Scholar Stories: Mohamad Afif - Our Stories

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scholar stories: Mohamad Afif

Achievements

Without the help of SDF, I wouldn't push myself to limits, to recognise my boundaries and be rid of self-doubt, excuses and arrogance.

No matter how hard things get, a positive attitude and resilience will always get you through.

Treat every hardship as an opportunity to build character, every failure as a moment for self-reflection and every success as a lesson in humility.

I was quite a complacent student and taking things for granted was a norm for me.

Upon being granted a scholarship by Yayasan Sime Darby (YSD), I continued my studies at the University of Melbourne in Australia and boy, was I in for a rude shock.

Once I was removed from the comfort of familiar faces, and had to deal with a tough engineering course taught by some of the best and brightest minds in the engineering world, I was constantly stressed out.

Despite the challenges, I was excited to embark on my journey to create, design and innovate myself to achieve the unimaginable.

My drive and passion for doing all things engineering eventually landed me a spot in the University of Melbourne’s multicopter team, which led the propulsion team.

My challenge for that particular year was right up my alley, as it required the team to innovate unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for emergency services. We had to produce a tangible product by the end of the year.

The main difference with this particular project compared to others was that we had to innovate commercially viable products, as the end goal was for the drone to be marketed for emergency services.

In short, it was challenging to juggle the demands of the product to be technologically advanced enough to be effective in the event of a bushfire, and cheap enough that people would be willing to buy and use it.

I knew from the start that juggling a big project with my advanced engineering subjects was going to be tough, so I prepared well and early, determined to succeed.

There were many lows, blood, sweat and tears shed before our project was presented with the Autodesk Design Award for using innovative materials and design (3D Printed Titanium Chassis), as well as the Wade Institute Commerciality Prize for our innovative payload (in-house produced thermal camera system).

I got to experience first-hand the ways in which hardship builds resilience and character as well as persevering through hardship is ultimately rewarding, even through the toughest storms.

I would not have been able to experience such valuable life lessons without the help of YSD, always pushing me to my limits, to recognise my boundaries and be rid of self-doubt, excuses and arrogance.

I graduated with a Bachelors in Science and Masters in Engineering, and joined the Sime Darby Plantation Berhad.

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