Fostering technopreneurship culture on campus

Group photo session among speakers and participants

Microsoft MVP Day 2022 was jointly organised by the Faculty of Accountancy and Management, Lee Kong Chian Faculty of Engineering and Science, IT Society and Unovate Centre on 9 November 2022 at Sungai Long Campus.

The event, which was participated by more than 50 students, aimed to promote entrepreneurship awareness and foster a technopreneurship culture among UTAR students and staff. It also aimed to encourage students to form teams and participate in the Microsoft Imagine Cup 2023 World Championship under the coaching of Microsoft MVPs.

The MVP Day featured five Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals, namely Snake Chia, Vincent Choy, Chan Ming Man, Phua Chiu Kiang and Walter Wong. Each speaker shared their experience and background with the students.

Dr Sia welcoming the speakers and students

FAM Dean Dr Sia Bee Chuan said, "Activities such as this are also in line with UTAR's vision, mission and educational goal; at the faculty level to 'Be an outstanding business and management faculty of educational and professional excellence with transformative societal impact nationally and internationally. I hope students will take this opportunity to learn and continue to upskill themselves for a better future. I also wish everyone a meaningful and insightful event."

Chan sharing his experience

Chan, who is a software development manager, presented his topic titled "What makes project management methodology fails?". He spoke about project management methodology, constraints in the industry, the Scrum Methodology, reasons why Scrum fails, and the problematic scrum board. He said, "Before starting to implement Scrum within a business, make sure one is clear on the value it will bring to the team and organisation. Once the individual is clean on the value, it is time to convince the team and stakeholders."

Snake Chia giving an introduction on Re:Imagine

"How Indie developers make money via new Windows Store" was the title of Snake Chia's presentation. He shared about his experience in developing apps, the challenges and opportunities in developing apps, Imagine Cup 2023 and other relevant topics. He said, "It is important to be open to changes that lead to improvement. We need to continuously learn new skills to bring about changes."

Vincent Choy sharing the perks in the IT industry

Vincent Choy, who is also a cloud consultant for Office 365, gave a talk titled "So, you want a career in IT?". He spoke about the different types of jobs available in the IT industry and the skills needed to remain competitive in the current market. He said, "There's no shortcut to success, you will need to fill the needs of the company, stand out from the crowd and demonstrate your skills, make yourself a talent and be attractive."

Walter Wong during his presentation

Gain Secure Co-Founder Walter Wong's talk titled "Understanding cloud business for Malaysia software economy" focused on cloud computing and its application in the real world. He explained the definition of cloud computing, the adoption of the cloud, the magic quadrant for cloud infrastructure and platform services, cloud services and their benefits and other related topics.

PCK Consulting Principal Phua, who is also a SQL and database specialist, gave a talk on data visualisation using Power BI. He said, "Power Bi drives a data culture for everyone and every decision. It is a real-time dashboard which provides interactive reports with custom visualisation and custom connectors. I encourage students to start using Power Bi to create rich interactive data with AI insights during your presentation to stand out from the rest and at the same time to learn new skills which will be useful for your future career."

Participants during the event