They were the winners of the Levis 501 Battle of the Bands and also runners-up on the Astro-Blast Off. They have appeared at a variety of gigs including the HItz FM’s Birthday Bash. What most people do not know is that Nazrul and Khalis are also APIIT students doing the BSc in Business Information Technology Programme.

We were thrilled when they attributed part of their success to the APIIT & UCTI principle of hands-on approach of learning, as this philosophy is what they apply towards their music.

Media Puppets are formed in 2001 and its members have not looked back since. THey have garnered critical acclaim from the media and should be on celebrity-cloud-9 but these are very down-to-earth people who juggle assignments with music gigs and earn good grades while keeping their busy schedules. They are currently working on original material for their own full album which they will release soon. So the feloow APIITians, do support these guys… after all, it is not everyday that we have rockers in our midst.

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The APIIT & UCTI Multicultural Night has always been the largest event of the year with the opportunity for the students and staff and their friends and family to join in a cultural enriching extravaganza of colour, sound end energy. This year was no exception.

 An estimated 500 people attended the event held at the APIIT campus on 25 August. We were treated to a variety of music and dance, all themed around culture. The true diversity of the APIIT & UCTI student and staff population was displayed by a potpurri of Malaysian and international performances.

 

We were particularly fortunate that some families of our local and international students were also present and this demonstration of unity amongst us all gave credence to the concept of a truly international community. Many students came dressed in their traditional finery and we saw Nigerians, Chinese, Malay, and Indians, Indonesian, Pakistani, Iranian, Maldivian and other nationalities dressed in attire not normally seen at APIIT & UCTI.

There were also lucky draws with students and staff walking awaywith a wide variety of prizes including the Grand Prize of an iPod won by one of our students.

APIIT & UCTI also took the opportunity to launch the new APIIT T-Shirt which was provided to students and guests as part of their entrance fee. The T-Shirt was designed by an APIIT Level 3 student - Muhammad Shamil bin Feroz who was awarded RM500 for his effort.

The success of this event was the culmination of very hard work by a very focused team of young enthusiastic APIITians including Tay Er Cher, Amy (Project Manager); Wan Zainal Ariffin Bin Wan Azmin (Fin); Kwan Wei Jian; Edmund Quah Lian Chye; Bena Babu; Shendur Sharran; Alby Thum Chee Keong; Wong Meng Hon; Ronald; Lim Chia Wei; Mohammed Abdul Bari; and Rajini Rajendran lead by Student ARC Advisor, Ms. Saraswathy Shamini.

This joint project has two goals. Firstly to jointly publish an educational booklet called “100 Essential IT Tips” for distribution to students and teachers from selected schools in the Klang Valley. The content of the booklet is aimed towards providing less commonly known tips about different aspects of technology for the general user.

The second is to provide direct access to training in selected IT areas for secondary school students, particularlythose in Form 5, and their teachers.

Launched in August 2006, we have had the privilege of providing training to students and counselors from the following schools thus far:

-SMK Taman Connaught
-SMK Assunta
-SMK Sinar Bintang

This project is set to continue until July 2007 and it is targetted that APIIT & UCTI would have provided training to approximately 600 students and counselors in that time.

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Spear-headed by Ms.Melina Sujatha Silva of APIIT, she believes that, “Institutions such as ours most contribute back to society. Everybody wants to be trained and so this is a platform for outreach to industry. I also believe that it is important to provide this training for free - I think Malaysians are very tired of being charged for everything, everytime. It will be a refreshing change to be able to attend free seminars regularly in a wide range of areas with interesting speakers and walk away having acquired some new or additional knowledge in a given area.

The APIIT 2006 Seminar Series was launched with the entertaining & immensely clever Ms.Sheena Gurbrakash with the rather unlikely topic of “Branding : Love It or Lump It”. Held at APIIT & UCTI’s TPM campus on a saturday morning, this colourful and very informative seminar left its audience of about 30 people in stitches on occasion, and furiously writing notes on others. Ms.Sheena provided a very thought-provoking platform for the understanding of the importance of branding for any organisation - with participants from the media industry, IT industry and small businesses perhaps appreciating better that positioning their organisations correctly can influence the outcomes of their business.

The second entitled Project Leadership : Drive your Project, Accelerate your Results was presented by professional trainer and project management consultant, Mr.Nehru Nagappan. The focus of this two-hour seminar was to demonstrate to its 62 participants that leadership skills can be acquired if one has perspective and a willingness to do something differently. He used a variety of rather unique techniques to illustrate the critical role of teamwork in effective project management.

Some participants travelled from as far away as Taiping and Seremban to attend this session and were clearly pleased with the result. Mr.Nehru left many participants wanting more - more knowledge, more information and of course, more ideas.

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Mun Keong developed an award winning “informercial” that is easy to use, user friendly and which demonstrated great utilization of multimedia skills to produce the winning entry.

• MAY - Indonesia (Medan & Jakarta)
• JUNE - Maldives/Myanmar
• JULY - Iran
• AUGUST - Ghana/Kenya
• SEPTEMBER - Pakistan/Indonesia

APIIT & UCTI play a very active role in school outreach programmes. We regularly visit schools with the aim of creating awareness and building bridges to our future APIITians.

Some of the schools we have visited this year:

• SMK Convent Kajang
• SMK Sri Gering, Rawang
• SMK Taman Permai, Sepang
• SMK Ideal Heights, Gombak
• SMK ACS, Malacca
• SMK Menglembu, Ipoh
• SMK Aminuddin Bank, KL
• SMK Yoke Chuan, KL
• Victoria Institution
• SMK Assunta
• SMK Bandar Kinrara
• SMK Sri Damansara
• SMK Pandan Indah
• SMK Miharja

In addition, we have had the opportunity to touch base with schools from outside the Klang Valley including schools in Penang, Ipoh, Kelantan, Johor and have received a terrific response from the counselors, students and their families.

“the glory of victory, the sorrow of defeat and the horrible aches and pains the morning after”

The APIIT & UCTI Sports Carnival is an annual event that sees the coming together of the academics, administrators and students where the students are under the often misinformed opinion that they will “thrash” all the oldies! This year it was held at the Sri Petaling Community Hall on 21 April and was organised by our ever efficient Students’ Activities & Recreational Council (ARC).

more photos at : http://gallery.apiit.edu.my/v/APIITSportsCarnival2006/

The focus yet again was to promote a healthy lifestyle through sports and various games and competitions. The less obivous but equally inportant intention was to discover new and untapped athletic talent amongst the students in the hope that these individuals would be able to represent APIIT & UCTI at future tournaments in a range of sporting activities.

The badminton and bowling tournaments were actually held earlier at the Bukit Jalil Golf & Country Resort and were a demostration of skills, dexterity and talent. To spice up the Sports Carnival, a music machine was organised and a range of funfair activities and games was also conducted for the specific entertainment of those less-sport-inclined. There was a highly charged Taekwondo demonstration and California Fitness came through yet again with a very lively, colourful and energetic aerobics session.

Many staff (after much persuation) and students perticipated in these activities in an earnest effort to whip themselves into shape… although based on the groans and complaints heard, it apparently took some of the staff an entire weekend to recover from their exertions!! There were also special cheerleading performances to help spur the athletes on and according to reliable sources, spurred on they were!!

The ever popular Tug-of-War drew lots of participants and support from students and staff and this year, the students strolled away victorious. Lots of prizes were given out at the end of the events - to winners and participants.