02 Dec
Last week concludes a 4-month long journey to incorporate our Maker Academy programme with 20 Pusat Internet under the purview of Digi. The new programme is called Digi Academy. The purpose of this programme is to improve meaningful engagement with the community surrounding the Pusat Internet so that the centre is not merely an Internet cafÃĐ.
We started with training the managers of each centre, equipping them with the necessary skills in Arduino Programming, Design Thinking and 3D Printing. We also prepared the managers to teach their students to content specially curated from our flagship programme, Maker Academy.Â
The managers ran classes in their respective centres thus widening our reach to other students in rural and urban communities around Kuala Lumpur, Negeri Sembilan and Melaka.
Each of these 20 centres sent representatives to our Academy in Alma for Digi Camp. In line with #DigiYellowHeart of reducing inequality which is Goal 10 of the SDGs, the groups went out in search of challenges in the heritage city of Georgetown.
During the camp, the participants visited Cytron Technologies and Penang Tech Dome to cultivate an interest in science and technology. Tech Dome offers exciting interactive exhibits and activities such as G-Drop, the worldâs first free-standing vertical drop slide.
All participants conducted a survey of local and foreign visitors in Georgetown and design projects to solve the communityâs challenges such as people with different abilities have difficulty to walk around the city. It was an eye-opening experience for the students to approach strangers and interview them.
They also had fun in Rimba Rimau, a session where they pitched about their projects to collect virtual public crowdfunding from the audience which is made up of other camp participants. The audience will have â5 dollarsâ to invest in each project.
The groups then travelled down to KL to showcase their projects in âOur Partnering For Reduced Inequalitiesâ event. The participants had the opportunity to present their innovation to many dignitaries including the Deputy Minister of Youth & Sports YBÂ Steven Sim, Chair of the Board of Directors of Digi Mr Haakon and even the Ambassador of Norway in Malaysia. It was truly a memorable experience for all the camp participants as the programme comes to a close. Before officially closing, there was one more thing to do which is to announce the winners of camp with the best projects. Congratulations again to Team Amazing Tower, Team Building and Team G5!
