Three from Curtin Sarawak attend IEEE Leadership Camp

Miri – 9 October 2015 – Three student representatives of the Curtin University, Sarawak Malaysia (Curtin Sarawak) had the benefit of attending the annual IEEE Leadership Camp for IEEE Student Branches at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) recently.

Members of the university’s Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Student Branch, students Jason Ha Heng Teck, Kong Sheng How and Lilian Ung were among 40 representatives of IEEE student branches in Malaysia attending the event.

This year’s camp was organised by IEEE UKM Student Branch in conjunction with IEEE Malaysia Section’s 30th anniversary.

Several topics were discussed in a series of talks during the camp, including education activities for IEEE students and the development of leadership skills.

The talks were delivered by Dr. Lee Yoot Khuan, member of the IEEE Malaysia Section Executive Committee and Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineering – Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (IEEE-EMBS) Advisory Board, and Hussain Falih Mahdi, representative for postgraduate students and former chair of the IEEE UKM Student Branch.

Ha, who is vice president of the IEEE Curtin Sarawak Student Branch, had the honour of speaking to the camp participants about the student branch’s winning the Region 10 (R10) Exemplary Student Branch Award for 2014 – 2015. He also spoke about some of the student branch’s annual events.

According to him, the Leadership Awards ceremony was one of the highlights of the camp. The award honours and recognises outstanding student branch leaders who have contributed to enhancing learning inside and outside their universities. Ha and fellow Curtin Sarawak students Basil Andy Lease and Esther Kueh were among the merit award winners from five universities.

For Kong, who is IEEE Curtin Sarawak Student Branch Publicity Division Co-Head, the annual camp is a great platform to inspire the future leaders.

“The sharing session was especially beneficial as we were able to discuss various issues encountered by the student branches and share ideas on how to overcome them,” said Kong.

Ung, the student branch’s vice-treasurer, meanwhile said it was a wonderful experience meeting with representatives of other student branches.

“It brought together students from various cultural backgrounds as a family, discussing their successes, current issues and projects organised by international IEEE members that can be run locally,” she commented.

Apart from holding positions in the student branch’s committee, Ung is also the first IEEE Malaysia section representative in the IEEEXtreme, a global challenge in which teams of IEEE student members, advised and proctored by and an IEEE member, compete against each other to solve a set of programming problems within a 24-hour time span.

Participants of the IEEE Leadership Camp.

Participants celebrate IEEE Malaysia Section’s 30th Anniversary.