Kuala Lumpur, 16 January 2018 – Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology (MJIIT) received a courtesy visit led by Dr. Kazuo Kyuma, Executive Member, Council for Science, Technology and Innovation, Cabinet Office and his team; Prof. Kishi Teruo, Prof. Yozo Fujino, Prof. Noboru Noguchi, Dr. Seki Katsumi, Mr. Shiro Takegami, Mr. Masahiro Takemura dan Mr. Masaki Sato. Also accompanying the delegates were Mr.Ichiro Kuronuma, Education and Science Attache from Embassy of Japan in Malaysia.

The delegates were taken to visit the laboratories at MJIIT and was later given a presentation on the academic program, research collaboration. They were also shown the existing state of the art machines and equipment available at MJIIT and the various student activities conducted involving students from the Japanese university partnership programme.

Dr. Kazuo Kyuma introduced the SIP (Cross-ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion Program), a national program to realise the scientific and technological innovations in Japan. Among the high impact projects to be implemented are Enhancement of Societal Resiliency against Natural Disasters and Smart Agriculture toward Society 5.0 in Japan (Technologies for Creating Next Generation Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and Utilization of OT, Bigdata, AI and Robot).

MJIIT expressed its desire to cooperate and hoped to bring Japanese technology in Robotic Applications in the Agriculture Industry to Malaysia.

In conjunction with the Ministry of Higher Education’s motto “Soaring Upwards”, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), being one of the main research universities in the country, has always envisioned to produce research outputs which can benefit the country and society, thus facilitating Malaysia’s dream to be a developed nation. Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is one of the main areas which is heavily discussed around the world. It is an umbrella term which foresees the birth of emerging technologies with disruptive effects, which in return will lead to the development of a smart city.

One of the pillars of innovation of 4IR is the autonomous vehicle (AV). The automated driving feature of the AV enables the host vehicle to navigate independently without any intervention of human driver. In Malaysia, the pioneering research group in the field of driverless vehicle is the Intelligent Drive team of the Vehicle System Engineering Research Group (VSE) from Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology (MJIIT), UTM, Kuala Lumpur.

The team, led by Associate Professor Dr. Hairi Zamzuri with the support of Dr Mohd Azizi Abdul Rahman and Dr Mohd Hatta Mohd Arif, has initiated the in-house work in the said field since 2012. However, as AV is a very competitive and challenging area, the first phase of research in 2012-2016 focused on the Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) and Vehicle Active Safety work, which are the main components of AV.

Since 2017, the team has quietly worked on a fully-automated vehicle development. An AV prototype was developed through the collaboration between UTM and Moovita Pte Ltd . The protoptype is based on a 7-seater vehicle and encompasses several aspects and combining different modules (i.e. perception, localization and mapping, as well as guidance, navigation, and control). Just six months of extensive development and testing with two days setup demo, beginning Friday, 19 January 2018, the vehicle made its debut to the public. The team has successfully showcased the driverless vehicle prototype at the Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre (MaGIC, Cyberjaya). The significance of this demo is it exhibited the first driverless vehicle in Malaysia with full Level 5 automation. It is with much pride to mention that the showcased prototype was developed mostly by Malaysian talents.

Surely, this is only a step forward to a long and arduous journey ahead which will pose challenges and demands for further improvements. However, this achievement should be remembered and is hoped to expedite and catalysed the AV development in Malaysia. In addition, to enable the vehicle to be fully utilized on Malaysian roads, research in the area of AV development, covering other aspects such as user acceptance, policymaking as well as improvement on the prototype, should be continuously carried out.

UTM, soaring upwards!

JOHOR BAHRU, January 22, 2017 – Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) has outlined six major Key Focus Areas (KFAs) as its 2018 strategic planning in order to make the university stays relevant to communities and Malaysia itself.
The main focus areas are excellence in Teaching and Learning, Research and Development, Campus Sustainability, Talent Transformation, University Financial Sustainability and Global Prominence.

Commenting on the above KFAs, UTM Vice Chancellor, Prof. Datuk Ir. Dr. Wahid Omar said the essential element is UTM to achieve excellence in Research and Development as well as financial sustainability to ensure the operation of the university.
“Strategic financial management is a key strategy in ensuring the financial sustainability of the university. The real definition of strategic financial management is to ensure that each Centre of Responsibility (PTJs) implements sustainable financial management by maintaining cost effectiveness while at the same time ‘keeping’ the quality of service to staff and students,” he said.

Prof. Wahid said this at a press conference session after giving his yearly address to the UTM community at the ‘Majlis Perutusan Tahun Baru Naib Canselor 2018’ at the Sultan Iskandar Hall, Johor Bahru campus yesterday.
As one of the public universities which hold the Research University (RU) status, UTM should emphasize the element of research excellence to enable the institution to move in line with the government’s current aspirations.
“A total of RM70 million has been set as the target of the UTM research grant for 2018 from government agencies, governments, industries and international organizations.

“To increase industrial and international funding grants, UTM has a Grant Champion group that will continue to be strengthened in all faculties by intensifying the number of proposal papers to apply for international and industrial grants,” he said.
Also attending the ceremony were the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic and Internationalization), Prof. Dr. Zainuddin Abdul Manan, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation), Prof. Datuk Dr. Ahmad Fauzi Ismail, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Development), Prof. Dr. Azlan Abdul Rahman and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Student Affairs), Prof. Dr. Durrishah Idrus.

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia partnership with QSR Brands through CEO@Faculty Programme today has elevated to a new level. Datuk Mohamed Azahari Mohamed Kamil, the Managing Director of QSR Brands, who is also an advisor to Reveron Consulting Pte Ltd (an International company based in Singapore) has linked up UTM with the Reveron company for possible collaboration in the area of Building Information Modeling (BIM). UTM will benefit in various aspects via the collaboration e.g. free license of BIM software and tools for educational and research purposes, series of workshops conducted by the experts from the company as well as access to real case studies from the industry. Meanwhile, Reveron, which will have long term benefits from this partnership by training the students in using the software and tools, as well as getting them familiarise with real industry case studies, will ensure a sustainable talent pool in BIM industry.

Resources by The Dean, Faculty of Civil Engineering

KUALA LUMPUR, 24 jANUARY 2018 – UTM International Kuala Lumpur had organized a Leadership and Survival program called “UTM Leader’s Hike-Camp” located at the PDS Training Camp, Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan.

A total of 30 participants from Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan, Iran, Yemen, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Syria, Egypt Malaysia had joined the program.

In this program, all students have been involved in the bonding activities including Great Explorace, Fishing, Bonding Games and BBQ which required them to work in a team and support each other to complete the program.

On the second day of the program, the students have been brought to Cape Rachado, Lighthouse, Tanjung Tuan to hike a hill called Bukit Putih.

The student had hiked for about 1.8km before reaching the beautiful peak. Later on the same day, the students was challenged with an obstacle course and jungle survival trekking.

The program climax is on the last day when the students are required to build their own raft before sailing to the sea.  Overall, every student has shown a great leadership quality and enjoyed the program.

Wangsa Melawati, January 16^th, 2018 – Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in collaboration with Green Community, Masjid Al-Mutaqqin Committee and DBKL has launched the ‘Rainwater System Harvesting Installation Project at Masjid Al-Muttaqin’ in Al-Muttaqin Community Hall. The launch of this project was officiated by YBhg. Datuk Hamdan Bin Mohd. Yusof, Pengerusi Jawatankuasa Penduduk Wangsa Maju. Also present was Prof. Dr. Shamsul bin Sahibudin, Pro-Vice Chancellor, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur Campus.

In reinforcing university strategic thrust which is ‘Outstanding Contribution to Society’, UTM expertise is leveraged in order to meet the community needs. Rainwater harvesting system (RWHS) at Masjid Al Muttaqin was requested by Masjid committee is also supporting government water saving campaign. According to the head of the project, Dr. Aznah Nor Anuar from the Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology, UTM Kuala Lumpur Campus, this project also aims to educate the community on sustainable water management as well as provide university students with the opportunity to assist the community with the knowledge they have learnt. The project had received funding from the NBOS Unit, Planning, Policy Planning and Coordination Division, Ministry of Higher Education.

The ceremony started with a talk on ‘Sustainable Water Management from Perspective of Islam’ delivered by Dr. Muhammad Fathi bin Yusof, Research Fellow (Law and Constitution) at Centre of Research for Fiqh, Science and Technology (CFiRST) UTM. Then it was followed by short briefing and video show about the project by Head of the team. In his speech, YBhg. Datuk Hamdan congratulated the committee involved and hoped that the programme would be a pioneer and aspiration to the local community to save on tap water use and be able to build the same system in their respective areas. He also stated that the linkages between the university and the community are also important to ensure project carried out is impactful and beneficial to the people.

Other than the launching event, exhibition booth on RWHS were opened and participated by private companies such as Auralite (M) Sdn. Bhd and I-Control Solutions (M) Sdn. Bhd, as well as related agencies namely the National Water Services Commission (SPAN) and the Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID) to provide information about importance and benefits of RWHS.

A total of 200 guests were present at the event including the heads of neighbouring masjid, community leaders, NGOs, lecturers, teachers, university students, colleges and schools as well as local communities. The ceremony ended at 12.00 noon.