What does it take to ignite a spark of curiosity in a young girl who has never touched a drone, written a line of code, or assembled a robot? Sometimes, all it takes is a role model and a university willing to show up.
QIU’s Faculty of Computing and Engineering (FCE) did exactly that, not once, but across an entire STEM journey: a hands-on Pre-Carnival Workshop in January 2026, a Memorandum of Understanding in February, and a full-day STEM Carnival in March. Together, these engagements represent a sustained and impactful school-community initiative and a powerful statement about how computing and engineering can be for everyone.
A Partnership Built on Purpose
On 26 February 2026, QIU’s Faculty of Computing and Engineering made history as the first strategic university partner of SMJK Ave Maria Convent, Ipoh, through the signing of a formal Memorandum of Understanding. This milestone formalised a relationship anchored in shared ambition: equipping the next generation of female innovators with the technical confidence and skills to compete on the global stage.
The MoU moves QIU-FCE’s engagement well beyond a one-time event. It establishes a structured, long-term framework for collaboration in STEM education, competition readiness, and capacity building — a genuine institutional commitment to a school whose student body is entirely female.
Lighting the Fire: The STEM Pre-Carnival Workshop (24 January 2026)
Before progress can start, the groundwork must be laid. On 24 January 2026, FCE sent 25 QIU student facilitators and eight FCE academics to SMJK Ave Maria Convent to run parallel, hands-on STEM workshops aligned with the carnival theme “STEM Unggul: Dari Lokal ke Global.” Six activity streams ran simultaneously across the school’s classrooms and laboratories:
- Drone Block Coding — autonomous flight programming
- Gami-Code 2 — educational game design and coding
- Junior Animation Challenge — digital storytelling and animation
- Solar Car Challenge — engineering a solar-powered vehicle from scratch
- Robot Battle Challenge — building and coding combat robots
- Innovators of Tomorrow / Rekacipta Inovasi Tenaga — design innovation and technical report writing
The QIU student facilitators, themselves computing and engineering undergraduates, mentored school students through practical, hands-on workshops with equipment placed directly on the table. For many of the school’s students, this was their first encounter with university-level STEM mentorship. By the end of the day, every participating student had built, coded, or tested a prototype.
The experience was equally formative for QIU’s own students, who developed real-world facilitation skills, technical communication, and community leadership skills that no classroom alone can teach.
The Flame Goes Global: STEM Carnival 2026
The SMJK Ave Maria Convent STEM Carnival 2026 was held on 14 March 2026, themed “STEM Unggul: Dari Lokal ke Global.” Competitions spanned a remarkable breadth of STEM disciplines: Gami-Code 2, Robot Battles, Drone Challenges, Solar Car Races, Bridge Building, Junior Animation, Water Rocket Challenges, and Generative AI Poster Design.
SMJK Ave Maria Convent principal, Madam Tan Pei Nee, ignited a flame and passed it hand to hand through the assembled students and staff — a flame that, in the carnival’s narrative, would travel from local hands to the global stage.
QIU was present on two fronts. Assoc. Prof. Ir. Ts. Dr. Mah Siew Kien, Dean of FCE, served as an appointed judge for the Robot Battle Challenge, while Dr. Krishna Veni Selvan judged two categories including the Innovators of Tomorrow and Rekacipta Inovasi Tenaga. Six QIU students supported the event alongside FCE staff, staffing the QIU promotional booth at the Foyer of Dewan CPS throughout the day, engaging parents, public visitors, and SPM school leavers with information about QIU programmes and computing careers.
Dr. Mah attended not only as the Dean of FCE, representing QIU’s institutional commitment, but also as a representative of the Women Engineers Section of The Institution of Engineers Malaysia (IEM). She was joined by four fellow IEM women engineers, including Chairman Prof. Ir. Dr. Zuhaina Hj Zakaria and Vice Chairman Assoc. Prof. Ir. Dr. Zahiraniza Mustaffa, bringing the total representation from the IEM Women Engineers Section to five.
For the girls of SMJK Ave Maria Convent, this was not an abstract message about gender equality in STEM. It was five credentialed women engineers, standing in their school hall, judging their projects. The message: women belong in engineering, at every level, and they are already here.
This intersection of institutional academia and professional engineering society made QIU’s engagement uniquely layered and uniquely powerful for a school of aspiring young women scientists and engineers.
Why This Matters: The Case for Girls in STEM
Research consistently demonstrates that girls who engage with STEM in hands-on, mentor-supported environments are significantly more likely to pursue STEM fields at tertiary level. The barriers are rarely about ability; they are about visibility, access, and belonging. By placing students and academics directly in AMC’s classrooms and carnival halls, FCE made STEM tangible, achievable, and welcoming for hundreds of young women.
The programme directly advances the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: SDG 4 (Quality Education), SDG 5 (Gender Equality), SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), and SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure).
Looking Ahead
All of us at QIU would like to express our sincere gratitude to the school’s Principal, Madam Tan Pei Nee, and the teachers, Madam Mah Shea Ing and Madam Sheena Sivakanesan, for their unwavering support in coordinating the STEM activities with QIU.
With the MoU firmly in place, QIU-FCE and SMJK Ave Maria Convent are positioned to build an even richer collaboration: future STEM competitions, professional development for teachers, joint activities with the IEM Women Engineers Section, and the sustained mentorship of AMC’s most promising young women into QIU’s computing and engineering programmes.
