Category 1 winners (students) with Tun Mahathir
I attended the prize giving ceremony of the PROTON Design Competition 2015 earlier today. The Competition was held to instill the spirit of creativity and skills among Malaysians in creating innovative design as well as to create and nurture an emotional connection with the younger generation. The theme for this year was “Design a Concept Car for the Malaysian Family”.
Najwa binti Abdul Aziz, 16, Muhammad Arif Fadhli bin Ishak, 15 and Iylia Farzana binti Ibrahim, 16 of Sekolah Agama Menengah Bestari Subang Jaya submitted the winning entry for Category 1: Secondary School, entitled Proton Enigmas. For Category 2: Individual, Muhammad Ismail bin Ibrahim, 22, of UiTM Shah Alam submitted his winning design, entitled Proton Maxima. Category 1 is for group entries from secondary schools where students born in the duration of 1998 to 2002 are eligible to participate. Their entries need to be endorsed by the school principal or head teacher, with a school official stamp on the entry form. Category 2 is for individual entries from those born on or before 1997. 430 entries were received from submissions all across Malaysia for the Competition that ran for 14 weeks. Schools that participated also included national, vernacular, vocational, boarding and religious schools.
Our ex-Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who is Chairman of Proton was present and was accompanied by Proton Holdings Bhd CEO Dato’ Harith Abdullah who gave away prizes to the Consolation winners of both categories.
According to Tun Mahathir and Dato Harith, Proton would be busy in 2016. There would be three launches made sometime soon with the first one planned as early as the first quarter of next year. Then there is their tie up with Suzuki. This should be interesting as Suzuki know how to build compact cars better than most manufacturers out there today.
There are also various ongoing talks with Proton's financiers on why it is harder to get financing for Proton vehicles and the hurdles faced by them - one good example given by Tun Mahathir (Tun M) is the fact that Proton has an electric car that has a range in excess of 300km but there has not been any support by the government in any way. Maybe GreenTech Malaysia who is looking to promote EVs should start looking towards Proton too. I think it is time for Government agencies to actually look past politics and work for a common cause (if you know the current political situation in Malaysia you'd know that Tun M is not in good terms with the current Prime Minister).
Tun M also mentioned that there could be a smear campaign by certain quarters of the media against Proton and says it should stop. Proton should not be blamed for the high car prices as the government profits from high taxes. They have actually asked Proton to make cars that cost RM25,000 which Proton cannot due to economics of scale (200,000 cars per year is considered small) and if you add taxes that the government wants to collect it would be tough to do so. He also mentioned that a Proton is the ultimate homegrown product from the design stage until the assembly with 90 over percent local content. No other third world country (yes, the old man said it) has the capability to completely manufacture a car from scratch. Well, maybe Iran. But they're too busy fighting inter-sect battles in the middle east. But you get my point. I mean, which other car company here in the region conducts competition like this to ensure that the next generation gets the exposure and the boost to build something that is of a certain technological level?
There is still so much passion in the grand old man. If you saw him walking briskly you'd think that he was a gentleman who was about 75 years old and not the 90 year old man that he is. And the passion he has for Proton is indeed genuine.
PRESS RELEASE
PROTON DESIGN COMPETITION CONTINUES TO NURTURE AND PROMOTE CREATIVITY IN AUTOMOTIVE DESIGN AMONG YOUTHS
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Three (3) students from Sekolah Agama Menengah Bestari Subang Jaya bagged the Championship trophy for Category 1 while a 22-year old student majoring in Automotive Design from UiTM Shah Alam was announced the Champion for Category 2
SUBANG JAYA, 1 December 2015 – PROTON Holdings Berhad (“PROTON” or “the Company”) is pleased to announce the winners for the PROTON Design Competition 2015 (“the Competition”). Three (3) students from Sekolah Agama Menengah Bestari Subang and a 22-year old Automotive Design student of UiTM Shah Alam stole the judges’ hearts with their outstanding submissions. The Competition is held to instill the spirit of creativity and skills amongst Malaysians in creating innovative design as well as to create and nurture an emotional connection with the younger generation, in order to capture their hearts and minds. The theme for this year is “Design a Concept Car for the Malaysian Family”.
Najwa binti Abdul Aziz, 16, Muhammad Arif Fadhli bin Ishak, 15 and Iylia Farzana binti Ibrahim, 16 of Sekolah Agama Menengah Bestari Subang Jaya submitted the winning entry for Category 1: Secondary School, entitled Proton Enigmas. For Category 2: Individual, Muhammad Ismail bin Ibrahim, 22, of UiTM Shah Alam submitted his winning design, entitled Proton Maxima.
Category 1 is for group entries from secondary schools where students born in the duration of 1998 to 2002 are eligible to participate. Their entries need to be endorsed by the school principal or head teacher, with a school official stamp on the entry form. Category 2 is for individual entries from those born on or before 1997. 430 entries were received from submissions all across Malaysia for the Competition that ran for 14 weeks. Schools that participated also included national, vernacular, vocational, boarding and religious schools.
“We are thrilled at this year’s entries for the 2 categories. Not only did the submission number increase from last year, we also saw better quality in terms of designs that were submitted to us and the adherence to requirements listed in the contest form,” said Dato’ Abdul Harith Abdullah, Chief Executive Officer, PROTON Holdings Bhd.
“When we started the Competition last year, we had always aimed at nurturing the spirit of creativity amongst youths in Malaysia and that quality of submissions should increase due to the exposure we provide to them. Our Head of Design had increased the requirements for the competition with the addition of hand-drawn ideation sketches for both categories and the vehicle packaging diagram for occupants and powertrain for Category 2. We saw many talented entries who understood the requirements of the Competition and prepared themselves well. Of course, there are much more to designing a car when engineering comes into place, but this is a fun platform and a good start to unearth hidden talents within Malaysians, especially among youths,” Dato’ Harith added.
Before the prize giving ceremony, the winners were taken on tour to PROTON’s Research and Development (R&D) Centre where all Proton cars are first created. They were brought through a special presentation by Azlan Othman, Head of Design, PROTON. In the presentation, the winners were given a special preview of what PROTON has been working on and a run-through of the processes involved in automotive design.
Winners then received their prizes from YABhg Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Chairman of PROTON, accompanied by Dato’ Harith who gave away prizes to the Consolation winners of both categories.
The winners were chosen by a panel of professional judges which involved both internal and external parties to evaluate the submissions for the two categories. They comprised of senior management of PROTON’s Group Communications, Group Marketing and Product Strategy divisions. Apart from that, representatives from Paultan.org and infokereta.com (media partners for PROTON Design Competition 2015) and Dr Shahriman Zainal Abidin, Senior Lecturer in Industrial Design Department of UiTM’s Faculty of Art & Design were brought in as guest judges. Azlan Othman, Head of Design, PROTON led the panel of judges and the judging sessions were audited by PROTON’s Group Internal Audit.
Judging was based on authenticity of their creations, the aesthetics of the vehicle design and concept presented. Criteria for the submission include hand drawn ideation sketches on how the idea came about and exterior rendering for Category 1. Both interior and exterior renderings are required for Category 2 and all submissions must be on A3-sized paper with coloured visualisation for the final renderings, accompanied by an A4-sized design brief. An additional vehicle packaging diagram for occupants and powertrain layout was also added into this year's requirement for Category 2.
For Category 1, the winning schools each receive RM10,000, RM7,000 and RM5,000 for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners. Whilst Category 2 winners receive RM15,000, RM10,000 and RM7,000 each. 4th to 10th place consolation winners of both categories brought home with them RM1,000 cash prize and all winners announced today also received a certificate, medal or trophy each.
“We will continue this programme on a long term basis as this experience is priceless. PROTON being the only OEM in ASEAN with its own R&D facilities has a responsibility to nurture the skills in innovation and creativity amongst the younger generation in Malaysia. Although it is seen as a fun platform, those who are truly serious to pursue their career in automotive design would find it really helpful that PROTON is able to guide them or at least test their ability of their true potential. You are our future car designers,” said Dato’ Harith.
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