TAR UC’s students of the Faculty of Applied Sciences and Computing (‘FASC’) had their very first Final Year Project (‘FYP’) Showcase on 14 December 2016. Going by the theme “Explore the Wonders of Applied Sciences & Computing”, a total of 35 posters were displayed at the concourse area of the ground floor and first floor of Tun Tan Siew Sin building, showcasing the various science or ICT-related projects of all final year students of the faculty. The event began with an opening ceremony at the Auditorium.
At the ceremony, Mr Henry Hwang Chong Sin, Organising Chairman of the event, delivered the opening address. He said that the FYP showcase served as a useful platform for students to demonstrate their projects. “I believe this showcase can motivate the students to continuously enhance their knowledge in research as well as in the development of new products and applications,” he added.
This was then followed by a speech by Datuk Dr Tan Chik Heok, President of TAR UC. In his speech, Datuk Dr Tan encouraged the students to tailor their projects towards commercialisation. He highlighted that innovative students’ FYPs with high potential could be converted into business venture idea that could then be funneled into TARC Incubator where it has the potential of being further refined into a real business. “We hope to develop students who can form their own start-up companies and finally a successful business,” he said. “There are many investors nowadays looking for business ideas to develop and to invest in. So, this is a very good opportunity for the younger generation. I hope all our students will grab this opportunity,” he added.
Datuk Dr Tan Chik Heok then officially launched the event accompanied by Assoc. Prof. Dr Loke Chui Fung, Dean of FASC. The event then proceeded with a tour of the project showcase area where all the students’ projects were individually evaluated by internal judges from TAR UC as well as external judges from the industry. An interesting pitching session followed whereby 10 selected students were required to present their projects in front of an audience which included the panel of internal and external judges. It was indeed a challenging yet fruitful time for the students as they practised pitching their ideas onstage with questions and constructive feedback from the judges.
The event then ended with a prize giving ceremony for the winners. Brian Koh Ping Weng, a Year 3 student of the Bachelor of Information Technology (Hons) in Software Systems Development emerged as Champion in the Innovation category. He developed a computerised fund management system for TAR UC which could make fund withdrawal applications more efficient when compared to the current manual system. “The use of a computerised system can also reduce the use of resources, hence saving the environment,” he said. He came up with the system especially to help the leaders of student societies who usually have to go through a long, tedious process to withdraw funds for their respective societies.
Ng Yii Ching, a Year 3 student of the Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Bioscience with Chemistry, on the other hand, won first place in the Poster category. Her research project mainly aims to compare the anti-cancer properties between a normal ginger and Bentong ginger. “With the prevalence of cancer increasing in the last few decades, I am interested in finding natural products that can effectively cure the disease so as to reduce the use of chemotherapy and drugs which have various side effects,” she enthused.
