompasses modules covering basic, intermediate as well as expert levels, with a focus towards building knowledge on assembling robotic parts, coding programming and proximity sensors for students. This programme will help students to build a solid foundation in technology, design and innovation while developing critical and systematic thinking skills. In the near future, literacy in robotic and coding will become an important requirement in our lives, critical for the progress of mankind.”

“We truly welcome and fully support this opportunity by Digi to work together in delivering educational development programme for the younger generation in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) specifically in the field of robotic and coding at the PI1M centres in Malaysia. This is also to support the incorporation of computer technology curriculum in STEM learning by the Ministry of Education throughout schools nationwide starting this year. As the corporate social responsibility arm of PETRONAS in the pillar of education, programmes such as this is organised by Petrosains to spark and sustain the interest in science amongst students in the hope of inspiring more students to take up career paths in science related fields including in the high technological field of robotic,” she added.

This year’s programme is expected to end with a nationwide challenge where all the participating teams are going to compete with each other on their creativity and innovativeness in programming and building extension features to their respective robots.

Pusat Internet 1Malaysia is a project initiated and funded by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commision (“SKMM“) via the Universal Service Provision (USP) fund. To date, Digi has been provisioned to manage 104 Pi1Ms in Pahang, Kelantan, Terengganu, Johor, Melaka Negeri Sembilan, Selangor, Pulau Pinang, Kedah and Sarawak, and is committed to launch 30 more centres, which will also include in Perlis and Sabah, by middle of this year.