12 December 2017: A full-day training programme with Astro Awani journalist, Hilal Azmi, was carried out in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) Johor Bahru to develop the necessary skills for students to become UTM Awani Rangers. The programme, which was organised by the Centre of Community and Industry Network (CCIN) in collaboration with Language Academy, aimed to provide students opportunities to enhance soft skills, gain professional media content practice, engage with community, and create content to be published on an online platform provided by Astro Awani.
A total of 86 students from 12 faculties signed up for the programme with 76 undergraduates and ten postgraduates, including 12 international students from seven countries (Bangladesh, Egypt, Turkmenistan, Yemen, Pakistan, Syria, and Iraq). WhatsApp Group Chat has been created and is in use to sustain the community of UTM Awani Rangers and to support other students who could not attend all the sessions due to classes and other academic commitments.
The programme, which was hosted at Language Academy, UTM Johor Bahru, provided students an overview of independent and mobile journalism, with self, social media and smartphone as tools. The first half of the programme also entailed students interacting with Astro Awani newscaster, Ashwad Ismail, in a live question and answer session, and culminated in the students engaging with both on and off campus communities, collecting facts and opinions, to create content in the form of texts, photos and videos, completely immersed in the role of an Awani Ranger.
In the second half of the programme, Hilal Azmi reviewed the content produced by students and engaged them into thinking and discovering other ways to make their stories better, while the Deputy Director of UTM Corporate Affairs, Dr Abdullah Mohd Nawi, briefed them about rights and responsibilities, autonomy and accountability as UTM students. The pinnacle of the event was the prize-giving and appreciation session where two UTM students were awarded the Best UTM Awani Rangers; Sakeshraj Narajah of the Faculty of Chemical and Energy Engineering, who is also the President of the UTM Aces Toastmasters Club, won for the male category, and Nur Adnin Alwany binti Abd Razak of the Faculty of Biosciences and Medical Engineering for the female category.
For more information on UTM Awani Rangers for UTM Johor Bahru campus, contact Associate Prof Dr Johari Surif, CCIN Director at johari_surif@utm.my, or Dr Farhana Diana Deris, Senior Lecturer, Language Academy at diana@utm.my.
JOHOR BAHRU, 16 December 2017 – Six Merdeka Award recipients shared their views on the state of science education in Malaysia, and their experiences and reflections over their work together with over 80 young scientists, academic staff, and postgraduate students in the inaugural 2017 Merdeka Award meeting jointly organised by the Academy of Sciences Malaysia (ASM), the Merdeka Award secretariat, and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) at UTM Johor Bahru, today.
The six recipients were Academician Tan Sri Dr Salleh Mohd Nor FASc, Professor Dato’ Dr Ahmad Fauzi Ismail FASc, Professor Datuk Dr Halimaton Hamdan FASc, Professor Datin Paduka Dr Khatijah Mohd Yusoff FASc, Distinguished Professor Datuk Dr Harith Ahmad FASc and Professor Dato’ Ir Dr Wan Ramli Wan Daud FASc.
The recipients engaged with the participants through a Merdeka keynote address, a Merdeka lecture, a Merdeka roundtable session, networking lunch and Merdeka Masterclass during the one day event.
ASM President, Professor Datuk Dr Asma Ismail who officiated this event, explained that the 2017 Merdeka Meeting is a platform for participants to learn from distinguished experts, who are adept at optimising resources available within the country to advance knowledge in their respective fields. It also encourages participants to identify potential collaborations which enable them to work with one another in the future.
The format of the 2017 Merdeka Meeting mimics the annual Lindau Nobel Laureate meeting held in Germany, where Nobel Laureates and selected members of the global scientific community gather and network with each other in a series of events over the course of one week. Malaysia usually participates though a delegation of two to three representatives annually, through a stringent selection process done by the Lindau meeting committee.
The Merdeka Award recipients were unanimous in sharing their concerns over the worrying state of science education in Malaysia today. In his keynote address, Academician Tan Sri Dr Salleh Mohd Nor informed participants that there was an acute decline of students enrolling in the science stream.
Professor Datuk Dr Asma delivering her speech at the opening session.
The workforce of the future, explained Professor Datuk Dr Halimaton Hamdan, is in urgent need of skills and competencies in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), which is a requisite in cultivating a society of innovative prosumers (producers and consumers).
The dwindling public interest in science, according to Distinguished Professor Datuk Dr Harith Ahmad, has serious ramifications for Malaysia’s progress as a developed nation. He noted that the public must be able to see a future in science, and are given opportunities to work in areas related to the sciences.
Additionally, the industry should bring the scientific community on board in the country’s development projects, working together in providing solutions to real-world problems.
Professor Datin Paduka Dr Khatijah Mohd Yusoff remarked that Malaysia is not short of policies in science, technology and innovation, and should have no problem in driving the science, technology and innovation (STI) agenda forward.
That said, current policies lack solid footing in implementation. The policies are also in favour of applied research, which will not help the country in developing the critical mass of fundamental research needed for Malaysia to bring the Nobel Laureate back to its shores.
Professor Dato’ Ir Dr Wan Ramli Wan Daud advised participants to uncover new fields of research within their respective disciplines. They should also focus on research that has high growth value and high impact, particularly in energy, chemical engineering and medicine.
Commenting on the decreased public grants allocated for public universities, both Professor Dato’ Dr Ahmad Fauzi Ismail and Distinguished Professor Datuk Dr Harith Ahmad encouraged the young scientists to look at the current situation as a golden opportunity to soar higher.
The lack of resources should not be an excuse to be complacent. Rather, they should reach out to more stakeholders, and innovate within existing resources and networks. For Muslim scholars, their work in science cannot be separated from their religious beliefs, since the pursuit of knowledge is an obligation for every individual.
They can find inspiration and conviction for their work through the Quran. Religious organisations should also consider supporting the scientific community in their scholarly pursuits, through research grants and endowments.
Maria Zainal, the Secretariat for Merdeka Award and joint organiser for the event, hoped that the inaugural 2017 Merdeka Meeting, and the subsequent meeting editions in the future, will enable the Merdeka Award to continue its legacy of excellence and service to the nation within the scientific community, passing the torch of success from one generation to the next.
JOHOR BAHRU, 19 December 2017 – Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) SPE Student Chapter has organised plant seedlings last month at Dataran N20, Faculty of Chemical and Energy Engineering (FCEE) as one of the SPE-UTM Go Green Month 2017.
Director of SPE Go Green Month, Dhevaruphan Sambathu said, the event was a collaboration with FCEE which was later changed the name to “Sayangi FKT”.
“There were 50 participants which were divided into two groups to plant the seedlings into “SPE-UTM” wording at the slope nearby faculty and another group was assigned to plant pineapple plants into respective vases around the premise.
A group of volunteers plant the seedlings into “SPE-UTM” wording.
“Those volunteers also arrange large bricks into a nice pathway near NO1a Block at FCEE,” he said.
Dhevaruphan said, before that the SPE Student Chapter has successfully organised Earth Hour at Dataran Pavilion, Kolej Tun Hussein Onn (KTHO).
SPE Student Chapter members has successfully organising Earth Hour.
He said, they encourage every person in UTM especially the KTHO residence to turn off the light for one hour.
All the participants start to walk with candles around the KTHO path along with guests. Meanwhile the rest of the committee arranged some candles as a symbol of earth hour.
“The committee members gathered and prepared 250 earth hour kits which included glowing sticks, candles in a paper bag,” he added.
“We hope this program will create awareness to students and public about the seriousness of environment, for a better earth we live in,” he said.
JOHOR BAHRU, 18 December 2017 – Ending a year end by winning a reputable award is a great moment. For Dr Yeong Che Fai, the year 2017 is full of sweet memories. He won several awards in national and international competition and exhibition.
Dr Yeong showing his certificate in London.
An academician from Faculty of Electrical Engineering (FKE), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) stand tall after grabbing first place in the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Leaders in Innovation Fellowships final pitch session 2017/18 sponsored by Newton – Ungku Omar Fund.
Dr Yeong Che Fai won the first place presenting his research product Compact Rehabilitation Robot (CR2) to improve stroke rehabilitation.
The product has underwent clinical trial and currently sold to China.
The Royal Academy of Engineering’s Leaders in Innovation Fellowships final pitch session 2017/18 is a tough competition as only 15 academic staffs being shortlisted in Malaysia for this prestigious two weeks programming running from 4th to 15th December 2017.
This program was jointly organised by The Malaysian Industry – Government Group for High Technology (MIGHT) and the Royal Academy of Engineering and co-sponsored by Newton Fund and Ungku Omar Fund.
One of the main criteria is the product must has high commercial potential. This program ran concurrently with participants from Mexico and Vietnam.
Besides Dr Yeong, two others staffs from UTM were Associate Professor Dr Hazlina Selamat for her project Ekso-C: A Smart Exoskeleton System for Oil Palm Harvesting and Associate Professor Ir Dr Sharifah Hafizah Syed Ariffin for her research project Wireless Water Quality Clound Monitoring System.
Dr Yeong’s passion is to bring research to commercialisation which he thinks is very important to country economy.
He has won many innovation awards, more than 50 awards since 2002 such as British Invention Show, Korean Inventor Award, Philips Young Inventor Challenge, MaGIC e@Standord, Robofest, MOHE Best Mentorship Award and APICTA.
In 2010 when Dr Yeong came back from Imperial College after finishing his PhD, he thought he needs to do something more rather than just winning innovation competition. He wants to commercialise the research product.
He has since then established several award winning start up companies such as www.techcareinnovation.com and www.dfautomation.com. The journey was not easy and full with challenges. As an academic,
Dr Yeong needs to learn about business while serving responsibilities as academic. During these 5 years of journey, Dr Yeong has equipped with knowledge in both world, academic and entrepreneurship. He has since then mentoring some students for entrepreneurship as well as establish collaboration between UTM and Industries.
This notable achievement shows UTM in the right direction in commercialising research products.
nd public about the seriousness of environment, for a better earth we live in,” he said.
nd public about the seriousness of environment, for a better earth we live in,” he said.
