JOHOR BAHRU, 11 June 2015 – Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and Huawei Technologies (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the aim to establish an industry centre of excellence (iCoE) and talent development program. This is a great partnership to promote the industry academia collaboration that aligns with Malaysia’s Education Blueprint 2015-2025 (Higher Education) focusing on Upskilling and Reskilling programs leading to the necessary human capital building in supporting ICT infrastructure and developments and in creating world class graduates and professional ICT talents for the country.
The purpose of the industry centre of excellence is to leverage on UTM’s and Huawei’s innovation capabilities to develop future oriented technology and application , including but not limited to digital media, energy, healthcare, future cities and life sciences domains.
Huawei will work together with UTM Centre for Information and Communication Technology (CICT), Media and Game Innovation Centre of Excellence (MaGIC-X) and Wireless Communication Centre (WCC) to encourage more technology leaders, government organizations, regulators and policy makers to develop a dialogue platform to build a better connected ICT network in Malaysia.
The partnership also aims to build state-of-the-art showcase for the general public, including Huawei’s client database (“Technology Showcase”) and to build a successful and ambitious application ecosystem, which focuses on impacting industry and society through commercialization of research outputs, bringing new ideas to market through licensing and spin-out company formation,
The joint ICT talent development program is to support Malaysia’s ICT talent requirements to build sustainable talent pipelines from the institutions of higher learning and to realign raw talents from the pool of fresh graduates to the high-growth telecommunication sectors, and increase the pool of professionals and experts to enhance service and competitiveness.
The Malaysia Ministry of Education (MOE) aspires to promote innovation as a major driver of economic growth by emphasizing shift number 7, namely, Innovation Ecosystem under the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2015-2025 (Higher Education). This is achieved through the concept of the Quadruple Helix which entails four influential elements, comprising the Industry, Academia, Government and Community. The CEO of Huawei, Mr Abraham Liu, has been appointed as the CEO of the Program.
The MoU exchange ceremony was held in conjunction with the launching of the Huawei Asia Pacific Digital Cloud Exchange in Nusajaya by YAB Tan Sri Dato’ Hj. Muhyiddin bin Hj. Mohd. Yassin, the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia.