JOHOR BAHRU, 12 September 2019 – The Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) Engineering-Industry Innovation Day 2019 is the first-ever immersive program organized by the Faculty of Engineering of UTM, the largest engineering faculty in Malaysia.
The event which was held at Dewan Sultan Iskandar, UTM Johor Bahru campus for two days had gathered more than 700 academicians from the engineering background, 150 UTM industrial partners and a number of government agencies engaged in various activities.
The UTM Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Datuk Ir. Dr Wahid Omar said that this first-time event has the ability to serve as a catalyst in a research collaboration between the faculties and industries.
“It was a showcase platform for UTM expertise in various engineering disciplines and research products to create awareness that can be turned into opportunities for collaboration with industries which is one of the faculty’s planning to be on a par with the Industrial Revolution (IR) 4.0,” he said.
Prof. Wahid said that after the closing ceremony by the honourable Minister of Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change, Yang Berhormat Mrs Yeo Bee Yin at Dewan Sultan Iskandar, UTM Johor Bahru campus.
Also attending the ceremony were Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation), Prof. Datuk Dr. Ahmad Fauzi Ismail and Dean of UTM Faculty of Engineering , Prof. Dato’ Ir. Dr. Mohammed Rafiq Dato’ Abdul Kadir.
“The objective of this programme is to provide a platform for academicians, researchers and engineers from academia, industries and government sectors to meet and share recent innovation, development and technology trends in engineering areas.
“This huge event has massively gathered a total of 700 engineering background researchers and academicians together with their 150 industrial partners and also several government agencies engaged with such activities that include two talks, five forums, and exhibitions with 25 exhibitors,” said Prof. Wahid.
Another important highlight in this programme was the exchange of 10 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)/Memorandum of Agreements (MoA) between UTM and 10 of its industrial allies including four new Project Initiatives.
In addition, at least 200 research projects were put forward to be showcased by researchers covering five research niche areas namely Frontier Materials, Resource Sustainability, Health and Wellness, Innovative Engineering and Smart Digital Community.
“Also featured in this programme were the 13 industrial speakers and three academia speakers representing the who’s who of the IR 4.0.
“There were five forums conducted covering all aspects of IR 4.0 including Big Data, Robotics and Automation in Manufacturing, Construction, Information Technology and businesses. The speakers who presented in this programme addressed various issues based on their respective areas of expertise in line with the theme ‘Engineering the Future through Synergistic Collaboration’,” he said.
Prof. Wahid also said that this event also included competition namely Grand Challenges, a competition participated by 23 groups of undergraduate students from various higher learning institutions in Malaysia such as Universiti Malaya (UM), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), and Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM).
Also participating were Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM), Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK), HELP University as well as UTM itself.
“On this occasion, we are proud to announce the launching of UTM Big Data Fund with the initial fund of RM10,000.00 contributed by Johor Corporation (JCorp) for its JCorp Wifi Big Data Challenge. Other industry key players are also welcome to contribute to any innovative and big data activities through UTM Big Data Fund.
“I do hope that the synergy and partnership that we have forged today will continue to flourish for many years to come and the success of this programme will pave the way for more opportunities for the university, industries and students to contribute to Malaysia Industrial research,” said Prof. Wahid.
