Experiencing drones and rockets

The e-KLESF 2021 webinars titled “Funtastic Drone-101” and “Rocket Science” were held on 29 October 2021 via Zoom and Facebook Live. The invited speakers were Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) Faculty of Engineering Ts Dr Jaysuman bin Pusppanathan and International Islamic University Malaysia Faculty of Engineering Ts Dr Muhammad Hanafi Azami. The speakers were from the Young Scientists Network, Academy Science Malaysia (YSN-ASM).

Dr Jaysuman speaking about drones

Dr Jaysuman’s webinar titled “Funtastic Drone-101” aimed to raise awareness of drone technology provide basic knowledge about drones to the public. In his talk, he shared about Industry 4.0; what is a drone; the difference between a drone and an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), the basic anatomy of a drone; the types of drones; the working principle and its application.

He said, “Industry 4.0 has been defined as a name for the current trend of automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies, including the Internet of things, cloud computing, autonomous robots, simulation, system integration, cyber security, additive manufacturing, augmented reality and big data.”

Dr Jaysuman showing participants the basic anatomy of a drone

DrJaysuman shared, “Drones (Dynamic Remotely Operated Navigation Equipment) are also known as flying robots. There are four types of drones, namely Single Rotor Helicopter, Multi-Rotor Drones, Fixed-Wing Drones and Fixed-Wing Hybrid VTOL.” “Drones are widely used in geography mapping, agriculture, search and rescue, inspection work, natural disaster or firefighting and shipping and delivery,” he added.

Dr Jaysuman showing the types of drones

On the other hand, Dr Muhammad Hanafi enlightened the participants on the topic “Rocket Science”. In his webinar, he aimed to let participants understand the fundamentals of rocket’s elements and their applications and explore non-rocket space launch possibilities. During the talk, he shared what are rockets?; why are rockets needed?; how do rockets work?; the history of rockets and non-rocket space launches.

Dr Muhammad Hanafi feeling excited to share his passion with the participants

Dr Muhammad Hanafi first introduced, “Space science encompasses all of the scientific disciplines that involve space exploration, the study of natural phenomena and physical bodies occurring in outer space, such as space medicine and astrobiology, while Space technologies include launch vehicles - rockets; telescopes – Hubble Space Telescope and James Webb Space Telescope; spacecraft, satellites and probes - Lucy (spacecraft), Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover.” 

While elucidating on rockets, he said, “Rockets propulsion is a class of jet propulsion that produces thrust by ejecting a matter called the working fluid or propellant and stored entirely in the flying vehicle.”

Dr Muhammad Hanafi showing participants the anatomy of rockets

Dr Muhammad Hanafi showing participants the varieties of common launch vehicles and non-rocker space launcher 

The common questions about rocket science

Speakers and participants after the webinar

The talk concluded with an extensive yet insightful Q&A session, followed by a photo-taking session.