Participants having fun at the festival
The annual Malaysia Festival of the Mind (MFotM) returned once more with more vibrant activities this year. It was held in conjunction with the Kuala Lumpur Engineering Science Fair at MINES International Exhibition and Convention Centre (MIECC) from 2 November to 4 November 2018.
The festival, now in its 14th edition, is a concerted effort by the Malaysia Mental Literacy Movement (MMLM), UTAR and Tunku Abdul Rahman University College (TAR UC), and is proudly supported by Yayasan Wanita Cemerlang. It aimed to imprint the importance of mental literacy on the national consciousness, promote various techniques and skills pertaining to the improvement of mental literacy such as memory skill and creativity, as well as create awareness about the human mind and its unlimited potential and ways of tapping into and developing one’s brainpower.
Aptly themed “Great Mind”, the 14th MFotM was held for three days with a line-up of games, exhibitions and activities related to mental literacy for the public and schools. This year the festival included activities and competitions such as the 4th Inter-Varsity Sudoku Tournament, Rubik’s Cube Competition, Mini Memory Competition, ISSF Sport Stacking Competition, ARLETA Augmented Reality Colouring Contest, Mental Literacy Talks, exhibition, Green Glade Activities and many more exciting mind-blowing events.
Participants lining up for the Mobile Planetarium 360° Immersive 3D experience of the Universe
Tui-Na head massage by TCM students
President of ISSF Jacky Chin Keat Wooi demonstrating sport stacking to the participants
Some other exciting events at the festival included hands-on workshops, virtual and augmented reality experience, mind games, cool interactive sessions as well as a showcase of mental literacy related products and many more. One of the highlights was the Mobile Planetarium 360° Immersive 3D experience of the Universe which showcased immersive entertainment and educational experience. Besides, mental literacy talks were also presented by invited speakers Prof Datuk Leow Chee Seng and Lily Lau during the festival with their respective topics “Perception kills the cats: Don’t always trust what you see” and “Uncovering your brain genetic thinking processor through coloured brain communication”.
Prof Datuk Leow (right) and Lily Lau delivering their talks
In his talk, Prof Datuk Leow encouraged the participants to ignite their curiosity and build their creative thinking skills. According to him, one’s curiosity could drive the person to become innovative. “People will usually identify and acknowledge what they see and come out with a lot of perceptions and guesses. However, our brains are not built to see the world the way it really is,” he said. He explained that a particular figure could have more than one answer but being eager to find out the answer would be one of the keys to learn and see what is happening around you.
On the other hand, in order to create a better understanding on behaviours and interpretation of actions as well as to identify the colour of one’s brain, Lily Lau explained about the genetic processing and the sensory system of each colour brain which consists of green, red, blue and purple. According to her, upon assessing the colour brain, a person is able to identify their traits and appropriate learning methods. “Every human sees things differently. That is what makes each of us different from others, including how we behave and what we speak from our mind. We are born with one colour brain but along the way, we learn different methods and cultivate different strength,” she said.
Danial Altana during the competition
One of the participants of the Rubik’s Cube Competition Danial Altana, a 13-year-old student from SMK Sultan Omar, Dungun, Terengganu said that he joined the competition to experience the joy of competing and to learn a great deal. “My favourite hobby is solving Rubik's Cubes and I play it every day. I learnt it from the YouTube and the internet, and it helped to improve my maths and science,” he told.
Khow Zhi Heng (left) and his father Khow Wang Fei
A nine-year-old participant of Sport Stacking Competition Nexus Ng Ruo Bin won the first place in the 3-3-3 category and third place in the Cycle category for seven to eight-year-old group. His mother, Joyce Leow Sien Kuan said that sport stacking is a good activity to help her child in building perseverance and concentration. Khow Wang Fei, the father of another nine-year-old winner Khow Zhi Heng who was the champion for both 3-3-3 and 3-6-3 categories, commented that playing sport stacking is a good way to resist pressure and get rid of anxiety. He felt happy with his son’s performance and hoped to get a better result next year.
Teoh Wee Soon (centre) with his parents Teoh Chin Eng (right) and Kam Sit Fan
Lim (right) and her 10-year-old son Moses Tiong
When asked about the preparation for the competition, the champion for all three categories under age 6, Teoh Wee Soon said that he spent a lot of time to practice the skills of cup stacking in order to get a good result. Sharing her four years of experience in learning sport stacking, the champion for 3-3-3 and Cycle categories among adult group Lim Fei Hong commented that her child had also benefited greatly from the participation of this new sport. She also won the second place for the 3-6-3 category.
A. Savithrii Pillay (centre) with her parents K. Arunasalam Pillay (left) and K. Vimala Devi Raja
Prior to this, MMLM held Mind Competitions 2018 on 14 April 2018 in UTAR Sungai Long Campus. The winners of the competitions, which consists of three main categories, namely Memory Competition, Mind Mapping Competition and Mental Calculation Competition, received their prizes during the festival. “I joined this competition to get a good experience, but to my surprise, I got the second place in the alphabets memory competition,” said A. Savithrii Pillay, a 15-year-old participant from Melaka. She added, “I would like to thank my parents for helping me throughout everything in these 15 years. Without them, I could have not achieved all these by myself.” Her mother, K. Vimala Devi Raja was proud of her daughter’s achievement. She said, “She did a lot of reading to prepare for this competition.”
The Grandmaster of Memory Wong Wan Jiun, who was also the trainer for the Memory Competition winners Ethan Moo and Loke Yee Zhe, was proud of his students for winning the first place in the competition. He said, “They made best use of the memory techniques they’ve learnt from the brain development courses. They successfully proved themselves by getting such a good result.”
A kid trying his hand on Rubik’s Cube
A mother helping her daughter to solve the math triangle puzzle
The participants concentrating on robotic football battle
The festival displayed interesting lego for the participants
The participants enjoying in colouring activity
The participants getting hands-on experience at lumos workshop
The participants challenging themselves with building blocks
For more information on Festival of the Mind, please visit the MMLM website at www.utar.edu.my/mmlm.
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