Source: DTU

Today is DTU Skylab 1st birthday. A happy birthday wish from thousands kilometers away for DTU Skylab! Have a great year ahead!

Let’s see all the passion realized in the future.

Oh I really miss the view and the environment there. And I really like when there are birthdays, the Danmark flag will be there too. My respect for the Danish. Good to practice tradition.

Received another invitation to review a manuscript.

Nice topic, I’m interested to read. Thank goodness the editor give a month for the review.

Can spend ample time for it. Let see what’s next!

Received an email from Elsevier, saying that my status for ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (as a scientific reviewer) now have been awarded as Recognized Reviewer Status.

Among most of the journals that I’ve reviewed, I like this kind of appreciation. Good job Elsevier. We reviewers usually doing reviews for the spirit of academic, without any hope of getting profit/cash from it. By doing so, we reviewers feel appreciated.

In addition, we do get discounts for our publication that is accepted in journals that we reviewed.

With the emerging of online mapping starting from the year 2005, I can see the trend recently shifted to online data sources. With this crowd sourcing data now everybody can have their satellite images and other geospatial data for free and available online.

I’m starting to put my interest into this approach. I’m currently developing a system with the integration of these online data sources for local government agency (see snapshots below). This is 100% hard-coded program (it means no subscription to any commercial software ^.^).

Yes, it depends on the end user requirement and needs (accuracy issues, internet connectivity & others). But well, you need to decide then. Buy your own satellite images or view it without any cost?

If you’ve picked the first option, you have to rethink again if the systems is for mobile applications. Right?

Image source: http://sarahlouq.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/PhD.jpg

As for today I would like to show you one trick on how making your PhD defense look great. This is good and in some way it can boost your confidence in the defense. I did it, and I got good remarks from the examiners. One of it was “Uznir, I would like to give you credits for your excellent outputs. Not many students can produce as what you did in 3 years”. Doesn’t it feel good when that is the first thing that your examiners tell you in Q&A session? 🙂

What I did was, apart from my thesis, I compiled my list of publications during my PhD study. It looks like I have another thesis in my hand.

This 100++ pages is a compilation of academic publications that consists of 3 International Journals, 1 Patent Filing, 1 Chapter (Springer Book), 3 International Conferences and 1 Academic Poster

I mentioned to the examiners that there are at least 1 publication for each chapter in the thesis. This is to say indirectly to the examiners that all of my chapters have been reviewed by the scientific committee and experts from around the globe.

If you can do this, it means that your contents, your ideas, your methods, and your results are widely approved and accepted by the other experts. Your examiners may be one of the expert colleague. They will think, “hey, my friend approved this student work. So should I”.. 🙂

Good luck in your defense!

On the last day of the XXV FIG Congress that officiated by Prime Minister of Malaysia, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, I’ve managed to present a research paper in Planning and Managing Urbanization session. My topic was “An Approach of Instigating 3D City Model in Urban Air Pollution Modeling for Sustainable Urban Development in Malaysia“.

With several facts revealed, the delegates said its informative and they sees the incoming problems. Especially this slide:

I wish this can be a kick start for a better sustainable future, for future generations.

My students 🙂

One of the most important element in my Computer Programming III (Advanced Programming) course is conducting a hands on programming for the students. In the picture, is the real coding experience for the students in the lab.

Although lectures are much much more simpler than the lab, but in some sense, I need to give them the real experience during the lab. To prepare a “working code”, reading their code “essay(s)”, answering practical questions (i.e. why is it not working?) is I can say like squeezing your brain in order to identify student’s way of thinking and how to mold them to the correct way.

To prepare a one hour lecture require more than two hours of preparation. Lab? Is more than that. Usually, there are 2 hours of lecture and practical (lab) per week per course.

(Source: http://img.wallpaperstock.net:81)

A little bit different post this time. I’ve remembered an interesting song title “Biar Ku Menjadi Lilin” (Let Me Be The Candle) by Pelangi (Rainbow). An evergreen 1985 song that is written from a heart of a teacher (academician) for their students. If you able to be this candle, you indeed have a noble heart my dear fellow teachers.

The original video:

I’m hosting a research meeting between two well established research universities in Malaysia. The meeting starts from November 21st to November 24th, 2014. The main idea is to discuss, evaluate, and collaborate in research activities.

The reason I’m conducting this meeting is that I think it is a good practice for expanding the cutting edge research not only with industries but between universities. And this should be put in practice for other universities to established collaborations since I like to say this, that “the knowledge is free for all”!