Colombo, Sri Lanka, 21 November 2015 – Universiti Teknologi Malaysia researchers have once again made advancements in R&D by winning the MERIT Award in the Research & Development Category at the Asia Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA) Awards 2015, held in Colombo Sri Lanka.
The winning UTM product, Compact Rehabilitation Robot (CR2), was Mr Khor Kang Xiang’s Final Year Project project. The main objective of the project was to design and develop robotic devices to assist stroke patients in their rehabilitation.
The project is jointly conducted with the assistance of the National Stroke Association of Malaysia (NASAM), and supported by various other organisations comprising UTM, Cradle Coach and Grow, CREST and L2M.
Team members of this project include Dr.Eileen Su Lee Ming (FKE) , Aqilah Leela T.Narayanan (FBME), Hisyam Abdul Rahman (FKE), Sim Lee Sen (FKE), Muammad Najib bin Abdullah (FKM), Muhamad Nooralif bin Darsim (FKM) and Muhamad Farhan bin Mustar (FKM). The team is led by Dr Yeong Che Fai from CAIRO, FKE. For more info about the project, please visit www.cr2connect.com.
Mr Khor is extending this research for his PhD at MJIIT, UTM. He is currently collecting data and in the midst of conducting a clinical trial of the product. Is it forecasted that the product will be in the market by the middle of next year.
In the Industry Application Category, Dr Yeong also won the MERIT award for his spin-off company, DF Automation & Robotics Sdn Bhd.
The Asia Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA) is the largest ICT awards ceremony in the Asia Pacific region. This year marks the 15th year f the award ceremony, which saw a total of 197 participation from 15 Asian countries. Among the countries include Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Pakistan and China.
APICTA 2015 is perhaps one of the most challenging in ICT innovation as competitors are vying for one Top Prize and two Merit Awards in each category.
Winning the MERIT Award shows that UTM R&D has practical application, with value gained being passed on to the community that could benefit from the innovation the most. More information about this competition can be obtained at http://www.apicta.org/.
Next year APICTA will be held in Taiwan.
