CIMB Foundation, together with Forest Interactive Foundation, recently recognised five top students at an award ceremony for the #seKODlah programme, aimed at nurturing future innovators from the B40 community to spark an interest in new technologies, whilst encouraging them to pursue future-forward careers.
Rafe Haneef, CEO of CIMB Foundation, and Johary Mustapha, Founder & CEO of Forest Interactive Foundation were on hand to present the awards at the ceremony.
Seven finalists presented their capstone projects to a group of panellists comprising members from CIMB Foundation and Forest Interactive Foundation. The top projects were selected as winners following a thorough assessment and evaluation, and rewarded cash prizes amounting to RM15,000 to the best overall capstone projects and two to the most entrepreneurial projects. As part of the programme, the students went through structured training and mentoring sessions for a period of four months, which culminated in the capstone projects.
The programme consists of final-year university students, as well as fresh graduates with backgrounds in tech. They were provided with training on programming languages and IT-related modules via Codecademy. Additional workshops on soft skills, including communication and leadership, as well as digital marketing were also provided to equip the participants with key tools and fundamentals to prepare them for the workforce. As part of the programme, they were also assigned to mentors from industry, hailing from institutions of higher learning including Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM), Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus and Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI).
The #seKODlah programme provides outstanding participants the opportunity of career shadowing positions at Forest Interactive Foundation and on-the-job experience in tech with CIMB. This will give them an added advantage for job opportunities in leading tech companies.
The capstone projects formed the heart of the #seKODlah programme, where participants applied their knowledge and skills acquired throughout the programme into real-life situations. They successfully built products that will benefit society, catering to the specific needs of the local communities in Malaysia. These projects also realised the capstone projects’ goal of aligning with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – focusing on three key areas, namely Quality Education; Industry, Innovation & Infrastructure; and Climate Action.
The winning projects are as follows:
∙ Best Capstone Awards:
– #1: Najwan Hafiz bin Azhan, Bachelor of Business Management (Investment), University of Technology MARA (UiTM), (Wise Traveller, a game to learn geography in a more interactive way for students aged between 8 and12 years old)
– #2: Anthony Lee Huan Jin, Bachelor of Computer Science, Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus (#PesanNow, a food delivery app for university students)
– #3: Filzah Hanani binti Mohd Razi, Bachelor of Information Technology (Games Technology), UTeM (Save Our Ocean, a game to educate adolescents to save the ocean)
∙ Best Entrepreneurship Awards:
– #1: Najwan Hafiz bin Azhan, Bachelor of Business Management (Investment), UiTM
– #2: Anthony Lee Huan Jin, Bachelor of Computer Science, Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus
