Wu Chun & ISB pledge for “Green”

It was a touching moment for students of ISB students as they had the opportunity to host the ever popular figure in Brunei and Asia, Wu Chun himself, who was in Brunei for a short trip. Wu Chun who is also concern about the environment, pledges for Fitness Zone to go green. He was interviewed by the students of ISB for the BGIC where he was being filmed.

ISB has been heavily involved in promoting and creating awareness on “Going Green” and this has certainly created a stronger brand on ISB for their continuous support for improving the environment in Brunei. Having Wu Chun’s presence really made a difference and this will boost and inspire students to practice “green” within themselves.

It was also the first time I heard of the “humming bird” story during the video interview. So something new for me to learn too 😀

I learned of the “Humming bird” story from the boys

Their classmates given moral support to the interviewers

The students interviewing Wu Chun on “Green” issues

Photo opportunity with superstar Wu Chun

Wu Chun had a quick group photo with ISB students

She was so happy that she kept saying this after her photo with Wu Chun

ISB students saying goodbye to Wu Chun

Projector for your entertainment

I know this is overdue and today I’m gonna share my experiences as a guest while watching MBA students of UBD presenting their innovative product presentations to the Vice Chancellor of UBD, Dato Paduka Dr. Hj Zulkarnain and Professor Soon Loo as their projects are being assessed as part of their course subject.

Though their main subject is more into management, the lecturer Soon Loo challenged the students to think out of the box and they were given 5 weeks to prepare an innovative concept and deliver they did.. I was quite amazed by their enthuasiasm as presenters and this really showed how dedicated the students were for the presentation.

The UBD Vice-Chancellor was awed by the presentations too and he was pleased that everyone (the presenters) was out of their comfort zone. He also congratulated every individual and told them to continue to innovate and not stop there.

I hope to see more of these presentations and I’m also impressed that that they even used 3D animations for their concepts especially for “Super Tech Laundry” and “Daffodil” group. These guys are good example for those doing ThinkBig Innovate Business Plan competition and sadly, the presenters from UBD didn’t join the said competition.

Before the end of the day, Professor Soon Loo and the students gave their feedback and support to one another and appreciated each other for their contribution and support in making the presentation not only a success but a memorable one.

Well done, guys… and I’m proud of you 🙂

 UBD Vice-Chancellor Dato Paduka Dr. Hj Zulkurnain encourage to spread the “virus” of innovation among the students. He really enjoyed the presentations by the MBA students and he hopes this will inspire them to excel more.

 

 Team “Kin-ethics” was the first presenters and they had a big vision of the future of mobile phone batteries. They came up with a prototype and a short video clip on their prototype.

 

Team “Kin-ethics” with Professor Soon Loo and their prototype

Shukrin of Team “iPick” explaining the different types of concepts they came up with before their final prototype

Harina talked of the marketing strategy for her group “Sm@rt-lly”

Team Sm@rt-lly showing their folding trolley concept in promoting green

Team “Sm@rt-lly” with their prototype

Noradah introducing her team Super Tech Laundry

I love their concept of laundry though this will require huge space to implement

Team HETTA came up with interesting concept of a “warmer” food cover

Vice-Chancellor taking a closer look of the “Hetta”. Now you can keep your food warm than usual

Team “Daffodil” came up with a concept of niche shoe storage/cabinet

Hannah presented her team “Daffodil”

Professor Soon Loo mingling with the students after an entertaining afternoon session

The students taking photo with the professor

Group photo with all the presenters and Professor Soon Loo

This has been a big problem in Brunei. Two weeks ago, the newspaper reported that the road accidents have claimed 36 lives this year. This has brought a lot of concern to the eyes of the public and also the National Road Safety Council. This is a worrying rate, considering that only 26 people died from 25 fatal road accidents last year which is the lowest numbers recorded by the Royal Brunei Police Force (RBPF) since 2005.

Yesterday the National Road Safety Council paid a visit to the prone accident areas such as Mentiri Roundabout and U-turn in front of Hua Ho Tanjung Bunut. Leading the visit was Chairman of the National Road Safety Council Dato Paduka Hj Awang Alaihuddin. Prior to that, a discussion was held and briefed by the Royal Brunei Police Force on the reasons for the accidents in prone areas.

The purpose of the visit is to further reduce the number of actions and also to support the vision of “Brunei Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020” by increasing more awareness among the public. Images courtesy of Imelda of Media Permata.

Dato Paduka Hj Alaihuddin being briefed by the committee

They made site visits to accident prone areas

One of the accident prone areas is Mentiri Roundabout

Dato Paduka Hj Alaihuddin being interviewed by the local press

A good reminder from The Brunei Times

Standard Chartered Bank today awarded prizes to winners of its $ave & Build contest that was held during September and October. Yang Mulia Awang Haji Mahrub bin Haji Murni, Permanent Secretary (Core Education), from the Ministry of Education was Guest of Honour at the prize presentation ceremony and presented prizes to the winners. Also attending the event was Dr Haji Junaidi bin Haji Abd Rahman Permanent Secretary (Higher Education), Awang Haji Suhaila Haji Abdul Karim Deputy Permanent Secretary (Core Education), Awangku Abdullah bin Pengiran Haji Tengah Deputy Permanent Secretary (Higher Education) and Hjh Siti Mahrum binti Haji Abdul Halim, Senior Education Officer (Primary Section).

Other guests at the event included senior officials from the Ministry of Education, winners and their families and principals of the winners’ schools.

Lai Pei-Si, CEO of Standard Chartered Bank said in her welcoming remarks:

“At Standard Chartered Bank, we truly believe that financial planning and learning to manage your money well is important for all. By instilling good money habits in our children, they will grow up with sound money management skills that will help them achieve their financial goals as well as contribute to the overall health and wealth of our nation.”

Brenda Low, General Manager of Consumer Transactional Banking for the Bank said: “The $ave and Build campaign was designed to give children an understanding of the skills necessary to manage their financial future while the contest element clearly illustrate the benefits that one can enjoy by saving for a rainy day.”

The $ave & Build Campaign contest was open to all children enrolled at a registered primary school in the country, aged 12 and below and holding a My Dream Account with the Bank. To enter the contest, children had to build and decorate a coin box house provided by the Bank and entries were judged based on artistic creativity and originality, amongst other criteria. Contestants were also asked to complete fun and easy-to-do worksheets on financial literacy.

The contest was divided into two categories, (a) Upper Primary Category: exclusively for children in Year 4 to 6 and (b) Lower Primary Category: exclusively for children in Year 1 to 3. The contest winners are:

Working hand in hand with the Ministry of Education, through this campaign, Standard Chartered Bank reached out to over 40,000 students through all primary schools in Brunei. During the event, the Bank also expressed their thanks and appreciation to the Ministry of Education for their strong support in the areas of financial literacy programmes with both its programmes for primary and secondary schools being supported by the Ministry.

Standard Chartered Bank strongly supports the Government’s move to encourage savings and actively educates the community through financial planning roadshows, financial literacy pieces and so forth. The Bank’s initiatives include an ongoing weekly Money Matters column in Borneo Bulletin since 2008, appearances over RTB’s Berita Ekonomi to share financial tips, sharing of financial tips over RTB radio and a Money and Sense column in Brunei Time’s Newspaper in Education series back in 2008. Text and images courtesy of SCB Brunei.

The winners of the respective categories with Guest of Honour Hj Mahrub and Lai Pei-Si, CEO of SCB

Jewel Shim was one of the top three winners

The designs by the students

Today is World Diabetes Day and the theme is to wear blue to create awareness for this campaign. Take a pic of you wearing blue and send to reedz@ anakbrunei.org

Firstly, good day to all the readers. I didn’t expect that I’m gonna take a day off after my quick weekend trip to Kuala Lumpur to cover the Anugerah Industri Muzik (AIM) which was superb. Perhaps the timing of the flight schedule took a toll on me as I had lack of sleep and I was restless by the time I hit my bedroom after my early morning flight. I even missed sending my family off to the airport the same day as I was catching on my sleep.

Now I feel better and slowly recovering back the groove of blogging. It was also a packed weekend in Brunei which I missed too. The successful Covergence 2011 hosted by ProjekBrunei was well received with positive comments. The International Week Jis Concert according to @lilmopiko was pretty good too. KFC Brunei and Mega Strike Bowl at Airport Mall kicked off the 11.11.11 last Friday and it was also the unveiling of The Airport Mall logo created by Mixmediaworx. Baiduri Bank hosted Deepavali dinner last weekend too.

I shall be posting pictures of the events happening last weekend but for now, I shall be posting some pictures from AIM 2011 and I would like to thank my friend for giving me the opportunity to cover the event and also introducing me to the organiser of the event – Recording Industry Association of Malaysia (RIM).

Too bad that Dato’ Siti Nurhaliza wasn’t present during the event and she has the most record for being the most awardee for the Best Female Vocalists (11 times). She wasn’t even nominated in any category. (Maybe because she hasn’t recorded any songs? I haven’t done any research). But it was the first time I saw Yuna live and wow, I was super impressed. She was the big winner of AIM 2011, winning the Best Female Vocalist (Penakut), Kembara Award (for brining the music internationally) and most of all, she won Best Song (Penakut) which kinda created controversy in a way. Why? Because “Penakut” song wasn’t airplay-ed as much as the other nominated songs. But of course, the organisers based on the criteria of music arrangement, song, lyrics, voice and other things and not based on popularity *thumbs up*

Sheila Majid bagged the best album – The Malaysian Philharomonic Orchestra Celebrate 25 years of Sheila Majid. Anuar Zain was one of the big winners for Best Male Vocal and Best Pop Song (Sedetik Lebih). Perhaps the best performance of the night was the duet between Greyson Chance and Najwa Latif.. Simply awesome….

We attended the Post-Party AIM 2011 which was held in one of the rooms at Putra Bukit Jalil Stadium. Not all artist were present but it was still a great crowd attraction for many. I didn’t get to mingle with any of the artists but more of taking photos of them up-close. It was a great experience and it’s good to see how the locals are supporting the music industry and their fight against piracy. In Brunei, piracy is still a huge problem and this could deter the local artists in Brunei to be more creative if their music are not appreciated if fans just download their music for free.

Najwa, Datuk Sheila Majid and Yuna with their AIM trophies at AIM 2011. Photo by Shahrul Fazry Ismail.

This happened somewhere near E-GNC building today. Picture taken from FB *forgot from who lol*

The smoke was quickly handled by the rescue team. Image taken by GC.

The biggest prize achieved by Brunei happened a few nights ago at Pattaya Thailand. It was the APICTA Awards (regional competition) and MTSSR bagged the biggest prize as they beat 24 groups from 19 countries to win the Merit Award from Asia Pacific ICT Alliance Awards 2011. The project was named” Brunei Experience Multimedia Project” and it all started at the beginning of the year.

Since then, the project had won 3 awards:

1. Winner – The VTIs Engineering and Technology Final Year Project Competition in 2011
2. Winner – Brunei ICT Awards 2011 Tertiary Category
3. Merit Award : Asia Pacific ICT Alliance Awards 2011

MTSSR is the first to win the merit Asia Pacific ICT Alliance Awards 2011 for Brunei. They competed with other universities in the tertiary category though MTSSR students are in diploma level. The “Brunei Experience” is an interactive multimedia using the latest technology in Adobe Action Script Animation, XML, Google API and High Definition Video. The MTSSR group was given a standing ovation by the judges for that day during their presentation.

Supervisor : Haji Suhardi Bin Haji Suhaimi
Students : Abdul Rashid Hj Osman (Group Leader), Mohd Rafiee Hj Rahim, Fatin Liyana Suhili and Dk Siti Syuhaidah Pg Hj Bahruddin.

For their efforts, AITI has awarded them with BND 25,000 to further develop their project. According to Abdul Rashid, the project funds will be used to develop the project in promoting Brunei tourism. MTSSR would like to take the opportunity to thanks, Authority for Info-communications Technology Industry (AITI), Ministry of Education, Department of Technical Education and everyone in MTSSR who support us especially our principal, deputy principals, Computing and Information Technology Department, Welding and Fabrication and English Department.

Chung Hwa Middle School (CHMS) won the Merit Award in Secondary category. So it’s a double win for Brunei. Their project was “WaSeven Facilities Reservation” which is about reserving facilities in their school by using a simple system. CHMS will also be awarded BND 25,000 for their efforts.

Such awards do show that Brunei Darussalam are no push overs in terms of ICT development. We have the talents but we just need more support, programmes, incentives and better facilities to give more motivation for the youth for their creativity in ICT. Thumbs up to AITI also for providing funding to the Merit Award winners. Images below are courtesy of Saini, Library Department of MTSSR.

MTSSR group was welcomed by the Minister of Communications at Brunei International Airport after their victory at APICTA Awards at Pattaya, Thailand

MTSSR’s project first award back in January 2011

MTSSR won BICTA 2011 Tertiary Category

Chung Hwa Middle School also the big winners for Secondary level