On 29th April 2022, Persatuan Mahasiswa Sains Komputer, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (PERSAKA UTM) organized a program, ‘Accelerating Research In Life Science’. The program was held online through Webex platform and it was compulsory for all bioinformatics undergraduate students (First Year).
‘Accelerating Research in Life Sciences’ provides a career talk for the students of the School of Computing, delivered by two professionals in this field.
The main goal of this programme was to assist students in planning their future careers by displaying various careers available in this field.
Besides, this program also explained the preparations needed for students to face the real work life after graduation.
Associate Chair of the School of Computing, Prof. Ts. Dr. Dayang Norhayati binti Abang Jawawi was invited to give an opening speech. The 3-hour programme was divided into three sections: sharing session, question and answer session, and photography session.
The program began with ‘A Glimpse of the Twenty-First Century Workplace’, led by an Assistant Professor at Qatar University’s College of Health Sciences, Dr. Rozaimi Razali. He received his PhD in Bioinformatics from Imperial College London (United Kingdom), in the lab of Prof. Michael Sternberg.
During the session, Dr. Rozaimi shared his journey as a bioinformatician that spanned more than five years. He also added tips and gave motivation that might have boosted the students.
The program continued with the second session conducted by Dr. Rabiatul Adawiah Zainal Abidin, who works at the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI) as the Senior Research Officer. Dr. Rabiatul is a bioinformatics graduate of Universiti Malaya in 2006. She has been involved in the bioinformatics field since 2002.
Dr. Rabiatul explained the skills needed as bioinformatics students. Besides that, Dr. Rabiatul also provided some tips as preparation for the students to be ready for the real world and work environment after they graduate.
After the sharing session, a question and answer session was held in which Dr. Rozaimi and Dr. Rabiatul tried to clear all the doubts of the students.
Last but not least, the Advisor of PERSAKA, Dr. Muhammad Iqbal Tariq bin Idris, was invited to give a closing speech. In a nutshell, this programme had run successfully. The participants gained wider knowledge in the bioinformatics field.