Silicon Valley Trip for CIMB 3D Conquest Winners

Three students from the Faculty of Computing and Information Technology (FOCS) had the privilege of travelling to Silicon Valley as part of their prize for emerging as champions in the Coding Track of the CIMB 3D Conquest Competition. The team comprised three students from the Faculty of Computing and Information Technology (FOCS): Yee Mun Hong, Yong Zhen Qiang and Khoo Wai Kang. Mun Hong and Zhen Qiang are from Bachelor of Computer Science (Honours) in Software Engineering programme whereas Wai Kang is from the Bachelor of Information Technology (Honours) in Software Systems Development programme.

Here is their account of their precious experience there:

From 18 to 22 September, we went on our Silicon Valley trip that we won in the CIMB 3D Conquest. Among the places that we visited during the trip were the Computer History Museum, Intel Office, Silicon Valley Innovation Center, Googleplex Campus, Apple Visitor Center, Stanford University and some famous tourist attractions.

The Computer History Museum and Intel’s Office features getting to know more about how computers came into our daily lives. At first it started off as huge mainframes, thanks to the evolution of technology, the computer slowly evolved to being a small lightweight yet powerful computing machine that we have today. We were always dreaming of the day that we get to visit Google’s office - Googleplex Campus, it is a ‘campus’ because it is not just one building, but an actual campus. There are multiple office buildings, a visitor center, a park and at the time of the visit a circus tent was being built to be used as an office. We also got the chance to visit Apple’s Visitor Center, where we get to have a virtual tour of Apple’s campus using their latest iPad, However visitors are not allowed to enter their actual campus due to intellectual property concerns, we can only have a glimpse of the campus on how it is from the visitor center’s rooftop. When we arrived at Stanford University, it was coincidentally their “Orientation Day” filled with crowds of marching bands going around the campus and club booths set up everywhere. It was a very warm and grand feeling when we entered the campus, it gave us a quick taste of how being in Stanford would be like.
 

On the third and fourth day of our trip, we went to the heart of San Francisco - Union Square, where we got to enjoy how city people lived. Its skyscraper silhouettes everywhere you look, with bicycles as the preferred mode of transportation. Golden Gate Bridge was one of the destinations we went on during our tour. It took us over an hour to walk across the entire bridge. The view was awesome and we could see Alcatraz Prison from there. On the opposite side of the bridge, there are bike lanes where people can ride their bikes across the bridge while enjoying the scenery.
 

On our final day of our tour, we visited Khazanah’s Office in the US and Oracle’s Campus. Khazanah and Oracle both gave us a more in-depth introduction of their company, their vision and mission, as well as what they strive for. Overall, the trip was a very eye-opening experience for us. We highly encourage our juniors to take a brave step forward and participate in workshops and competitions as you won’t know what awaits you at the end of the rainbow.