Category: Information

Young Innovators Challenge Pahang State 2026: Inspiring the Next Generation of AI Innovators

On 16 July 2026, we had the privilege oto co-organize the Young Innovators Challenge (YIC) Pahang State 2026, a competition that brought together 15 teams of young innovators showcasing their creativity, technical skills, and problem-solving abilities.

This year’s challenge was particularly exciting as participants were required to integrate microcontrollers and Artificial Intelligence (AI) into their projects, introducing a new dimension to the competition. The shift towards AI-enabled solutions reflects the growing importance of intelligent systems and digital technologies in addressing real-world challenges.

The competition was preceded by a Train-the-Trainer (TTT) programme held in May 2026, where participants and mentors were introduced to concepts and hands-on applications of Edge Impulse, AI, and Machine Learning. The training provided a solid foundation that enabled teams to transform ideas into working prototypes and innovative solutions within a relatively short timeframe.

A special note of appreciation goes to Chumbaka for their continued partnership and support in nurturing STEM and innovation education. Initiatives such as these are instrumental in exposing students to emerging technologies and empowering them to become creators rather than merely consumers of technology.

My sincere congratulations to all participants for embracing this year’s challenge. Developing projects involving microcontrollers, embedded systems, and AI is no small feat, particularly for young learners. The enthusiasm, resilience, and willingness to explore unfamiliar technologies demonstrated by the teams were truly commendable.

I would also like to thank my fellow judges for their dedication and insightful deliberations throughout the evaluation process. It was an enriching experience to engage with educators, industry representatives, and technology practitioners who share a common passion for developing future-ready talent.

Being involved in competitions at this level provides a valuable perspective on the current trends in STEM education, innovation, and AI adoption among young learners. More importantly, it offers insights into the cognitive capabilities, creativity, and problem-solving approaches of the next generation. The ideas presented clearly demonstrate that today’s students are not only capable of using technology but are increasingly able to leverage it to design impactful solutions for society.

As AI and digital technologies continue to reshape the world around us, initiatives such as the Young Innovators Challenge play a crucial role in building confidence, curiosity, and innovation capacity among our youth. I look forward to seeing how these young innovators continue to grow and contribute to Malaysia’s technological future.

Reconfigurable Electronics – Why BHE3233/BEL4553/ BTS4433 Are Your Tickets to the Semiconductor Design Industry

Hey everyone, and welcome to the blog!

If you’ve stumbled upon this page, chances are you’re trying to sort out your upcoming electives, or maybe you’re just looking for that elective subject that will make your engineering resume instantly stand out to recruiters.

Either way, here you are.

Today, let’s talk about why we named this space Reconfigurable Electronics and why three specific courses at the faculty—BHE3233, BEL4553, and BTS4433—are going to completely flip the way you think about hardware design.

What on Earth is “Reconfigurable Electronics”?

Back in the day, if you designed a digital chip and manufactured it, that was it. If you found a bug or wanted to add a new feature, you had to throw the physical chip away and spend millions of dollars building a new one from scratch. Static. Permanent. Expensive.

Enter reconfigurable electronics.

Imagine hardware that behaves like software. Instead of hardwiring circuits, you write code in a Hardware Description Language (HDL)—like Verilog—and flash it onto a piece of silicon called an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array). If you make a mistake, you don’t scrap the chip. You just tweak your code, re-compile, and reconfigure the chip in seconds. One minute the silicon is acting as a video processor, and the next minute it’s running an AI accelerator or an industrial CPU core.

How These Courses Bring Reconfigurability to Life

If you join us in BHE3233, BEL4553, or BTS4433, you aren’t just sitting in a lecture hall listening to theory. We have officially shifted these courses toward Project-Based Learning (PjBL), dropping the stressful written final exams completely.

Instead, you spend your semester directly interacting with reconfigurable hardware using the Altera DE10-Lite FPGA board. Here is the exact pipeline you’ll master:

      1. Code & Simulate (RTL Design): You’ll learn to describe complex digital logic using Verilog HDL.

      2. Optimize: You’ll run synthesis and handle Static Timing Analysis (STA) to make sure your designs run at blazing industry-standard speeds.

      3. Deploy on Silicon: You actually download your architecture right onto physical FPGA silicon and watch your code control real hardware.

 

Instead of building simple basic gates, you’ll get the opportunity to design advanced systems—like RISC-V processors, custom CPU architectures, cryptographic hardware accelerators, or digital communication nodes. You change the code, and the chip instantly reconfigures to match your imagination.

Why “Reconfigurable Electronics” Belongs on Your CV

Let’s be real for a second: the semiconductor and chip design industry is absolutely booming right now, and competition for top graduate jobs is fierce.

When a recruiter from a top chip design company scans a stack of resumes, they see a lot of the same things: standard project reports, high GPAs, and generic programming languages.

But when your resume says

      1. Proficient in Verilog HDL & Register Transfer Level (RTL) Design

      2. Experienced in Logic Synthesis & Static Timing Analysis (STA)

      3. Successfully deployed a custom RISC-V/CPU architecture on an Altera DE10-Lite FPGA platform

Taa daa… You immediately jump to the top of the pile.

Having reconfigurable electronics on your CV proves to employers that you don’t just understand digital logic on a whiteboard; it proves you know how to build, debug, and validate actual working hardware using the exact tools the industry relies on every single day.

Ready to Jump In?

If you want an elective that moves away from text-heavy cramming and gives you an authentic, hands-on engineering portfolio to show off in interviews, pick your track:

      • Engineering Programs: Register for BHE3233 or BEL4553.

      • Engineering Technology Programs: Lock in BTS4433 as your elective track.

Take a look around the rest of the blog to see project roadmaps, code snippets, and some of the incredible digital systems our senior students have built.

Have questions about the syllabus or how the FPGA labs work? Drop a comment below or swing by my office for a chat.

Let’s stop just studying engineering, let’s start building it  =)  !

Nurul – July 14th

Reimagining the Engineering Classroom: New Collection on GenAI and the Cognitive Learning Curve

260701 – Discover Education eFlyer_Reimagining Engineering Pedagogy Balancing Cognitive Development and Generative AI in Computational Learning

When Springer Nature first approached me to submit a proposal for a new journal collection, it happened to be Week 5 of the lecture semester. As I stood in front of my class, a realization crossed my mind about how much the landscape of teaching has shifted.

Today’s students have an incredible wealth of resources right at their fingertips. With the rise of Generative AI (GenAI), sourcing facts, generating code, or finding answers is no longer a challenge. Information is practically instantaneous.

But as educators, we face a dilemma – well, at least, I do.

You can ask AI to generate an answer, but you cannot outsource “understanding.” True understanding is an internal, deeply personal cognitive process. It is that suara hati (the inner voice) where a student rationalizes a problem, wrestles with the logic, and finally externalizes it by explaining or applying it.

In engineering education, where technological breakthroughs move at breakneck speed, simply banning or restricting AI in the classroom is an outdated approach. Yet, granting unfettered access without a proper pedagogical framework presents a dangerous risk: it dilutes the actual human learning curve and breeds cognitive dependency. How do we ensure our future engineers are still learning how to think, not just how to prompt?

Driven by this exact tension, I submitted a proposal that was recently accepted by Springer Nature’s Discover Education journal: “Reimagining Engineering Pedagogy: Balancing Cognitive Development and Generative AI in Computational Learning.” 🙂

The ultimate aim of this collection is to create a collaborative space where we can learn from best practices, empirical observations, and innovative frameworks developed by educators across the global engineering segment. We want to uncover how to design learning environments where GenAI acts as a technical accelerant without bypassing the essential human cognitive processing required for true mastery.

Join the Conversation & Submit Your Work

To all fellow engineering educators, researchers, and practitioners out there: if you are actively navigating this paradigm shift in your classrooms—whether in electrical, mechanical, civil, chemical, or software engineering—I warmly invite you to submit your research, case studies, or conceptual frameworks to this collection.

Let’s work together to shape the future of how engineering is taught.

View the official collection webpage and submission guidelines here: Click here to view the Collection Webpage

Note: The official Call for Papers document containing the detailed scope and submission timelines is attached below/on the website for your reference. Please feel free to reshare this call within your academic networks! Looking forward to your valuable submissions.

Raspberry Pi Programming 2026/4 – MRSM Transkrian

*UMPSA STEM Lab Raspberry Pi Programming Synopsis can be found here.

In the Raspberry Pi IoT session, 36 students and teachers from MRSM Transkrian were introduced to the concept of the Internet of Things (IoT) using Raspberry Pi on the UMP STEM Cube, a pico-satellite learning kit specifically designed to facilitate engineering learning.

The content covered basic digital input/output operations on onboard LEDs, as well as topics such as dashboard design using gyro meter and BMU280 sensor data, including collecting and storing data in a cloud database. Participants learned to interface sensors with Raspberry Pi boards and develop IoT applications for real-world scenarios. The session provided students with valuable insights into IoT technology and its applications in various domains.

A special appreciation is extended to Cikgu Mohamad from MRSM Transkrian for coordination in facilitating communication between the participants and the UMPSA STEM Lab :).

Nurul June 24th