A talk titled The Journey of a Science Student in a VUCA World was organised by the Faculty of Science (FSc) on 21 July 2022 at UTAR Kampar Campus. At the talk, participants were enlightened on ways to think when navigating a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world. Present at the talk were FSc Dean Assoc Prof Dr Lim Tuck Meng, Department of Agricultural and Food Science Head Dr Ong Mei Kying, staff and participants.

The invited speaker was Dr Foo Check Woo, who is an adjunct associate professor in the Department of Food Science and Technology of National University of Singapore (NUS). He spoke about Albert Einstein’s theory of Space-Time, Energy, and Matter (STEM) and highlighted the difference when the formula was used in the 17th century compared to when it was used in the 20th century. He also spoke a little on Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, which brings about the concept of uncertainties. He also used the story of Alice in Wonderland and its characters to emphasise to participants the need to know one’s direction in life.

While explaining further on VUCA, Dr Foo used the recent events of flooding in China, Singapore and Malaysia to describe the volatility in today’s world. Uncertainties in the present can be illustrated by the previous lockdowns around the globe due to the pandemic of COVID-19, which brought upon impact on the workforce, education, and daily livelihood of the people. Complexity was simply described by the speaker as having no periodicity. On ambiguity, participants learnt that it depends on where one’s focus is.

The highlight of the talk was when Dr Foo emphasised the importance of consciousness using the story of The Journey into the West. The practicality of the story, as explained by Dr Foo, was on the human capabilities and consciousness (heart, body, and mind) applied to get through one’s daily life. He further explained the ways each character in the story used their abilities to complete their mission. The character Sun WuKong used his critical and creative thinking skills, while Zhu Bajie was instinctive in nature, and Sha Wujing had automatic thinking. This led to his explanation of systems thinking which was illustrated using the yin yang symbol, where process and structure are moving in a circular motion. From these characters, he advised participants that one should think creatively and rationally. He also listed the types of thinking that will help an individual survive in a VUCA world, which included automatic thinking, instinctive thinking, critical thinking, creative thinking and systems thinking.