KUALA LUMPUR, 1 June – Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Mohd. Najib Tun Abdul Razak officially launched the newly-established Malaysia – Japan International Institute of Technology (MJIIT) located at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Kuala Lumpur, today.
The formation of MJIIT is the culmination of efforts that began in November 2001 when Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad and his Japanese counterpart, Mr. Junichiro Koizumi, forged an alliance to promote closer ties in education, science and technology between the two nations.
However, it was not until 2010 when Najib visited Japanese Prime Minister Dr. Yukio Hatoyam in Tokyo that this vision truly became a reality.
Strategically located within the capital’s social and economic hub, MJIIT will offer state-of-the-art facilities and expertise from both Malaysia and Japan, as well as from the Asia-Pacific region and beyond.
MJIIT draws its strength and support from UTM, the Malaysian government and through its affiliation with the Japanese University Consortium (JUC) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
Both Malaysia and Japan have made significant commitment to the success of this joint venture. The government of Malaysia has pledged a final investment of RM 793 million inclusive of Japanese Yen loan of RM 250 million for laboratory equipments in thus project.
In addition, human capital development will include resources from countries with a special focus on those with academic, research and industrial expertise. Presently, MJIIT has a strong international flavour with more than 20% of senior academics coming from Japan and abroad.
The distinctive feature of MJIIT is its ability to offer pseudo-Japanese working culture and experience locally to both students and researchers, and the opportunity to conduct the later part of their studies or research in Japanese organizations.
Once students are join the faculty, they become members of a particular Japanese-style research lab, affectionately known within MJIIT as innovative kohza (i-kohza), where there is close mentoring and supervision from seniors and academics.
Research focus areas in MJIIT are classified into several labs and they include Air Resources, Communication Systems and Networks, Conditioning Monitoring, Ecological Engineering, and Advanced Devices & Materials Engineering. In addition, affiliated i-kohzas include UTM’s Centre for Artificial Intelligence & Robotics (CAIRO), and Centre for Lipids Engineering Applied Research (CLEAR).
MJIIT has also embarked on joint programme development both at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Undergraduate programmes currently offered are the Bachelor’s (Hons.) degree in Mechanical Precision Engineering and the Bachelor’s (Hons) degree in Electronic Systems Engineering.
Another Bachelor’s programme in Chemical Engineering will be offered in 2013. Postgraduate programmes include MPhil and PhD degrees in specific areas of research are already on offer under each i-kohza.
These initiatives are meant to ignite even closer cooperation between Malaysia and Japan such that a new level of solidarity will emerge. Furthermore, MJIIT endeavors to pave the way for a brighter future for the country in line with the dictum ‘Engineering the Nation with Precision for Sustainable Development’.