The National Dental Students’ Scientific Conference (NDSSC) is an annual conference conducted by dental students for dental students under the guidance of the Dental Deans’ Council of Malaysia. Since 2009, ten conferences have been conducted by different universities. This year, the NDSSC 2020 Special Edition was held on an online platform using Airmeet with a total participation of 26 participants, 2 from each dental school.
| Event Details | |
|---|---|
| Event: | National Dental Students’ Scientific Conference (NDSSC) 2020 Special Edition |
| Venue: | Online platform – Airmeet |
| Date: | 2 November 2020 |
| Name of Winner: | Kan Chang Yu |
| Prize won | Third Prize in Oral Presentation Competition |
I am Kan Chang Yu, a final year dental student who was one of the two participants selected by the Dean of School of Dentistry to represent IMU and participate in the Oral Presentation Competition in NDSSC 2020.
My presentation was on a research project I undertook during the fourth year of the Bachelor of Dental Surgery programme, entitled “The Effect of Dried Ginger (Zingiber officinale) Root Extracts on Age-related Hyposalivation in C57BL/6 mice”. I worked on this research project with my research partner, H’ng Jing Xuan, and we were supervised by Dr Abhishek Parolia, Prof Frederick Smales and A/Prof Tan Eng Lai. As this project required animal handling and plant extraction which were very unfamiliar to us as dental students, we were glad to receive a lot of guidance and support from our supervisors. Without their guidance and advice, this project will not have been completed with success. This fruitful research has given me the second opportunity – to present the project in the scientific conference.
| My Preparation for the Presentation |
|---|
| In preparing for the presentation at the competition, I realized that throughout the learning journey in IMU, I have developed some valuable skills. For example, many student-led activities have prompted us to present our opinions in front of others. These activities also encourage us to take the lead during group discussions. Without realizing it, this learning style has improved my communication skills and built more confidence in presenting. It must be mentioned that one of my research project’s supervisors, Dr Abhishek Parolia, has been constantly providing feedbacks for my presentation. Those inputs have refined my presentation to the best version and equipped me with the knowledge of my project’s background. Without his guidance and advice, this achievement would not be possible. |
As the conference was held online, it was a truly different experience to see how the event was carried out on the online platform. Through this conference, I learned a lot and gained insights from other participants’ presentations, especially during the QnA session. Overall, this scientific conference gave me insight into the world of the scientific community, which is more valuable than the prize itself. Despite not being able to have face-to-face interaction in this conference, it still ran successfully with the help of the internet. This is how research has led to the realization of endless possibilities. I believe it is the same for the scientific research that we are doing now, and I encourage all the students to expose themselves to the scientific field.
