KUALA LUMPUR, 21 December 2017 – Faculty of Electrical Engineering (FKE) student team from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) ranked in the top 2 of Imagine Cup Malaysia Pitch Day and won the entrance ticket for TechMatch ASEAN, which is a 2-day pitch marathon that connects 40 top ASEAN-based start-up and scale-up teams with a group of corporate investors, venture capitalists and business angels from Silicon Valley.

Imagine Cup Malaysia Pitch Day 2017 was held on 9th December in Microsoft Malaysia Office, Menara 3 Petronas, Kuala Lumpur.

The winning team, named “JOY”, comprised of three FKE students, who were Tan Pei Seng, Goh Kai Woon and Lee Chee Heng under the guidance of Dr. Yeong Che Fai.

Among 20 teams from 10 local and private universities in Malaysia, Team “JOY” successfully won the judges over with the title called “Development of ‘Joy’, An Elderly Care Robot”.

With the machine vision system and voice communication system, “Joy” will be able to reduce the loneliness of the elderly as well as assist the nurses in the elderly care centre.

In addition, “Joy” will be always connected to the cloud for storing the information of the elderly and this information can be accessed remotely by the medical staff.

JOHOR BAHRU, 21 December 2017 – Four Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) students who took Japanese language classes at UTM were successful in securing job offers in Japan.
The four will start working in September 2018.

The undergraduate from Faculty of Computing, Amirah Adnan and Ismah Imani Ahamad from Faculty of Mechanical (FKM) were offered a job by Kao research and development, Albert Sia Kah Dak and Kiong Wey Seng from Faculty of Electrical Engineering (FKE) will be working at Solize and Ushio respectively.

They received the offers after being interviewed during The 1st Asia to Japan International Seminar at Pasona, Tokyo from 11th to 14th December 2017.

Meanwhile, Choong Mun Tho from FKE will attend a final interview in February 2018.

In addition, a senior Japanese Language lecturer from UTM R. Kumaraguru, was invited as the plenary speaker at the seminar.

He presented a talk on “Japanese Language Education in Malaysia and the Uniqueness of UTM’s Japanese Language Program”.

He was also invited to talk at Ikubunkan International High School on “Internationalization in Malaysia and Opportunities to further studies at UTM”.

All accommodation and flight expenses to attend the seminar were sponsored by the organizing company, Asia to Japan.

JOHOR BAHRU, 19 December 2017 – Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) Global Day is one of the internationalization initiatives taken by the management to internationalize the University and its community as well.

It was also organized with the aim to provide more exposure to the local UTM community about the higher learning environments in other countries.

The Pro-Vice Chancellor (International), Prof. Dr. Nordin Yahya in his speech said that only through global educational engagements can the UTM community stand more chances to communicate with foreign universities representatives.

“This is the day when you stand a chance to meet and ask them directly about the prospectives of studying at their respective universities.

“You can also gain as many information as you want including courses offered, the fee structures , the programme recognition and the environment at that particular place,” said Prof. Nordin.

Also attending the launching ceremony were Deputy Director (Global Strategy and Engagement) Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mohd Ariffin Abu Hassan and Director (Global Education & Student Experience), Prof. Dr. Nor Haniza Sarmin.

Eight foreign universities participated in the event, namely Beifang University (China), Universitas Sriwijaya (Indonesia), Binul Universiti (Indonesia), King Mongkut University of Technology (Thailand), State University of As-Syarif Kasim (Indonesia), Krabuk University (Turkey), Bayburt University (Turkey) and Karamanoglu University (Turkey).

UTM currently has academic collaborations with about 200 universities around the world. The collaborations undertaken are in the field of Research and Development (R&D), the exchange of expertise, student and staffs and publication materials.

The UTM Global Day programme was held at the Banquet Hall, Sultan Ibrahim Chancellery Building for two days beginning from December 19th 2017.

MEDINI CITY, ISKANDAR PUTERI, Johor, 20 December 2017 – Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) Johor today inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Medini Iskandar Malaysia Sdn Bhd (MIM), the first development/private company from Iskandar Puteri.

The MIM sets out the basis of cooperation between UTM and MIM in enhancing the talent pool and prepare the UTM graduates for employment.

The signing took place at Medini Investor Centre @ Medini 6 in Medini City, where the MoU is expected to broaden the opportunity for both parties to build young talents that provide necessary exposure and skill-set development programme.

UTM is represented by the Vice Chancellor Prof. Datuk Ir. Dr. Wahid Omar, while MIM is represented by Dr James Tee, the Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer of Medini Iskandar Malaysia Sdn Bhd.

Also present were Deputy Vice Chancellor (Student Affairs) Professor Dr Durrishah Idrus, Director of UTM Career Centre, Assoc Prof Dr Othman Ibrahim and Director of Alumni UTM, Assoc Prof Dr Mohamad Ibrahim Mohamad.

“MIM is the first company in Iskandar Puteri that UTM is signing with, and we are privileged that they MIM is very supportive of local universities like UTM.

“Being the master developer and master planner of the 2,230 acres thriving township of Medini City, I can see that the development is robust and I understand there is a strong need to retain and grow skilled workforce,” Professor Wahid said.

He cited, through the collaboration, UTM will give the opportunities to their bright students to garner experience from MIM and hone their skills while learning more about township development in the process of building a sustainable and smart Central Business District.

“The first intake will be in February next year, where MIM will recruit undergraduates and postgraduates to fulfil internship programmes at MIM, particularly in the fields of engineering and construction.

“These programmes are intended to be implemented within a timeframe of three to six months,” he added.

He said, the internship programme is a good platform for the students to learn, and get first-hand experience to build a well-planned city.

“There will be many other companies from Iskandar Puteri expected to adopt this initiative within the next few months. For now, we are happy to have kick-started the process for student placement at MIM,” he said.

Meanwhile, Managing Director / Chief Executive Officer of MIM, Dr James Tee,  said, MIM is very committed to implement the industrial partnership initiative because as a thriving Central Business District, they are building and creating new opportunities for the younger generations to acquire, learn and contribute to the success and sustainability of Medini City.

“Youths are our future leaders and this initiative of educating and nurturing crop of young people in the business of city development will make them better aware of what it takes to build a city.

“As the saying goes, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and programmes like this would make the interns better understand the requirements and appreciate the fine details of city development,” he said.

Dr James added, they chose UTM to implement the programme because of its status being one of the most prestigious and respected local universities in Malaysia that is leading in the academic and research fields of engineering, science and technology.

“We seek bright local talents to be part of this exciting and distinctive journey where Medini City also aspires to be the benchmark for future city development in Malaysia and for the region too,” he cited.

Dr James who graduated with fisrts class degree from UTM in 1995 said, more then 10 percent’s MIM staff graduated from UTM and he thanked to UTM for setting up a corner stone for his career and future.

JOHOR BAHRU, 20 December 2017 – Prof Dr Khairiyah was invited to participate in a study visit to Kyoto on Problem-Based Learning (PBL) for Low Carbon Society (LCS) Education for secondary school students in the Iskandar Region project from 9th December 50 15th december 2017.

The program is funded by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in collaboration with the Kyoto Environment Activities Association (KEAA) and the Kyoto City.

Thirty teachers from six schools were trained at the UTM Centre for Engineering Education (CEE) and mentored to implement PBL for educating Form two students on LCS in 2017.

The visit is a part of the prizes of the PBL-LCS final competition as the finale of the implementation of PBL-LCS in 2017.

Four students and two teachers from Sekolah Menengah Johor Jaya 2, the winners of the LCS final competition, Hj Amiruddin Abdul Manaf from the Johor State Education Department (JPNJ) and Dr Ihsan Ismail from the Ministry of Education were also part of the Malaysian delegate.

The five day study visit comprised of participating in the Kyoto+20 conference in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Kyoto Protocol, meeting with the Kyoto City Mayor, presentations and discussions at two middle and high schools At Notre Dame high school in Kyoto after  students and Dr Khairiyah’s presentation to exchange information on PBL implementations, presentation on PBL by Prof Khairiyah and presentations by students from Malaysia and the Japanese schools.

The teachers and school principle, as well as officers from KEAA expressed interest in the syatematic PBL model, implementation, training and collaboration.

They were also impressed with the solution and presentations from the students who won PBL-LCS competition.

This project will be continued to 2018 with another six new schools, which make a total of 12 schools in Johor to implement PBL at their schools.

This is also in line with the STEM education and 21st century learning initiatives in Malaysia.