Assoc. Prof. Ts. Ir. Dr. Syuhaida Ismail is: (1) a registered Professional Engineer with Practising Certificate (PEPC) with the Board of Engineers Malaysia (BEM); (2) a registered Professional Engineer with the Institution of Engineers Malaysia (IEM); (3) the Professional Technologist with the Malaysia Board of Technologist (MBOT); (4) the UK Chartered Engineer with The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET); (5) the Associate ASEAN Engineer with ASEAN Federation of Engineering Organisation (AFEO); and (6) the Certified Construction Project Manager (CCPM) with the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB). Nevertheless, as an impassioned academician and through her great networking with Swiss and ASEAN counterparts, she has co-founded the internationally established Swiss-ASEAN Learning and Teaching (SALT) based in Olten, Switzerland for the promotion of the global best T&L practices as well as actively joined the ASEAN Learning Network for the similar genuine purpose. In addition, as part of her noble contribution as an academician, she has also undertaken high-impact research on project/construction management and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with 102 local/international research grants valued at RM 11.2 million, published more than 320 papers in journals, proceedings etc; secured more than 100 local and international grants; granted more than 80 research and professional awards; obtained more than 100 copyrights/trademarks of research products and 2 patents; initiated and involved in more than 20 signed MoU/MoA; reviewer for more than 40 local and international indexed and non-indexed journals; as well as taught more than 300 teaching credit hours ranging from Diploma to Engineering Doctorate. She has also undergone various attachments with the academia and industry with the aim of gaining new experiences and industrial exposures and eventually sharing these with others for the mutual personal and organisational development e.g. trainee engineer with IJM Construction Sdn. Bhd. and KTA Tenaga Sdn. Bhd., research fellow with Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. Ltd., visiting faculty with Zaman University of Phnom Penh, UiTM Shah Alam and UPNM, and recently research fellow with the APEC-Australia Study Centre under the prestigious Australia-APEC Women in Research Fellowship 2022 and University Guest (Academic) with the University of Melbourne.
With her extensive engineering professional qualification status recognised locally and internationally including ASEAN and UK and her high adaptability with the industry, she has been the resource person for various university’s industrial partners e.g. Kementerian Kerja Raya (KKR), Jabatan Kerja Raya (JKR), Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB), Standard and Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia (SIRIM), BEM, IEM (she is the Vice Chair of Women Engineer Section 2022-2023 and the Secretary cum Treasurer of Project Management Technical Division 2017-2023 of IEM) and IET UK (she is The IET Malaysia Network Honorary Secretary 2021-2023) to collaborate via research and development (R&D) and University Social Responsibility (USR) programmes. Amongst all, these include the Razak Faculty of Technology and Informatics flagship USR of Qurban during Eid which has been ran for 12 consecutive years to deliver assistance to the Bottom 40 community in Malaysia and also other parts of the South East Asian Countries, namely Thailand and Cambodia, where more than 10,000 communities have been benefitted from this programme that is conducted annually for the underprivileged urban poor.
Under her voluntary role as the Secretary cum Treasurer of the Project Management Technical Division of IEM, she led several Global Outreach Programmes since 2017 in Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam and recently Thailand for the vulnerable communities amongst the orphans, elderly people and the urban poor. As the former head of the Green Cities and Construction Research Group, she has also led a few community programmes for the homeless in some hot spots near Jalan Pudu, Kuala Lumpur and private orphan centres in Selangor to provide hot meals, clothes, counselling and medical assistance with the collaboration from private clinics in Selangor. Recently during the COVID-19 pandemic, due to its adverse impact to the Bottom B40 community amongst the urban poor and also my contribution to the Bottom 40 community at large, she is entrusted by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation to lead a hydroponic project for the Bottom 40 community in generating active income and becoming more independent and resilience despite the economic downturn due to the pandemic from the technovations her research team invented from this project. With the support from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), IEM and Setiawangsa Member of Parliament Office, she empowers 20,000 Bottom 20 community living in the 5 block People’s Housing Project (PPR) Seri Semarak of 1,580 units of low-cost apartments in Kuala Lumpur through the sales and self-consumption of abundant hydroponic plants, where at the same time, PPR Seri Semarak is established as the Smart Community Urban Farming Training Centre for the IoT, smart agro application, smart solar system and NFT hydroponic for other PPR in Malaysia.
Due to her active involvement with the industry players and her leadership quality demonstrated via R&D and USR programmes she led involving the close collaboration between UTM and the industry, she has been personally selected by Malaysian Resources Corporation Berhad (MRCB), a Malaysian leading urban property developer and contractor, to be coached by the top executive management of MRCB as the trainee CEO via a 6-month (September 2017 – February 2018) leadership training of CEO@Faculty 2.0, a special programme under Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) that exclusively selects 54 young lecturers from the Malaysian public universities to be trained as future leaders in academia. While holding the position as the trainee CEO of MRCB where her leadership skills are honed through various programmes and meetings that she led, she was invited by the National Council of Professors to be the subject matter expert for construction industry for the Ministry of Rural and Regional Development reality TV show, “Rural Business Challenge (RBC) Mencari CEO Desa 2017”, a programme under the Government Transformation Plan (GTP) that encourages rural youth to venture into entrepreneurship as preferred career.
Due to her passion and strong strategic thinking to promote young leaders and teaching staff with professional qualification amongst the academia via mentoring programmes that she conducted while holding the position of the Head of Green Cities and Construction Research Group (GCCRG) (2016-2022), with the support from the faculty and GCCRG members, she has successfully mentored more than 30 Professional Technologist (Ts.) amongst UTM staff via MBOT Fast-Track Route and is currently mentoring 10 teaching staff to become the professional engineer within the next 2 years. She is also passionate in creating learning and self-improvement opportunities as well as inspiring people by encouraging personal career development growth, where during her 6-month tenure with MRCB through mentoring programmes and career advancement discussions, 3 MRCB staffs have been enrolled in postgraduate programme at Razak Faculty of Technology and Informatics.
Although she is recognised to be at the higher tier of industrial professionalism and appears to others as credible with her experience in graduating 5 post-doctoral researchers, 15 PhD students, 3 MPhil students and 28 MSc students of very experienced engineers and construction industry players in their respective fields, she has a great passion to encourage interests on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) amongst the school children and empower women involvement in STEM via USR programmes she led with the supports of faculty, GCCRG members and students society. Her strong and honest passion as well as her interactive and operational leadership qualities have drawn the interest of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI), PetroSains, National STEM Movement and IET Malaysia Local Network, to invite her as the regular facilitator and speaker of STEM for their annual activities within the country e.g. National Science Week, Kuala Lumpur Engineering and Science Fair (KLESF) and Science Fair @ The School, where more than 20,000 school students have benefitted in terms of increasing their interests towards STEM and eventually selecting STEM as their chosen career, funded by ministries/government agencies, professional bodies and private companies. MRCB has also appointed her as the trainer for ToT and facilitator for MRCB’s CSR programmes conducted at their adopted schools that also aim to promote interests on STEM with the support from the Ministry of Education. She was also appointed by the Ministry of Education MOE as the speaker and facilitator for Training of Trainers (ToT) for the Mentor-Mentee Programme under the STEM Initiative in training the secondary and primary school teachers towards advocating STEM interest amongst teachers and pupils.
Since 2019, she is also invited and subsequently sponsored by the Palestinian Higher Council for Innovation and Excellence (HCIE) under the auspices of Mahmoud Abbas, President of the State of Palestine to deliver a plenary speech at the National Forum on the Fourth Industrial Revolution in Ramallah, Palestine to share her insights on STEM and women empowerment despite the illegal occupation by Israel. Eventually, she is appointed as the only Malaysian Member of the General Assembly of the Higher Council for Innovation and Excellence (HCIE) Diaspora Council for Innovation and Excellence, the State of Palestine, where she led a research with the Al-Quds University researchers to solve the problems faced by the Palestinian women in engineering during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Under her stewardship as the Mentor under UTM Mentor-Mentee Cohort 2 and Razak Faculty Mentor-Mentee Programmes, she is mentoring 6 faculty members in improving their performance in all 7 aspects of yearly appraisal KPIs demonstrated via their yearly e-LPPT through exclusive mentoring and close guidance. Thus, it is hoped that her presence would be greatly benefitting others within the university in terms of communally advancing their performance and achievement towards improving the university standing in the global university ranking.