Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) was ranked the top university in Malaysia in joint position with Universiti Putra Malaysia according to the Times Higher Education’s inaugural Asia-Pacific University Ranking 2017. The ranking came from the analysis of thousands of universities across 38 different nations in East Asia, Southeast Asia and Oceania, which includes prestigious universities from Australia and New Zealand.

The ranking uses the same performance indicators as the THE World University Rankings 2016-17. However the weightings are specially recalibrated to reflect the priorities of institutions in the Asia-Pacific region, making it a more accurate indicator of the dynamism of the rapidly growing higher education market in the region.

The performance indicators are grouped into five areas: Teaching (the learning environment), Research (volume, income and reputation), Citations (research influence), International outlook (staff, students and research), and Industry income (knowledge transfer).

For UTM to have attained the highest joint rank in Malaysia at 121-130 is an achievement that is largely attributed to the strong commitment by UTM faculty members, staff and students, and reflects the motto of the Malaysian Ministry of Education “Soaring Upwards”.

Research success in the 21st century calls for impact, dissemination and sustainability that could make a difference to entities and each pocket population around it.  Hence, enhancement of research performance of any universities must not happen in a vacuum.   It merits a collaborative commitment among regional and institutional players in different parts of the world. This project is established toward such a direction. The main aim of this project is to assess and enhance the quality of research performance among various South East Asia Universities. It is co-funded by Erasmus under the umbrella of Capacity Building for Higher Education project.

The program partner is University of Economics, Bratislava, Slovakia, while International Business School, UTM is one of the program partners together with nine other universities in the consortium. The duration of this research project is two years and 8 months. The project encompasses training for researchers and doctoral students, workshops, publications, conferences and policy papers. For more info on this research, visit: https://www.repesea.org/

Dr. Jaysuman B. Pusppanathan won 1st place while Dr. Mohd Nazri Bajuri took the 3rd place at the Falling Walls Lab Malaysia 2017. The both winners from Faculty of Biosciences and Medical Engineering presented their winning three minutes research presentation at the event that was held at AIMST University, Bedong, Kedah on 15 July 2017. Dr. Jaysuman B. Pusppanathan astonished the crowd with his presentation entitled “Breaking the Wall of the Unseen Flow Imaging” which stood out among all the 29 participants from different academic institutions and industries in Malaysia. He will be sponsored by AIMST University to represent Malaysia to the Falling Walls Lab International Finale in Berlin, Germany on 8-9 November 2017 to share his innovative research ideas to participants from around the globe. Meanwhile, Dr. Mohd Nazri Bajuri’s presentation on “Breaking the Wall of Mechanobiology and Humanity” gained the attention of the juries over other competitors that earned him 3rd placing.

Falling Walls Lab is organized by the Falling Walls Foundation to foster scientific and entrepreneurial innovations, as well as to promote idea exchange between outstanding professionals from different fields of expertise. The foundation is supported by the Ministry of Education and Research, Germany, the Robert Bosch Foundation, the Helmholtz Association and other acclaimed academic institutions, foundations and companies.

UTM MagicX telah membangunkan lebih 100 aplikasi mudah alih yang memfokuskan aplikasi berkaitan pendidikan kanak-kanak, murid sekolah dan pelajar institusi pengajian tinggi. Aplikasi-aplikasi ini dibangunkan dalam mencapai sasaran UTM sebagai sebuah universiti yang melangkah ke arah revolusi pembelajaran dan pengajaran digital.

CYBERJAYA, 17 July 2017 – Universiti Teknologi Malaysia’s students have once again made UTM proud in the Innovate Malaysia innovation competition by winning the Excellence Award (Overall champion), three First Prize Awards, one Second Prize Awards and one Consolation prize in Innovate Malaysia Design Competition 2017.

Innovate Malaysia Design Competition is a multi-discipline engineering  competition that is open to all final year student who are taking engineering or computer science and usually using their final year project to compete in this largest engineering design competition in Malaysia.

The challenges promote innovative culture in engineering work and tackling real world problems using engineering solutions which is important as well to consider impact to society. Commercialization also has been one of the criteria of developing the project.

This competition is co-organized by Intel, Fusionex, Keysight, MathWorks, Microsoft, CeDEC, Motorola Solutions, National Instruments, SilTerra, ViTrox and Dreamcatcher supported by Ministry of Education, MaGIC, Talent Corp Malaysia, MDEC, IEM, Techsqurce, and Terasic.

There are new categories which they called design challengers by CyberView, Daikin, Entopia, IM4U, IQ-Group, Ranhill, Sime Darby, TM, and WCS.

The Spot team won the Excellence Award and First Prize Award under Vitrox Track. The team won RM 5,000 + ViTrox Incubation Space for 6 months with Mentoring Program + Free CoE Training Courses in 2017.

Spot is an app that contains the latest technology of machine vision and smartphone to eliminate all parking problems. Features including finding parking, reserving parking and even solving double parking make Spot always the first choice among all drivers.

It provides real time update on availability of parking lots, platform for drivers to communicate, alert users in undesirable occurrences and convenience reserve parking system.

The team members are Daniel Ng Chiu Loong, Ang Miin Shan and Lee San Kong  from Faculty of Electrical Engineering(FKE).The team was supervised by Dr Yusmeeraz Yusof.

Another team that  won the 1st Prize Award (RM 5000)  and Cyberview Design Challenge award (RM 3000) was the ‘ParkKing’ in Motorola Track.Their product ParkKing is a smart parking system with double parking detection. The system provide a smart social solution for the city administration and public user.

For city administration, the system has an integrated parking lot monitoring and analysis system as well as a smart phone application for officer to give summon. For the public user, they can check for parking lot availability in real time and also report any illegal parking by the provided platform.

The team members are Gan Yi Reng, Edward Chan Kam Fai, and Leow Tan Chun Kit all from Faculty of Electrical. The team was supervised by Dr. Kamaludin Bin Mohamad Yusof (FKE).

For the Microsoft Track, the Solvere Team has won the First Place again after last win at Microsoft Imagine Cup in UTP, Perak.

The team won RM 5000 based on same project they won for previous competition. SmadBot(Smart Advertising Robot) that is capable moving around in places of attraction like shopping malls, restaurant, airports and exhibitions based on waypoint navigation.

One of the unique features of this robot is that it can know a person’s details by scanning their face to predict age, gender and emotion and then show relevant advertisements personalised specifically for the person who is standing in front of it.

This method of targeted advertising also publishes the data to the cloud so that advertisers can perform analytics on their data and make decisions from it.

The new features of the robot is the robot can greet you by your name by just using camera data in which the person need to feed the image to train in the first place.

This will improve personal preference on product advertisement shown at the robot. The project was developed by Nik Ahmad Faisal bin Mohd Kamarolzaman, Zul Fahmi bin Khamiti and Muhammad Syukri bin Sainal all from Faculty of Electrical Engineering.The team was supervised by Dr Yeong Che Fai

Second prize winner for Mathworks track won RM 3000 + Matlab Software. The project, Autotuned Electrical Muscle Stimulator with electromyogram biofeedback was developed by Muhammad Naqiuddin bin Nazali from under supervision of Dr. Leow Pei Ling aims to treat people that suffering the muscle weaknesses. It applying a certain electric intensity automatically across the muscle to stimulate is as a passive exercises.

Lee Mei Xiang won consolation prize worth RM 500 for the project “16-bits High Speed Adder” for Silterra Track.In VLSI system,  everyone preferred more for a high performance with low power consumption system.

Adder as the lowest level in VLSI system plays an important roles to make the system to full fill all of those requirements. In this project, the performance of several types of adder was investigated by using Quartus II and Synopsis tools in the target of 180 nm Silterra Technology.

At the end of this project,  the performance of Kogge Stone Adder is the best compare to other adder especially in speed up rate. Kogge Stone adder is 3.44 x speed up rate when compare to the build in adder in Synopsis Tools.The team was supervised by PM.  Muhammad Mun’im Ahmad Zabidi

The teams would like thank the Centre for Student Innovation (UTM CSI) and faculties involved in facilitating and supporting them in joining this competition.

JOHOR BAHRU, 20 July 2017 – With strong support from UTM MyLinE Task Force, Language Academy, and UTM International Office, UTM Toastmasters Club has organised a special social gathering for a group of Summer School participants from University of Electronics, Science and Technology, China (UESTC) hosted by Language Academy from 16 – 26 July 2017.

This programme catered for thirty-two UESTC students paired with UTM students as ‘buddies’ and accompanied by two UESTC English language teachers.

Themed ‘Guts and Gusto’, the programme aimed to develop confidence in speaking in English. Tongue twisters were used to break the ice, and three prepared speeches were delivered followed by a feedback session before the students’ turn to take over the floor.

​In line with the theme, Dr Farhana Diana Deris (Senior Lecturer, Language Academy & Head of Microsite Development, UTM MyLinE Task Force) gave a rousing speech on the ‘Courage of a Child’, Aliyu Isah-Chikaji (PhD Candidate, Faculty of Management) on seizing the moment with his speech entitled ‘Misperceived Bourgeoisie’, and Fasihah Mohd Jaslan (Assistant Registrar, Global Education & Student Experience, UTM International) with her debut speech as a Toastmaster entitled ‘The Town Girl’.

​As per the tradition of Toastmasters Club, speeches were evaluated and shared by Prof Dr Nor Haniza Sarmin (Director, Global Education & Student Experience, UTM International), Siti Norziahidayu Amzee Zamri (PhD Candidate, Faculty of Science), and Ayu Azrin Abdul Aziz (Executive Officer, International Scholar & Student Services, UTM International).

In the activity that followed, Two to Tango, the students crafted and presented their speech, and benefited from peer feedback session.

A short break was given after the speech sessions and the break was filled with online activities hosted by the UTM MyLinE Task Force. Working with their UTM buddies, the UESTC students attempted quizzes on MyLinE and three winners were selected based on their scores.

Sisi LI, Jueyan WU and Xia CHEN from UESTC won complimentary subscription to MyLinE (national online resources for learning in English) sponsored by UTM MyLinE.

The programme culminated in a group activity where the students used recyclable materials to design and model themed costumes. Based on the materials used and presentation skills, three models were crowned as The Sassiest, The Most Phenomenal, and The Most Outstanding, respectively.

It was a programme full of guts and gusto indeed, and with thirteen UTM Toastmasters and four UTM MyLinE Task Force joining forces, the programme has showcased not only the collaborative English language support programmes at UTM but also the spirit, the very culture and flavour of UTM, of being of service to mankind and of giving back to society.

For more information about UTM Toastmasters Club and activities, visit https://www.facebook.com/groups/utmtmc or contact Dr Farhana Diana Deris (Vice President – Public Relations) at 018 2087678/ diana@utm.my. MyLinE can be reached at http://myline.utm.my or myline@utm.my. For more info on summer school, please visit  http://www.utm.my/mytree/ss02/

Acceptance speech of  Johor Queen, UTM Chancellor, HRH Raja Zarith Sofiah Sultan Idris Shah at the award ceremony of Honorary Doctorate Degree of Letters at Nottingham University, Malaysia.

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ    In the name of Allah The Most Merciful and the Most Beneficient

السَّلاَمُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ      May Peace Be Upon Us

Ladies and Gentlemen, Good Morning,

It is an honour to receive this honorary degree this morning, and I would like to thank the Vice Chancellor and everyone here at Nottingham University.

Most of the time, during graduation ceremonies, graduates are usually given advice about achieving success; about grabbing opportunities; about making your dreams come true. Those are all – good, realistic goals. After all the years and the hard work you’ve put in to get a degree, of course you would wish to have a successful career.

But I’d like to ask you to do a little bit more than just to pursue a successful career : I’d like to ask you to be kind people.

Being kind is a choice and it isn’t a difficult one to make.

When I speak at the graduation ceremonies at the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), I always remind the graduates not to forget the struggles and the sacrifices their parents had gone through so that they could get into university and get a degree. And I’d like to say the same to you too.

As Professor Kendall had said in his speech – and referring to what I had written – we should not think that we are better than our parents just because we’ve succeeded in getting degrees. Our parents (and our families) should be the first people to whom we show kindness. Even if we are busy with our work, we can still do little acts of kindness. And I say this because I have met many wonderful men and women who are extremely busy people but who still manage to help the disadvantaged, the sick, the aged, or those who have been rejected by society through the organisations or foundations they had set up, or just by forming groups who have the same interest in being kind, in helping others. They’ve proven that being busy and earning a living does not mean that they cannot help those less fortunate than themselves.

There are so many amazing Malaysians who do more than they should, despite the restraints they face juggling a career and a family.

Some whose names come to mind (because I’ve had the honour to meet them) include Tan Sri Jemilah Mahmood, Tan Sir Vincent Tan, Dr Hartini Zainuddin, Syed Azmi, as well as those who work within government agencies. There are many other kind Malaysians but I have not had the chance to meet them personally so I have not included their names here.

I’ve also met a few internationally-famous people : at a philanthropist forum in Singapore, I met Peter Buffet.  His father,  Warren Buffet, is, as we all know, one of the richest men in the United States and in the world, and is also known as being one of the world’s more generous philanthropists. Peter Buffet himself chose to help girls and young women of different ethnicity in the United States through the NoVo Foundation which he set up with his wife.

After meeting Peter Buffet, I of course started to do a Google search about his father : according to a documentary about him, the director, Peter Kunhardht, said that he enjoys meeting young people but that his advice wouldn’t be about business or making money but that “his entire class, which lasted for a couple of hours, was about how to become a good, decent person.”

In the very uncertain world we live in now, we desperately need good, decent people. We see and read about countries hit by natural disasters or are in the midst of armed conflicts. We see that “hate crimes” have become more rampant in certain countries in the Western world. To counter hatred, we need kindness.

Here, in Malaysia, we have social issues and problems which still remain unresolved : we have single mothers who have to bring up their children single-handedly. Many young people become drug addicts but do not get the support they need to be rid of their addiction. There are teenage and unwed mothers.

What I have seen happen since the last decade is that some of us  have become more judgmental and less forgiving; more selfish and less giving. You, as part of the younger generation of Malaysians can change that. You have the power to change all that is negative and wrong in our country.

You can be the dynamic new leaders we need for our country, and in whatever field you choose. But while you pursue your career, please do not forget those who were not as lucky as you are and who have not had the opportunities to go to university like you have. Be kind to them. Think what you can do for them.

As for myself, I do not have a 9-to-5 job like most people have, and which most of you will have in the very near future, InShaAllah, God Willing. But I consider being the wife of a Sultan as a full-time job. It is a job which includes service to others. It is a life of service. And I have been inspired to do what little I can by some of those who were or are very important to me and they include my own late parents. As a little girl, I accompanied my mother when she visited patients at hospital wards, or orphanages.

I also remember seeing my father rush out of our home when there was a flood and the people who lived in our little town and in the nearby villages needed to be rescued. So he used his rather small boat and ferried the villagers from their homes to higher and safer grounds. When I wrote about what my father had done on my Facebook account, someone replied and said he remembered my father ferrying the villagers across because not only had my father rescued his own family but had also rescued their goats, and when the floods had subsided,  they had later on gone to the palace to see my father and ask him if they could please have their goats back!

My husband I both believe that because we are so blessed to have  a privileged life, we must “give back” to society. There are many whose voices remain unheard and it is our duty or our job to try and make their voices heard by speaking up for them.

Warren Buffet had said that,

“If you’re in the luckiest 1 percent of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the 99 percent.”

And that is what my family is trying our best to do : because we do know we are the lucky ones, and we should share our blessings with those who have few or no blessings.

WABILLAHI WALHIDAYAH, WASSALAMU ALAIKUM WARAHMATULLAHI WABARAKAATUH.

May Allah grant us peace.

July 13th 2017 – Two students from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia received the SAE Malaysia Award during the 2nd International Conference on Sustainability Mobility (ICSM) 2017 organized by the Society of Automotive Engineers Malaysia (SAEM) at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur Campus.

The two students were Hafidz Afiq Hamdan and Muhammad Taufiq b. Mohd Zin from Faculty of Mechanical Engineering UTM. The SAEM committee awarded Hafidz Afiq Hamdan with the ‘Outstanding Student Award’ for actively participating in the SAEM student chapter while Muhammad Taufiq b. Mohd Zin was awarded the ‘Student Merit Award’ for actively contributing toward SAEM activities and making a significant contribution to SAEM. These two students had been greatly involved in organizing various SAE student programs during their studies.

Some of the programs organized were industrial visits, helping orphanages, visiting schools, conducting workshops and participating in Formula SAE student events. Muhammad Taufiq and his formula student team had also influenced several other local universities to establish their SAE student chapter through their involvement with activities such as the Formula SAE.

Formula SAE is a design competition for students to develop a prototype formula cart and to demonstrate its performance on a closed track, and is organized by the regional SAE. The students involved in FSAE were given the task to develop a prototype formula cart and are put in role as owners of companies that could produce mass production carts. The experience in the project exposed the students to the industry environment and helped them to develop their skills in their career development.

The ICSM conference was attended by academicians, students, government agencies, corporate bodies and non-governmental organizations that are directly involved with the mobility industry. The awards given to these students are recognition of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia’s involvement in promoting and developing their students in preparation for future roles in the automotive industry.

UTM Architecture students won the Grand Prize and the First Runner-up Prize for ARCHITALENT Architectural Student Design Competition, which was held from 11 May to 20 July 2017 in conjunction with the 18th International Architecture, Interior Design & Building Exhibition 2017 (ARCHIDEX17).

The competition was organised by Pertubuhan Akitek Malaysia (PAM) in collaboration with C.I.S Network Sdn. Bhd. Over 70 submissions were sent by students of accredited architecture schools and institutions across Malaysia, where 20 shortlisted finalists presented their ideas to a panel of industry-led judges at the Plenary Theatre of the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre on 20 July 2017.

There were 9 entries from UTM Architecture students shortlisted as finalists: Ooi Soon Theng (supervised by Dr. Lim Yaik Wah), Wilson Tan Xern Ee (supervised by Dr. Lim Yaik Wah), Phua Chu Yun (supervised by Dr. Sharifah Salwa Bt Syed Mahdzar), Chiong Hoe Sieng (supervised by Dr. Sharifah Salwa Bt Syed Mahdzar), Koh Jhee Son and Lee Shun Shian (supervised by Ar. Samsiah binti Abdullah), Lee Chang Hern (supervised by Dr. Wan Hashimah Bte Wan Ismail), Lam Chee Hau (supervised by Dr. Khairul Anwar Bin Mohamed Khaidzir), Rashidah Jimi Sham (supervised by Dr. Khairul Anwar Bin Mohamed Khaidzir) and Ahmad Afiq Bin Mohd Jasmin (supervised by Dr. Dodo Yakubu Aminu).

Two of the UTM finalists had won the prizes. Ooi Soon Theng, who is in the 1st year of the Master of Architecture programme and under the supervision of Dr. Lim Yaik Wah, won the Grand Prize of RM3,000, a certificate and an air ticket sponsored by Malaysia Airlines to UIA 2017 Seoul World Architects Congress in September in South Korea. His project title is “Wind Driven Ventilated Malaysia Green Building Confederation Learning Centre”. Also, the First Runner-up Prize of RM2,000 and a certificate was awarded to Rashidah Jimi Sham, who is also in the 1st year of the Master of Architecture programme, with her project titled “Body Mechanics” and under the supervision of Dr. Khairul Anwar Bin Mohamed Khaidzir.

The culture of giving is indeed embedded in the core values of UTM graduates, and this was shown at the UTM Faculty of Mechanical Engineering’s alumni dinner at the Residensi UTM KL last Saturday, where mock checks totalling RM30,000 were presented to the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic & International), Prof. Dr Zainuddin Abdul Manan. The sale of the tables for the dinner, and also the Touch n Go cards from UTMAlumni also provided the additional funds, much needed in the current economical climate.

UTM welcomes donations in any form, and as much or as little as the corporate entity or the individual can spare. Every ringgit that goes into the endowment fund ensures that poor students are able to continue with their studies, and are able to have food in their bellies at night. Your contribution, no matter how small, matters.
Together we can make a difference.

By Dr. Sheela Chandren

 On the 20^th of July 2017, in conjunction with Iskandar Learning Festival 2017, STEM Day was held in UniKL MITEC Bandar Seri Alam, Masai, where many activities related to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, involving school students and teachers, were carried out.

The “Saintis Cilik Kreatif” Competition was one of the highlights, where 7 teams of Form 1 students did a 15 minutes presentation.

In fact, these 7 teams were actually participants of Jelajah Sains 1.0, where 121 undergraduate students from the Faculty of Science and Faculty of Bioscience and Biomedical Engineering, UTM, visited 7 schools in the district of Johor Bahru, held from 8^th of May to the 11^thof May 2017, with the aim of spreading the love for Science among Form 1 students. Jelajah Sains 1.0 is part of a service learning programme, that aims involve the transfer of technical knowledge and skills in Science and Mathematics from UTM’s undergraduate students to the chosen Form 1 students.

This “Saintis Cilik Kreatif” Competition was judged by 3 juries, namely Dr. Husni Hani Jameela Sapingi, Senior Lecturer from the Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, UTM, En. Junit Yasir from Johor Department of Education and Dr. Kamarulafizam Ismail, Senior Lecturer from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, UTM.

In the 15 minutes that were given to each team, the contestants not only had to demonstrate a Science concept of their choice, they also had to answer a field of questions from the juries.

Among the experiments carried out and explained by the contesting teams were ‘Elephant Toothpaste’, Volcano, Friction, and many more. As it was the first time conducting/demonstrating scientific experiments for most of the contestants, many unexpected twists took place.

In fact, one of the most memorable one was when the production of the ‘Elephant Toothpaste’ went out of control and overflowed out of the container and onto the stage. The crowd could not contain their laughter. Even the juries and contestants joined in. Luckily, the mess was easily cleared up and all was well.

After a tight competition, ‘Boomshakalaka Mad Scientists Team’ from SMK Skudai emerged as the winner, with their demonstration entitled ‘How to Drink Water when it is Polluted’.

The second prize went to ‘Team Friction’ from SMK Selesa Jaya 2, while ‘Science Boys Team’, also from SMK Selesa Jaya 2 was the second runner up.

The prizes were cash amounting to RM 1000 and hampers sponsored by Yayasan Penyayang MPJBT and APG Plantation.

One of the juries, Dr. Kamarulafizam commented that although the contestants mostly demonstrated very basics and simply experiments, the level of enthusiasm and interest showed by the students were overwhelming.

Most of them had trouble answering questions by the juries, but they persevere and tried their best. After all, it is students that are passionate and eager to learn like these that will keep the spirit of Science strong!

JOHOR BAHRU, 25 July 2017 – A courtesy visit was conducted by a delegation from the Indonesian Ministry of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform to Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) earlier today.

The delegation which consists of 20 civil administrators and academicians led by Deputy Minister of Institutional and Governance Affairs, Rini Widyantini arrived today at Sultan Ibrahim Chancellery Building and greeted by the UTM Vice Chancellor, Prof. Datuk Ir. Dr. Wahid Omar, and the university management team.

Among the other members of the delegation were Dr. Ir. Patdono Suwignjo, Director General of Science, Technology, and Higher Education Institutions, Ministry of Science, Technology, and Higher Education; Ir. M. Shadiq Pasadigoe, Chief Advisor of Government and Regional Autonomy, Ministry of Administrative Reform; and rectors and vice-rectors of Institut Teknologi Bandung, Universitas Diponegero, Universitas Gadjah Mada, and Universitas Dharma Andalas, among others.

The courtesy visit was aimed to learn best practices from UTM in terms of managing academic related matters, financial sustainability issues, business process strategy, human resource management, and elements of autonomy and governance.

Additionally, the delegation also sought the oppurtunity to discuss future possible collaborations in the field of research and development and academic studies, and to fully utilise the regional collegiality and collaboration afforded by initiatives such as the I’M Research Consortium (Indonesia-Malaysia Research Consortium).

As part of the tour, the delegates were also brought on a tour of the UTM campus and visits to several UTM research facilities.