| Universiti Putra Malaysia

Underprivileged children exposed to IT knowledge

By: Azman Zakaria

 

SERDANG, 3 May - About 40 underprivileged children were celebrated and exposed to basic knowledge of Information Technology (IT) and computer programming in an IT Literacy Workshop held at the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology (FSKTM), Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), here.

 

The workshop was held in conjunction with the Computer Science Week on 2nd – 4th May and the 20th anniversary of the faculty (FSKTM) with an aim to equip the children with knowledge on computer programming.

 

The children, aged between 9 and 15, from Sekolah Bimbingan Jalinan Kasih, Kuala Lumpur, were guided by students from the Computer Science Students’ Association (ComSSA).

 

The selection of the children was made by FSKTM together with Institut Onn Ja'afar, Kuala Lumpur.

 

The children were also entertained by performances and a meet-up session with superheroes such as Iron Man, Spider Man and Power Man.

 

In conjunction with the Computer Science Week, a workshop on Data Analytics Using RapidMiner was also held for students, especially FSKTM students, to enable them to learn how data analysis could help an organisation identify data trends and patterns in decision-making.

 

Chief facilitator of the Data Analytics Using RapidMiner and IT Literacy workshop, Dr. Iskandar Ishak, who is also a senior lecturer of FSKTM, said the Data Analytics Using RapidMiner workshop was sponsored by Quandatics with an aim at equipping students with Data Analytics and data science skills which will increase their marketability.

 

He added that Data Analytics skills will help the students to better understand “insight” data that will help an organisation in making a decision.

 

Other events held during the Computer Science Week were mini colloquium for Masters and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) students to present their papers and talks related to the current trend in IT such as big data analytics and Internet of Things (IoT). – UPM

      

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