Nurturing Innovative Culture among Mentors and School Students through “Microcontroller School Mentoring Project”

Abstract

Microcontrollers as a component are usually exposed to second or third year engineering students. In addition, the development of mentors and high school students’ generic skills are also highly emphasized through workshops and field work. Several workshops on the basic of microcontroller were held for mentors among the students of the Department of Electrical, Electronics and Systems Engineering (EESE) and the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering (MME) from the Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment (FEBE) and students from the Faculty of Information Science and Technology (FIST). The same workshop was also given to secondary school students from SMK Taman Nusa Jaya and SMK Kompleks Sultan Abu Bakar, Gelang Patah, Johor under the guidance of mentors. Hands-on approach has been deployed in the workshop. Students were willing to try it out before the process and the theory behind the small projects that were explained later. Mentors and secondary school students have demonstrated in personality traits in terms of communication, working in groups and some skills that have been identified. Each group consists of mentors and school students have produced some very thoughtful ideas. Mentors were providing assistance in the implementation of projects such as the selection of appropriate electrical and electronic equipment. Students also have to master the C language-based programming and being able to write their own algorithms with minimal assistance from the mentors. Some positive comments from the lecturers and teachers involved also proved the increase in generic skills of students and mentors.