UTM Delegation Visited Taiwanese Universities and Research Institute

Mohd Firdaus Abdul Wahab

Hsinchu City, March 21-22, 2019: UTM researchers have recently participated in the study and networking visit to the National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) campus in Hsinchu City, Taiwan, from 21-22 March 2019. This visit was part of the programmes under the Taiwan-Malaysia Innovation Centre for Clean Water and Sustainable Energy (WISE Centre), funded by the Taiwan Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST). In January 2019, Prof. Ruey-an Doong, the WISE Centre Taiwan Principal Investigator, had visited UTM, accompanied by the other WISE members from USM and UNIMAP. In exchange, several UTM researchers were then invited to visit NTHU, to further discuss potential collaborations and joint activities to be conducted under WISE.

UTM delegates were led by Prof. Dr. Zulkifli Yusop, the previous Dean of the Resource Sustainability Research Alliance, and the members include: Prof. Dr. Azmi Aris, Director of the Centre for Environmental Sustainability and Water Security (IPASA), Prof. Sr. Dr. Mazlan Hashim, Director of the Research Institute for Sustainable Environment (RISE), Prof. Dr. Fadhilah Yusof, Deputy Dean (Academic and Student Affairs), Faculty of Science, and Dr. Mohd Firdaus Abdul Wahab, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Biosciences, Faculty of Science. The official programme began on 21 March 2019, with a courtesy visit to the Senior Vice President (SVP) of NTHU, Prof. Sinn-wen Chen. SVP Chen was happy to see the stronger collaborations taking shape between UTM and NTHU. He also wished that WISE can catalyse the exchange of research expertise among the staff of both universities, and encourage student exchange programmes too. SVP Chen was looking forward to visit UTM in April 2019 for the official launch of WISE Centre at UTM.

After that, the UTM delegates had the opportunity to meet the Dean of the College of Nuclear Science, Prof. Min Lee for a quick discussion on potential activities that can be carried out together. Dean Lee was particularly interested to conduct a joint workshop on radiological science and technology between NTHU and UTM.

In the afternoon, the delegates visited the Industrial Technology and Research Institute of Taiwan (ITRI), located near the NTHU campus at Hsinchu City. ITRI is a non-profit research and development organisation engaging in applied research and technical services. Founded in 1973, ITRI has played a vital role in transforming Taiwan’s economy from a labor-intensive industry to a high-tech industry. ITRI has many campuses and laboratories all over Taiwan, and is well known for being the incubator for many successful technology companies. UTM delegates were introduced to the LCD waste recycling technology research group at ITRI, led by Chien-wei Lu from ITRI’s Division of Applied Chemistry. The group developed an LCD waste recycling system, to help tackle the increasing amount of waste LCD panels in Taiwan. The developed technology first removes liquid crystal, indium, and glass from the LCD panel, before being purified, and reused. The delegates were also brought to visit the laboratories, and the actual processing plant.

On 22 March 2019, UTM delegates were invited to ITRI again, this time to the Division of Water Technology Research. The researchers and engineers briefed the delegates about the research activities carried out by the Division, including the many technologies developed by ITRI for high efficiency water treatment. Among the technologies include the removal of specific pollutants using BioNET^® technology, and membrane technology with lower energy consumption. The delegates were also brought to visit the demonstration area, containing many of ITRI’s in house developed water treatment technologies.

The delegates then travelled to Taoyuan City, to the Centre for Space and Remote Sensing Research (CSRSR), located at the National Central University (NCU). They were welcomed by the Director of Postgraduate Programs, Environmental Remote Sensing Laboratory, Prof. Tang-huang Lin. Prof. Lin first briefed about the various research and service activities carried out by the Centre, in the fields such as land monitoring, disaster investigation, marine detection, atmospheric analysis, forestry planning, project management, and popular science education. Prof. Lin also introduced the delegates to the study programmes catered specifically for international students conducted by NCU, i.e. Master of Science Program in Remote Sensing Science and Technology; while the International PhD Program in Environmental Science and Technology is a programme jointly conducted by NCU, NTHU, National Chiao Tung University (NCTU) and National Yang Ming University.

Before ending the trip, the delegates were brought to visit the impressive Satellite Receiving Station of the CSRSR. The Station is capable of receiving data from SPOT-5, Terra, Aqua and the FORMOSAT-2 satellites. The footprint of the ground station reception zone covers an area of about 3,000 km in radius. This includes Guam in the east, China’s Gang-Su province in the west, Japan’s Hokkaido in the north and the South China Sea in the south.

From this visit, several activities and research collaborations have been discussed and planned. This is to highlight the role of WISE Centre as the platform to connect both the Taiwanese and Malaysian researchers towards a better synergy in various areas critical to the development of both countries.

From left: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ong Hui Lin (UNIMAP), Dr. Mohd Firdaus Abdul Wahab, Prof. Sr. Dr. Mazlan Hashim, SVP Chen, Prof. Dr. Zulkifli Yusop, Prof. Dr. Azmi Aris, Prof. Dr. Fadhilah Yusof, Prof. Ruey-an Doong.