Malaysian Students Technology Conference (MSTC) 2023 - Artificial Intelligence and more!

Alright, so since so many people were writing throwback posts on the Malaysian Students Technology Conference (MSTC) 2023, it's finally time for mine!?

Thank you to every single one of you who was involved in the MSTC 2023!

For those of you who are not in the know, the MSTC is the premier student-organized event that caters to students out there who are interested in careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, held this year at Asia Pacific University of Technology and Innovation (APU / APIIT) for its first physical iteration since the conclusion of the COVID-19 pandemic since 2019.

I knew that this was a wonderful cause to contribute to when Emily Gan Xin Wei initially approached me when she was trying to share this with my community, A-Levels Malaysia, the largest community of A-Level students in Malaysia, and it is something that I am ever more happy and proud to support as a representative of my education firm, Ascendant, even now that I have had the opportunity to contribute to this event.?

This year's MSTC was something I never expected to be a part of, but somehow or another fate had led me to be a part of it, and to serve as one of the speakers for the panel in Artificial Intelligence in Finance, concurrent with the event's theme of Artificial Intelligence and its motive of helping students around Malaysia and the world become educated about the impacts, opportunities, and directions going forward for the world within the domain of Artificial Intelligence that increasingly moves into every single aspect of our lives.?

First off, thank you so much to the team with Young Malaysian Engineers (YME) for inviting me to speak at this event. It was professionally organized, and I can see that you guys went to a lot of effort to make this happen.?

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics are tremendously important for advancing the nation of Malaysia, and they are a wonderful outlet for people to expand their careers, to broaden their horizons, and to go far beyond where they are at the moment, to contribute towards the seminal technological developments and advancements of the human world as they build up their lives to reach the next era, while maintaining a healthy curiosity and engagement within the challenges and opportunities of this world; your contributions to this field, even as students, lay testament to your ambition, ability, and commitment towards serving the future and demonstrate qualities that are rare amongst people in general, and that are incredibly important for students, especially those who are seeking to make a difference in this world.

I'd first like to extend a huge thank you to the distinguished panelists who took up the torch alongside me as we conducted a panel on Artificial Intelligence and Finance, which you'll be able to watch here, on my YouTube channel, which comprises not only this, but also interviews with some of the most prominent students and leaders of Malaysia from numerous distinguished institutions that comprises members of Bank Negara Malaysia , Khazanah Nasional Berhad , Jabatan Perkhidmatan Awam (JPA) Malaysia , 壳牌 Malaysia, and that will include many more in the days ahead.

Thank you Suhasan Kanagasabapathy and Chee Mun Foong for being the tremendously technical people to supplement some of my philosophical reflections with much of your extensive experience at MoneyLion , as well as Henry Lim and Rachel Low for moderating the session and for providing wonderful questions; I hope that our thoughts in the collective (and the dash of my own!) helped someone out there to think just a little bit differently or to see the world in a light that they did not before, leading somewhere down the line towards a career that may never have transpired in the first place otherwise. It was a great pleasure to explore the nuances of the different issues related to Artificial Intelligence and Finance from many different perspectives including bias elimination, loan provision, investing, credit, and many other things that I learned a lot about from a group of people whom I'm absolutely honoured and humbled to have shared the stage with.?

Meanwhile, I would also like to thank several other specific members of the team and also other affiliates as well.

Thank you to The English-Speaking Union for being such wonderful sports and moderating the debate that was held on that day about artificial intelligence and personalised learning, to Izzatul Faqiha Marzuki for that initial invitation and first (online) outreach from YME, to Lance Simandjoentak as main point person and Justin Yeap for the official invitation and miraculously seeing me at the MRANTI MakersLab for my talk at the session, coordinated by Ramesh and William and others during the course of your volunteering assistance and before I even knew that I would be requested to speak at your event (and probably before you did as well), to Carmen Choo for being the first person I had the opportunity to meet at the event, and to Jee Chong Xian and Lim Xin Bei for teaching me about Chung Ling High’s famous slogan and reaffirming my knowledge that it is an incredible producer of science and technology talent (CC Melwin Cheng Herman Xin Yang Leong and the many wonderful Chung Ling (National Type) High School 鍾靈(國民型)中學 Chung Ling Private High School Penang and Chung Ling Butterworth (N.T) High School 北海鍾靈國民型中學 alumni who do Malaysia proud and will continue to do Malaysia proud through investing in the younger generation of STEM talent through innovative education methods, adapting to the new era through flexibility, drive, and adaptation to new technologies as well as to holistic education.

Thanks one final time to all members of the MSTC 2023 committee for coordinating everything, taking up the torch and putting in the hours, not only to contact people, but to serve as representatives of your generation to bring forth science knowledge and the advancement of new technologies to many of your peers out there; I know that your efforts will pay off, not just for the audience that you serve, but also for each of you personally as you explore the limits of technology, see that they do not exist, and become prepared to serve as leaders in your respective organizations in the days ahead. Thank you for making this investment, both in yourselves and also in the people around you, and I cannot wait to see where you will go!?

Lastly, thank you to those of you and everyone who was present and for reading this, for sharing in our experience and taking the time to understand what we did on that day. MSTC 2023 was an incredibly significant event and one that I hope that many more generations of students from Malaysia will continue to take part in as you go forward and consider how you will serve the next generation.

As I understand it, Young Malaysian Engineers (YME) is already recruiting for its upcoming committee.

If your interests lie within the sciences and technology, there are a few student initiatives that would be better to join.

Feel free to apply here, and also to share with other Malaysian talents who may be interested in contributing towards a wonderful initiative that will advance the science, technology, and a culture of valuing these incredibly important things for Malaysia and for society at large, in the days ahead.

Thank you for reading and have a wonderful weekend ahead.

Victor Tan,

Founder, Ascendant Academy.