Reported by:
Ng Yan Wen Sr1ScF 17188

In light of the pandemic, the first-ever Kuala Lumpur Engineering and Science e-Fair was held, known as e-KLESF. From 12th to 19th of December 2020, the week was packed to the brim with online STEM workshops, webinars, quizzes and competitions. The event turned out to be a fun-filled week of learning.

~ai-6fe728bc-1f57-4073-a603-cab81a9a97c7_

These activities were held on Zoom and Facebook LIVE, providing participants with the option to take part in the interactive Zoom lesson, tune in to the live stream from Facebook or watch the Facebook LIVE replay, which is still available on KLESF’s Facebook Page.

A glance at the programme does not disappoint: webinars on groundbreaking green technology experiments presented by researching students, Virtual Symposium on Science Education (SoSE) sessions hosted by award-winning STEM icon teachers, workshops delivering various skills, and several competitions to take part in.

The workshop titled Python and Pandas for Beginners teaches programming for aspiring programmers. The workshop was conducted by Ts. Dr. Anbuselvan a/l Sangodiah, the Assistant Professor from the Faculty of Information and Communication Technology at Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR). It aims to teach participants how systems analyse data, how to create a system that sorts and processes data, and how to visualise the processed data.

4. Python and Pandas Dec2020_01

During the workshop, Dr. Anbuselvan demonstrates how to turn raw data into a readable table using Python code and a Pandas data frame. Everyone watches and follows along in awe as the dataset they were working with, the World Health Organisation’s dataset of global COVID-19 cases, has turned from a series of names and numbers into a comprehensive table of data.

rsz_3_e-klesf_workshopDr. Anbuselvan turning the WHO’s raw dataset into a table

Dr. Anbuselvan went on to teach everyone how to identify and eliminate duplicate data, filter data displayed and locate specific records in a dataset. Last but not least, with a couple of lines of code and taps of his keyboard, Dr. Anbuselvan transformed his processed dataset into a visual chart, generated from his code. The lesson was eye-opening indeed, bringing much insight into how systems process data and the power of coding. Truly, it was yet another wonderful learning experience of the week in Kuen Cheng High School.