KUCHING, July 15: The Ministry of Education, Innovation and Talent Development (MEITD) Sarawak is looking to collaborate with Raspberry Pi Foundation in Cambridge to establish a research centre in the upcoming Sarawak Science Centre.
This was one of the outcomes from a meeting following Minister of Education, Innovation and Talent Development Datuk Roland Sagah Wee Inn, who led a Sarawak delegation, to conduct a working visit to the United Kingdom to meet with several educational and research establishments recently.
According to a statement today, the first meeting at the Raspberry Pi Foundation in Cambridge with its chief executive officer Philip Coligan and his team was a fruitful one as the delegation gained valuable hands-on experience on introduction to coding, using the Raspberry Pi computer and Scratch programming to simulate an electrical circuit that activates LED (light-emitting diode) lights.
“MEITD and Raspberry Pi Foundation will hold further discussions to collaborate and conduct suitable programmes and activities targeting students and teachers in Sarawak, as well as to garner participation from Sarawak in the Foundation’s annual online coding competition,” the statement said.
In view of the setting up of Sarawak Infectious Disease Centre (SIDC) in Sarawak, the delegation also met with a team from the Imperial College London to discuss disease surveillance, data analytics, molecular diagnostics and therapeutic development, among other areas.
Imperial College’s senior international relations officer for Asia Alexander Page emphasised in the meeting that communicating science to the community is an important component in translating research findings to the population.
“As a result of the meeting, a proposed project to set up a real time disease surveillance programme was identified by Prof Charles Bragham of Imperial College as one of the projects that his team will follow up in partnership with SIDC.”
The parties also agreed in principle to collaborate on students and staff exchange programmes for a period between six to 12 months.
Sagah and his team also visited the Science Museum in London as part of Sarawak’s efforts in establishing its own Science Centre.
The delegation was briefed on the operational and sustainability model of the London Science Museum, its strategy in engaging with its audience and creating curiosity in the sciences, as well as its STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) outreach and educational programmes.
They were also briefed on how the Science Museum develops and manages its permanent, thematic and traveling exhibitions.
“As an outcome, MEITD and the Science Museum agreed to further discuss areas in which Sarawak and the Science Museum can collaborate for exhibits, content and programmes for the upcoming Sarawak Science Centre, in addition to the Science Museum’s continuous professional development programmes for STEM teachers and communicators,” the statement added.
Among the Sarawak delegation are Deputy Ministers for Talent Development, Datuk Francis Harden Hollis and Dr Annuar Rapaee, Permanent Secretary to the MEITD Datu Kameri Affandi, Deputy State Attorney General Saferi Ali as well as officers from the Sarawak Research and Development Council, Clinical Research Centre of the Sarawak General Hospital, and Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus. — DayakDaily
