PSC-Young Laureates Award 2012

PSC stands from Penang Science Council, one of the committees under Penang Chief Misnister's Office, to take care of scientific development in our lovely state.

Somehow the connection of the event was bridged by my supervisor Dr. Ong. He was leading the JIM committee in our institute since a few year ago. The full definition of JIM refers to "Jaringan Indutri dan Masyarakat", meaning that it is a committee to foster the relationship with industry and deliver to community.

I was in the committee since last year . I decided to take up one of the program- Young Scientists Nurturing Program (YSNP) this year, since I always have the idea of doing something to share my knowledge.

It happened that in October this year, I was requested to attend the meeting as I was the person-in-charge for YSNP. The organising committee is made up of people from Penang Science Council Life Sciences and Medical Health Pillar, which is lead by B Braun this year. The point that attract me the most is that the committee members comprises industrial member, such as B Braun, Agilent, Fisher and etc.

The whole event includes 4 components- Workshop 1 for basic knowledge acquisition, Workshop 2 for brainstorming and idea development, Semi-Final and Final competition. In fact, I was involved in the second workshop only as the coordinator of the facilitators (who are my friends in INFORMM), and of course I was one of the facilitators guiding Penang Free School.

The event has ended successfully yesterday. I was a bit disappointed, as my mentoring school did not turn up as the champion of the competition, even though they did well from my perspective. However it was undeniable that there were some weaknesses that led to the result. Anyway, I was amazed by the creativity and the effort being put together for the presentation by every participating team.

The experience was memorable and meaningful for me, as this is the first time I work together with people elder than me. There were times that I need to negotiate and insist on my stand by communicating with all the mature working adults. Somehow I was not confident enough for the challenge.

After all, I feel satisfied as all's well ends well. I'm proud to say that working with these passionate people are great, they're efficient! The first experience of working with industry and the council will always remind me of the friends that I know from the event, especially Teresa and Soo Huey!