From 17th to 23rd December 2022, Persatuan Mahasiswa Sains Komputer (PERSAKA) organized an event called Programming Clinic 2022 (PC’22). This program aims to help students learn the C++ programming language through project implementation.
C++ is a widely used programming language that was developed to be flexible and efficient. By working on real-world projects, students can gain experience with C++ syntax, structure, and best practices and develop problem-solving and teamwork skills.
The Programming Clinic was led by students (mentors) with good coding skills and targets first-year students as mentees, many of whom may not have strong programming skills, especially those without any computer science or programming background.
The program is held at MP1 N28a and on Facebook Live. The objectives of this program are to upskill students’ programming skills and to implement a mentor-mentee session where both parties can improve their academic and soft skills. This event also allows students to prepare themselves for their examination preparation.
There were three main sessions for this program: project initialization and learning, project implementation and the closing ceremony.
On the program’s first day, 29 participants gathered at MP1 N28a to learn about C++ project analysis and implementation.
Learning Session with Dr Jumail bin Taliba
They were taught by one lecturer, Dr Jumail bin Taliba and guided by six mentors, consisting of third-year Faculty of Computing students. This session was held from 10 am until 4 pm.
During the morning session, a quick lecture was given by Dr Jumail bin Taliba until lunch break. The session focused on modular programming, task decomposition and exercises. Modular programming is a way to construct a program from pieces of parts called modules or functions. This is important for task decomposition, a way to break down a significant problem into several small subproblems that will be implemented through modules.
Mentor-Mentee Session
After the lunch break, everyone was required to do group project analysis and implementation. Each group was given a different project title to avoid plagiarism. Participants were divided into six groups. Each group was guided by one mentor. The mentor-mentee session was held from 2 pm until 4 pm, where each mentor helped their group with coding and problem-solving. At 4 pm, everyone had a photo session, and the mentors were given some honorarium.
Photography Session
After the first-day session ended, every group was required to finish their project implementation and presentation in a 5-day period of time. From 17 December to 22 December, every group worked hard to complete their project implementation and presentation through recorded video.
Every group submitted their project code and videos on December 22, 2022. Mentors and crew members judged the videos and projects, and a voting session was held to pick the winning project.
On the last day of the program, a closing ceremony was held at 9 pm on 23 December 2022. A total of 64 students attended the closing ceremony to cheer for their friends who participated in the project competition. The session was held virtually on PERSAKA Facebook Live.
Closing Ceremony
The closing ceremony started with doa recitation and closing ceremony by PERSAKA Advisor, Ts Dr Muhammad Iqbal Tariq bin Idris. He expressed his gratitude and praised all participants for working hard throughout the program.
Lastly, the winner of the project implementation was announced. Group Wo’Ke (Ali Hariz bin Anuari, Muhammad Faizad bin Rosli, Muhamad Haziq Amsyar bin Mohd Hizwan, and Muhammad Aqil Haziq bin Zulkarnain), with guidance from mentor Muhammad Ikhwan bin Mazlan, was announced as the winner for their project. They created an interactive vending machine system using the C++ programming language.
Overall, the entire event has successfully achieved its purpose.