When i first came into University of Malaya, i heard plenty of saying that UM students only know about exam exam and exam. At that time, I thought that was true, for majority of students, but not all. I knew the quality of the students was there, because UM is the top choice for malaysian students. I came to the conclusion that we need to twist a bit in our learning processes. Hence, i had a vision to change this, to change the process for better. Nearing the end of my 2nd year, i began to work in this direction. I've drafted a long term planning starting from the end of my 2nd year to the end of my final year. The planning comprised of 2 years itineraries. i'm going to use some competitions as the opportunities for my planning. The planning was not mean for me alone. It included my fellow coursemates, my juniors, my juniors' juniors, and beyond.
Hence, towards the end of my 2nd year study, i suffered and determined to self-learn all the basic of practical robotics knowledge.That was really a very difficult period, strong determination was needed. I've seen what the seniors had done, i've seen what the other universities' seniors had done, their ways simply not working for me. Hence, I worked hard, get information from internet, books, journals, thesis and have developed steps of design processes where the product developments time will be shortened by a large margin. i've mastered the basic knowledge. At the end of my 2nd year, i pass on whatever i knew to my coursemates, i taught them what i knew, so that at the later stage we can progress together. Then, a series of test began. first, in combat robot organized by MMU, we lost teribly, but under planning. Then, in ROBOGAMEZ 2008 organized by uniten, we lost teribly and humiliated by other universities, still under planning. Surprisingly, after that, something happened to me, and i was so determined to do better and finally the electronics sensors designed by me worked better than i expected. In the end, we won something in ROBOCON 2009, the best idea award, but not under planning, we should lost. This is the 1st reward we got in 2009, at last something happened. But nobody in the university was delighted, you know lah.... UM mah... hence we still worked hard in our little non-air-conditioned workshop.
After the ROBOCON 2009, then a series of targeted test began. First, Combat Robot again organized by MMU. Finally we won something, under planning. Then, we went one step further to win something in Schneider Electric University Challenge, a bonus for us. After a while, finally we won the ROBOGAMEZ 2009, unexpected but under planning. One week later, our colour sensor won the silver award in PECIPTA, unexpected and not under planning.
Last but not least, this is the real one. According to my planning, in ROBOCON 2010, we plan to win it. Yes, but does it possible? ROBOCON were dominated by UTM and MMU, how so? One of the reasons is their technology have matured. They have their very own controllers. They have their own structural innovation. They have bought enough sensors for them to use for 100 years. This, is really really thanks to their lecturers. Their lecturers are very responsible to make sure the students' progress and knowledge are up to benchmarks. In UM, what we have?? yes, all politics, everybody know how to talk but dont know how to do. The situation changed in UM this year where we, the students successfully for the first time, have self-developed a matured and very reliable technology for robotics. Unfortunately, that happened only week before the competitions. The testing was not done enough, the problems were not solved. The team were not ready. But under planning. This year is totally different, we, like MMU and UTM, have enough time for testing, from this coming December to next May, 6 months!!! we will be one of the teams that fight for the malaysia champion for the coming competition, under planning. But things may get deviated from their objectives. Things like politics and malaysian famous sensitive issues can destroy all. They destroyed lots of things in the past, and people are already showing signs that the planning is going to get disturbed by these issues. They start to show their ugly faces, and like other activities in UM, they are going to destroy it. What can we do to deal with it? a group of mature and well-organized students will counter any challenge in their journey, be it the politics, or other issues that i cant mention here.
i'm trying to pass on as many knowledge as possible to the juniors, under planning, but time is limited. we are going to graduate soon... the last plan of the 2 years itineraries, ROBOCON 2010, can we do it? like i've said, everything depends on politics. For the students to respect the lecturers and university's staffs, the staffs will need to respect the students too.
Finally, we need air-conditioner, somebody helps us...
