ExCEL Reflection Assignment 1

Delegation: School of Computing 2020

Delegation: School of Computing was held on 27th February 2020. It took place at Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) and was organized by Persatuan Mahasiswa Sains Komputer (PERSAKA), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). It was a program where students between two universities collaborate to build connection and social network while sharing experiences and differences which really spiked my interest to join the program. This program involved around 40 students of School of Computing, UTM and one of our coordinator, Dr Suhaila binti Mohamad Yusuf. The day of the program, we used two buses as our transportation to go to Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) which placed in Batu Pahat, Johor. We gathered early in the morning, departed and arrived around 10 a.m. at UTHM. We were later welcomed by the members of Kelab Teknologi Maklumat (ITCFSKTM) UTHM warmly. Then, we were invited to a hall for a welcome ceremony where both representatives from both universities gave speeches of welcome and thank you. The ceremony proceeds as the leader of the UTM delegation and the leader of the ITCFSKTM gave a presentation that introduced their respective faculty clubs and the events that were handled by both clubs. They shared a lot of knowledge on leadership, team management, finances and so on. After that, an ice-breaking session was held between all the students where we introduced ourselves and getting to know each other. After the fun ice-breaking session, the delegation team were divided into groups with a student guide from UTHM in each group. We moved to the next session where we toured around the faculty and UTHM. We went to the library, mosque and visited the faculties via busses. There were also fun activities as a sling session between the tours. Finally, a photo session was held with all the participants of the program before the program came to an end.

This program is very interesting for me because it was held to help students build a social connection and network as well as learning and sharing experiences from each other. In this program, I learned and gained a lot of new knowledge especially during the sharing sessions that were lead by the leader of UTM delegation and ITCFSKTM. I learned bits about leadership through the discussions and activities that were held. It gave me the impression that leadership is a skill that would be really helpful when dealing with a lot of people. I was also able to improve and practise my communication skills in the discussions and ice-breaking session as well as building on my adaptability skills where I met new friends surrounded by a new environment. Aside from that, we were able to relate with each other feelings and compare our experiences aside from discussing new alternative ways to solve problems when handling an event. In my opinion, this program leaves a significant impact on me as I see new perspectives as a software engineering student in other universities. It really helps to give me an insight of what to improve myself in the future and how to work in a team in an organization. I also believed that our School of Computing students also learned something new from our visits to UTHM. It was such a pleasant experience as I met the other students and sharing our own experiences and connected through it. The fact that we connected through the differences leaves an impression towards me that sometimes differences can be a good thing as we broadened the process of communication and conveying information became more effective. I really hope that this delegation program can be held again in the future as a lot of benefits we could gain from this collaborative program.

As I go further and deeper into this reflection, I realized that this is my first experience of a collaborative program between two universities. While I do have experience of collaborating, however, it was in small scales as in collaborating with other classes or sections. Unlike my previous experiences, this program really expands the way I see the word ‘collaborate’ and it makes me more thoughtful. I lacked a lot in many aspects and this program helped me to realize that so I can improve myself in the future. When I collaborated with other classes, I have already familiar with the faces as we bumped into each other at the faculty a lot and I was more comfortable to speak out my mind and socialized. However, in this program, I have to pluck out my courage and confidence to speak as I met new people that I am not familiar with. I was placed out of my comfort zone and I think it was a good experience as I got to see how I react to the situations and learned bits of useful tips on how to start a conversation from other friends. This reminds me of a quote from Roy T. Bennett which says, “You never change your life until you step out of your comfort zone; change begins at the end of your comfort zone.” It does make a change on me where I tried to engross and involved myself as much as I can which contrast my usual behaviour where I was more comfortable being a listener and observer. I put more effort to overcome my complexity and insecurity. Other than that, I also felt that the teamwork energy is in a whole lot of different level from when I was collaborating in classes because being in the delegation team, it means that we are the representatives of our university, UTM and you cannot help but to feel devoted and tried your best to show a good side towards other people.

For me, the most significant aspect of this program is the attributes that we gained from all the activities that were held in the program because it helps the students to improve themselves practically through the experiences. In my opinion, these experiences can be used in a real situation when we are working in the industries. Leadership, teamwork and good communications skills are attributes that cannot be learned by the book. As a student, I find that it was hard to collaborate with new people that I am not familiar with. However, if we look it through a professional perspective, I might encounter a lot of this situation where I have to work with new people because software engineers are bound to work with various type of stakeholders and different colleagues. Therefore, by looking from different perspectives, I understand that this program prepared experiences of engaging and socializing with new people in a new environment to some extent. Other than that, I also think that the sharing session is one of the important events in this program because we learned to open up and learn new things from other people experiences. I believed that as a person we have to be open-minded in learning and accepting new knowledge from other people regardless of age, positions or social status. Besides, we also can look at a problem from different and new perspectives based on what we have learned from them. It proves that experience is the best teacher as it will make things easier for people who are knowledgeable about the different types of situations, to give the best responses instead of being perplexed. In a nutshell, the attributes that we gained and learned throughout this program are invaluable knowledge and experiences that we should pay attention and learn to flourish it in ourselves.

As a next step, I realised that I have to encourage myself to take a big step to improve myself. From the previous stages of this reflection, I can sum up that Delegation: School of Computing 2020 program is a great program where I learned and gained experiences about the collaboration between two organizations. I also realized my deficiency in some aspects throughout this program. Therefore, I noticed that I need to work more on my confidence, teamwork skills and communication skills. In the future, I planned to join more program that involved interaction with other people and also tried to join discussions in the class more actively to build up my confidence and communication skills. I believed that this plan might work because I planned to start it by taking small steps at a time to raise my courage. First, by implying the attributes in the class, the place where I am most familiar with. Then, I will try to improve it by joining more programs and so forth. It will take many small steps, but I trust that as soon as you take the first one, you will be invested to do more. However, this is not the only solution that will be available to improve oneself as there are so many options and ways that will match accordingly to each personality out there. To cut this long reflection short, I will definitely try as hard as I can to improve and challenge myself to be a better person in the future so that not only me but other people too will be able to get the benefits.

Huawei Connected Campus 2020 (Career Talk, Business and HR Insights)

Huawei Connected Campus 2020 (Career Talk, Business and HR Insights) program was held on 3rd March 2020 and was organized by School of Computing. It took place in Dewan Sultan Iskandar, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) from 10.00 a.m. to 4.30 p.m., and was divided into two sessions. Students were free to choose between the two sessions to attend the program. Since I had a class in the morning, I decided to join the second session of the program that started around 2.30 p.m. I took the UTM shuttle bus to Lingkaran Ilmu and walked to go to Dewan Sultan Iskandar. Upon arrival, Dewan Sultan Iskandar was already packed by students who are interested to know more about the program. Outside of the hall, food trucks were lined up and at the entrance, several booths were opened for students to explore. I walked into the entrance and explored a few booths before I recorded my attendance and went to find a seat inside the main hall. The program started with the grand entrance of the guests and the VIPs. Then, the program proceeded with du’a recitation lead by a student. After that, the host introduced the guests and the VIPs that attended the program before inviting the first speaker from Huawei to give a talk. The first speaker gave a talk about Huawei as a company, their visions and missions in developing new technologies in the future. The second speaker was from Human Resources talked about self-marketing and how to advertise oneself in the industries. She also gave some tips on job-looking and inspired the students to be more confident about their skills. Finally, the program ended with Q&A sessions where students were given the opportunity to ask any questions about Huawei or career in the technology industries in general.

In this program, I have learned a lot of information about Huawei as a technology company. Huawei is one of the leading global tech company and this program definitely perks my interest to join it because it includes career talk, business and HR insights where I could gain more knowledge about career and becoming one of the workers in the technology industry. I think the talks that were given by both speakers have great contents and it definitely gives me more insight into how the industry really worked. However, I think the second talk was much more interesting as I learned what kind of attributes are needed in order to advertise myself as a promising employee. One of the attributes mentioned is leadership skills that were needed in building a technology business and competing with the ever-growing industries. From my understanding, it is very crucial to be able to guide your team and become a reliable leader in order to achieve bigger things in the future especially in the fast-growing industries with a lot of competitors. Other than that, I also learned about communication skills that are very important for every student to master as it will be applied in our career when working and have to communicate effectively with every team members. Then, I also learned about enterprising skills and how to advertise myself in the industries. The tips that were given by the second speaker who is also one of the Human Resource staff are very resourceful and useful. It definitely can be practised in real life when applying for jobs vacancy. In a whole, this program gives me a new perspective and what to expect when I started my career. In my opinion, it was a really good idea to collaborate with Huawei and other technology company in the future to hold this career talk with students and prepares them for the industries. 

In my experience, I think this program is quite similar to a career talk that I attended during Human Computer Interaction (HCI) Day that was organized by School of Computing. Both programs similarly talked about working in the technology industries and how to fulfil the criteria needed when you are applying for a job. However, the HCI Day career talk explained more about working experiences and the environment while the Huawei Connected Campus 2020 career talk explained more on how to appeal more as a candidate for the job and be confident about my own skills. In my opinion, I think both programs gave a lot of benefits and knowledge that will prepare me to join the industry in the future. I learned that both career talks stressed a lot about the importance of being confident with your own skills. It is important because we have to acknowledge our strength and skills in order to be more confident about it. I really valued all the knowledge that I gained from both program however, I think the career talk from Huawei is more meaningful in a way because Huawei is one of the fast-progressed tech company in the industries. I believed that I do have the skills needed to work in the industries however, I find it hard to be confident and acknowledge my own strength. By attending this program, I learned how to acknowledge my skills and flaunt it modestly when I needed to do so. I also think that the Q&A session was a good segment to be included in the program. It encouraged the students to think critically and be curious in order to gain knowledge about something. It also helped students to improve their communication skills and boosted their confidence level as they have to speak on the microphone in front of almost a thousand students that filled the hall.

For me, the most significant aspect of this program is the attributes that I gained from all the sessions that were held in the program because it helps me to improve myself basically through the experiences that were shared during the talk. In my opinion, these experiences can be taken as an example to be used in a real situation when we are working in the industries. Leadership, teamwork and good communications skills are attributes that cannot be learned through reading or observation as we should practice it. As a student, I find that it was hard to work on my confidence especially when I am an introvert. However, if we look it through a professional perspective, I might encounter a lot of this situation where I have to work with new people and need to interact with them without hesitation because software engineers are bound to work with various type of stakeholders and different colleagues. Therefore, by looking from different perspectives, I understand that this program prepared experiences of engaging and socializing with new people in a new environment to some extent. Other than that, I also think that the Q&A session is one of the important events in this program because I learned to always think critically and look for the answers to my questions. I believed that as a person we have to be open-minded in learning and accepting new knowledge from other people regardless of age, positions or social status. Besides, we also can look at a situation from different and new perspectives based on what we have learned from them. It proves that learning is a never-ending journey and we have to be ready to accept our own strengths and flaws in order to build our self-confidence. In a nutshell, the attributes that I gained and learned throughout this program are extremely helpful knowledge and experiences that I should concentrate on and learn to develop in myself.

For the next step, I realised that I have to encourage myself to take a big leap to polish my own strengths. From each of the stages in this reflection, I can sum up that Huawei Connected Campus 2020 program is an exceptional program where I learned and gained tips about how to advertise myself and also learned to enhance my own strengths. I also realized my weaknesses in some aspects throughout this program. Therefore, I noticed that I need to work hard to build my confidence, teamwork skills and communication skills. In the future, I planned to join more program that will help me to build my confidence such as programs that will involve interaction with other people. I am confident that this plan will work because I planned to start it by taking a step at a time to elevate my courage. First, by implying the attributes in the class, the place where I am most familiar with. Then, I will try to improve it by joining more programs and so forth. It will take a lot of baby steps, but I trust that as soon as I take the first step, I will be invested to do more. Nonetheless, this is not the only way that will be available to improve and boost my strong point as there are so many alternatives and ways that will match each and everyone out there. To cut this long reflection short, I will definitely try as hard as I can to improve and challenge myself to be a better person in the future so that not only me but other people too will be able to get the benefits.