New Norms, Impacts and Beyond

2020 imposed unprecedented challenges to YSNASM in continuing the impacts in the new norm. Under Dr Chai Lay Ching’s leadership, YSN-ASM is committed to embracing the all-virtual phenomenon and striving to be the national STI ecosystem’s driving force.

In 2020, there were 23 newly appointed YSN-ASM members from public and private universities, research institutes, non-governmental organisations, and the industry. The new members’ comprehensive background will be an advantage to bring YSNASM to greater heights, alongside YSN-ASM’s new affiliates.

Some of the virtual programmes anchored by YSNASM in 2020 include:

1. Collaboration with Industries

The footprint of YSN-ASM as a collective voice of young Malaysian scientists is now recognised nationally, with more invitations to collaborate with industry players. Merck Malaysia Sdn Bhd and ViTrox Corporation Sdn Bhd were the industry partners for the YSN-ASM Chrysalis Award 2020. YSN-ASM also co-organised three Merck Back to Lab webinar series to discuss the challenges researchers faced during the pandemic. Apart from that, a continuous partnership with Petrosains Sdn Bhd also showed a positive impact via the Petrosains STEM Live project.

2. YSN-ASM Chrysalis Award 2020

The panel of judges selected 15 finalists from 46 submissions for this inaugural award. All finalists have undergone extensive training on various skills such as responsible conduct of research, science communication, science advisory, commercialisation, and proposal drafting. At the grand final event graced by the MOSTI Secretary-General, Datuk Ir Dr Siti Hamisah Tapsir on 9 January 2021, Lam Jia Yong from Universiti Putra Malaysia was announced as the First Place Winner, who brought home a cash reward, a reagent sponsorship from Merck, a career development fund from ASM and a certificate of achievement. The ultimate aim of this award is to identify and nurture promising PhD candidates to be the future pillars of our Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) ecosystem.

3. Science Café

Science Café, one of YSN-ASM’s signature events to promote science communication, brought science to the comfort of Malaysian’s home via YSN-ASM Facebook live with various enticing STI topics ranging from to online learning to snake venoms. There were 12 virtual Science Cafés organised that featured YSN-ASM members and affiliates that brought in 8,601 views on Facebook.

4. Launch of YSN-ASM IBSE modules

Begitulah Sang Suria and Gen, Inovasi Kehidupan! were two sets of IBSE Modules aimed for primary school teachers completed by the YSN-ASM Science Education working group. The ASM President launched the modules during the 2020 YSN-ASM Virtual Colloquium. The online modules courses were set to be available on Openlearning.com in 2021. It will also be used for online training in a collaboration with the National STEM Centre.

5. Kembara STIE MOSTI

This was the only physical outreach programme in 2020, which was held in conjunction with Minggu Sains Negara Negeri Sembilan. Two outreach modules on forensic science and genetic were organised by the YSN-ASM Outreach team at UiTM Rembau, which was also attended by YB Khairy Jamaluddin. Even though with the implementation of strict SOPs, the event still managed to amaze school students with the wonders of science.