The team joined by UTB’s Faculty of Engineering (FEng) postgraduate student, Dayang Amalina Ashikin binti Ali along with students from other universities was named first runner-up for Best Project Presentation during the ‘Student SDG Virtual Workshops: Envisioning 17 SDGs for 2030’ Closing ceremony yesterday.
Hosted by Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM), Malaysia under the Asia Technological University Network (ATU-Net), the workshop aimed to increase students’ knowledge on the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to encourage collaborative thinking, and to develop critical elements on the 17 SDGs. The workshop intended to enhance their understanding and skills while collaborating with students from international universities.
The workshop was conducted every Saturday since 30 August until 25 September 2021 with participation from over 200 students and facilitators.
UTB was represented by a delegation of six undergraduate and postgraduate students and a lecturer from FEng, Dr Rama Rao Karri as the facilitator. During the final week of the workshop, the teams of student were tasked to present or pitch their project within five minutes and was graded on a variety of criteria, including issue clarity, project management, project feasibility and viability, cost and return on investment, impact, and creativity.
For the 1st Runner-up group, which comprised of students from Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei which was Dayang Amalina Ashikin, was assigned for the SDG 14: Life below water. The team then proposed to develop a mobile application called the ‘Marine Haven’ application which provides users with up-to-date information, news, and articles about marine life, the environment, and pollution, as well as the policies, laws, and regulations that govern these subjects. According to Dayang Amalina Ashikin, the app's primary feature provides users with a list of coastal areas near their location including those that require attention due to pollution.
The team’s targeted users are the community, NGOs, and businesses or industrial companies, particularly those required to meet their social corporate responsibility obligations. “This app aims to educate the users by providing them with up-to-date information, news, policies, and laws and regulations about SDG 14 (Life below water),” she added.
