Update 30/4/2015: Please read this post on the completion and outcomes of AEROFAIR 2015.
The School of Aerospace Engineering USM is once again organizing another series of our AEROFAIR outreach program this year. Our program is financially supported by the Penang Education Council of the Penang Institute, the School of Aerospace Engineering USM, and a USM grant on outreach program. Our program has been approved by Jabatan Pendidikan Pulau Pinang. The approval letter from JPPP is attached.
The theme of this year’s program is “Flying Gracefully with Indoor Flight“.
OBJECTIVES:
The main aim of our AEROFAIR Program is to promote science and engineering to secondary school students through exciting aerospace engineering activities. Our program is open to all secondary school students in Pulau Pinang from Forms 1 to 5.
We also want to encourage the use of English in learning science through this program, which is why our program content in this blog is written in English. The rational behind this is that English is the international language of science. In addition, most resources and reading materials about indoor flight on the web are available in English only. There are also other benefits that an Indoor Flight program can offer.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE:
All secondary schools in Pulau Pinang can apply to participate in this program. Each school can send a maximum of 2 teams, with each team consisting of 5 students and 1 teacher. Further details of the application procedure can be read here. The deadline to send the application form is on Friday, 3 April 2015. You can also check the list of schools that will participate in AEROFAIR 2015.
PROGRAM SCHEDULE:
AEROFAIR 2015 will be conducted on Saturday 25 April 2015, from 8 am to 5 pm, at Dewan Utama, Kampus Kejuruteraan, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Nibong Tebal, Pulau Pinang. The program is divided into the Workshop session in the morning and the Flying Competition session in the afternoon.
Update 15/4/2015: We have rearranged the original schedule so that the Opening Ceremony will be conducted before the Flying Competition, which is the main event. The detailed schedule can be obtained here. The brief schedule is:
08:00 – 08:30 am: Registration and Breakfast at Dewan Utama
08:30 – 08:45 am: Doa, Program Introduction, and Program Briefing.
08:45 – 09:00 am: Group Photo
09:00 – 10:45 am: Workshop Phase 1: Construction of Parts and Assembly
10:45 – 11.00 am: Break
11:00 – 12:30 pm: Workshop Phase 2: Flight Tests and Perfecting Constructions
12:00 – 12:30 pm: Arrival of VIP Guests
12:30 – 02:00 pm: Lunch Break and Zuhur Prayer
02:00 – 02:30 pm: Opening Ceremony
02:30 – 03:45 pm: Flying Competitions
03:45 – 04:00 pm: Program Assessment and Surveys
04:00 – 04:30 pm: Award Ceremony
04:30 – 05:00 pm: Tea Break
AEROFAIR 2014:
Last year, for AEORFAIR 2014, we organized 3 activities: Indoor Flight, Airframe Modeling, and Water Rocket. We had about 54 teams (each consisting of 4 students and 1 teacher) from secondary schools in Pulau Pinang participated in last year’s program, totaling up to about 270 participants. You can read more about our last year’s program in our Aerofair Bulletin 2014. The winners of the AEROFAIR 2014 competitions are listed here. Top winners received remote-controlled quadcopters equipped with videocameras to bring back to their schools!
AEROFAIR 2015:
As is obvious with this year’s theme, “Flying Gracefully with Indoor Flights“, AEROFAIR 2015 will focus on Indoor Flight. Based on our last year’s experience, we need to improve on the Indoor Flight activities to see more successful flights during the competition. For the record, Indoor Flight is still new in Malaysia (our last year’s program on Indoor Flight was the first time ever in Malaysia). Please read on to know more about our Indoor Flight activities in AEROFAIR 2015.
For the workshop session during the event day, we have prepared “A Short Manual on Indoor Plane Design“.
AEROSPACE CLUBS AT SCHOOLS
At AEROFAIR 2015, we also want to promote secondary schools to establish Aerospace Clubs (or Aerospace Divisions in their existing Science Clubs). If your secondary school would like to start an Aerospace Club, or a Science Club with aerospace activities in it, read more about it in this post about how this can be done.
Update 23/4/2015: We have accepted applications from 42 teams from 26 schools, consisting of 210 students (from Forms 1-5) and 35 teachers. The AEROFAIR organizing team consists of 34 staffs from the Schools of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, and 52 students from the School of Aerospace Engineering.