Prepared by: Dr. Mohd Ali Khameini Ahmad, Dr. Zaitul Marlizawati Zainuddin, Dr. Norhaiza Ahmad, Dr. Nur Arina Bazilah Aziz & Dr. Siti Pauliena Mohd Bohari
Academicians and industrial representatives had gathered at MYHIMS-C 2021, a virtual conference and forum platform with the theme “Emerging Trends in Mathematics and Statistics: Empowering Industrial Innovation” from 17 until 19 August 2021. The event was hosted by Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and organized by MYHIMS Solution PLT.
The event was officiated by UTM Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Datuk Ts. Dr. Ahmad Fauzi Ismail. In his speech, he acknowledged the importance of collaborative efforts between the academic community and partners from industries, government agencies and society in solving issues, challenges, and problems at all levels, as promoted by MYHIMS-C.
The organizer had carefully scheduled a well-packed program of interest to academicians and industrialists alike, as agreed by the participants’ feedback responses. This included industry and academic plenary sessions, forum sessions, a special session by distinguished Mathematicians, and networking sessions with the industry. Under MYHIMS-C, there were two co-located conferences organized concurrently: International Seminar on Mathematics in Industry (ISMI 2021) and the 5th ISM International Statistical Conference (ISM-V 2021).
There were two industry plenary sessions and two academic plenary sessions conducted at MYHIMS-C. The industry plenary speakers were from Microsoft (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd, National Technology Officer, Dr. Dzaharudin Mansor and Serba Dinamik Group Bhd, Senior Vice-President, Ts. Dr. Mohamed Ackiel Mohamed. Both speakers emphasized data analytics, digitalization and innovation in the Fourth Industrial Revolution and particularly in their respective companies during the pandemic. In addition, there were also two academic plenary sessions from MYHIMS-C co-located events, involved ISMI plenary speaker, Prof. Graeme Wake from Auckland University of Technology and ISM-V 2021 plenary speaker, Prof. Chris Hennig from the University of Bologna, Italy.
MYHIMS-C 2021 also accommodated two engaging forum sessions with panels from various industrial backgrounds. The first forum was held on the first day of the event which focused on Post-Pandemic Lessons for Industries and moderated by Madam Azreena Azizan from the FasterCapital. The forum panelists were Madam Rohaida Ali Badaruddin (Director, Scomi Transit Projects), Dr. James Tee (Chief Executive Officer, Smart City & Urban Tech, Green Packet and a previous member of UTM Board of Directors) and Mr. Aidan Saheran (Chief Commercial Officer, Naluri). This forum discussed the respective companies’ perspectives and experiences in these challenging periods.
Meanwhile, the second forum was held on the last day and discussed on Post-Pandemic Upskilling. The moderator was Sr Azmi Hassan, a geostrategist and also an industry expert from MYHIMS Solution PLT. The forum panelists were Mr. Adam Brimo (Founder & Group CEO, OpenLearning Limited), Madam Noraliza Mohamad Ali (Senior Deputy Executive Director, Malaysian Bureau of Labour Statistics), Mr. Syamsul Faizal Ahim (Account Director, Education, CISCO) and Mr. Mohamad Nazrul Aziz (Head, Industry Partnership & Graduate and Emerging Talent, TalentCorp Malaysia). The panelists discussed the labour market landscape, talent strategy, and various upskilling opportunities and initiatives in the recent pandemic era. These forum sessions were presented ‘live’ through UTM-Centre for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (UTM-CIAM) Facebook.
Another important program was MYHIMS-C Special Session by the invited members from the Industrial Mathematics in the Asia Pacific and European Regions. It was a series of talks with three prominent mathematicians sharing their involvement and experience in dealing with industrial problems. The speakers were Dr. Hilary Ockendon (Emeritus Professor of OCIAM, Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford, UK); Prof. Osamu Saeki (Director, Institute of Mathematics for Industry, Kyushu University, Japan) and Dr. Busayamas Pimpunchat (Head of Mathematics Department, King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, Thailand).
Participants also engaged with five speakers from the industry over two ‘Networking with Industry’ sessions. In these sessions, industry representatives were invited to talk about their services with its challenges. In the first session, the three speakers were Datuk Ir. Dr. Azuhan Mohamed (General Manager, Air Kelantan Sdn. Bhd.), Mr. Kamarudin Ismail (Co-founder and Head of Engineering, Ifactors Sdn. Bhd.) and Mr. Kai Woon Goh (Co-founder and Managing Director, InsightX Technology). In the second session, the speakers were Mr. Mohamad Nizam Khalid (Mathcraft Sdn. Bhd.) and Dr. NorAzmi Alias (Senior Vice-President, Research Management & Talent Development and Johor Initiatives, CREST)
MYHIMS-C 2021 was well attended by around 150 local and international participants throughout the two-and-a-half-day event. The event has successfully enhanced the collaboration between academia, technology providers and industry players to develop talents in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. MYHIMS-C 2021 ended with a closing remark by the organizers.
Further information on this event can be obtained at https://myhims.my/myhims-c/
