By Amalin Norman (YES Program 2018)
YES Alumni Malaysia held a “Tech Up! Workshop”, a Think Tank project in collaboration with iCUBE International recently.
The two-day workshop focused on giving participants insight into 21st-century skills, specifically in Python and Computer Science. The guest speaker was Derrick Goh Xin Deik, a research engineer at Huawei Technologies R&D (UK) Ltd. He was formerly a Software Development Engineer intern at Amazon.
The first day started with a brief introduction to Computer Science and then an introductory Python theory session. I was excited to learn about the Computer Science field. The short yet brief session was an eye opener as I knew nothing about the field before this. At first, it was a bit difficult to keep up with all the new and strange terminology, but with the help of the speaker, I managed to catch up.
The next day, a hands-on coding session was led by Derrick. Equipped with the knowledge that we had learned on the previous day, we worked on several case studies guided by Derrick. I was able to bring myself up to speed and participated actively in the session. It felt like writing a wholly new language.
Tech Up! Workshop was really what I have been looking for. Coming from a commerce background, this skill would be beneficial for my career. Not only that, Derrick was very engaging, and I received a great start to my Python journey. I believe this 21st-century skills workshop should be done on a regular basis to provide significant exposure to those seeking any additional soft skills. Thanks to the YES Alumni team, specifically Jun Hao Lai, Jonathan Wan, Malini, Lynn Jia, and other volunteers, for making this event a reality.
