28 September 2018 was a momentous day for one of our own UTM Senior Lecturers, Ts. Dr. Rozzeta Dolah CEng MIET, as she was selected, ahead of over 500 Malaysians studying and living in the United States of America, to head the Meet and Greet The Honourable Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad and wife Tun Dr. Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali and the Malaysian delegation to United Nation.
Dr. Rozzeta, representing Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), took this opportunity to have a close discussion with the 7th Prime Minister of Malaysia on research and ideas towards betterment of our nation at a dinner for Malaysians in conjunction with the 73rd United Nations General Meeting in New York, United States of America.
Dr Rozzeta was chosen to lead the dine in, due to the fact that she was recently being elected as the President for the MIT Postdoctoral Association (MIT PDA) , representing 1600 postdoctoral trainees which spread across every school and department at MIT and became the first Malaysian to hold this position https://news.utm.my/2018/09/universiti-teknologi-malaysia-senior-lecturer-becomes-malaysias-first-president-of-mit-postdoctoral-association/.
The criteria which might lead to Dr Rozzeta being chosen are that she is a woman in engineering and science field with exceptional leadership, and she is competent in research and studies. She did not expect that she will be meeting the Prime Minister in New York. The precious meeting became a reality after she has been chosen to walk and sit with Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad during the dinner. During her postdoctoral study at MIT, she has worked hard to promote and carry the ‘flag’ of UTM and Malaysia. She had conducted several public short courses inside and outside MIT on her own initiative to sharpen her professional skills.
Dr. Rozzeta also took the challenge to be nominated as the President for MIT Postdoctoral Association (MIT PDA) to have hands-on experience in leadership role at international level. Prior to presidency, she has been actively involved as the Chair of MIT PDA Human Affairs Committee, representing MIT Postdoctoral community as a member of Committee on Race and Diversity (CRD), and she has been awarded the CRD grant to organize Race for Diversity (RFD 2018) to foster diversity and inclusion at MIT. She was also involved in introducing Minitab® statistical software at MIT by offering a short course: Experimental Designs for Robust Product/ Process Optimization held during MIT’s IAP 2018.
Positive feedback from participants allowed MIT to make the software available to all students and staff. Her active collaboration with industries proven by the activities she initiated at MIT for networking and experience sharing with MIT postdocs by inviting guests from CIGNA, Saudi ARAMCO, Cormorant Asset Management, Goldman Sachs, Mustang Bio, Moderna Therapuetics, and others. One of the many significant events she organized was “Women Entrepreneurs: Challenges and Opportunities” event at Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship featuring Nicole Stata – Founder and Managing Director of Boston Seed Capital, LLC.
Literally, all her hard work was paid when she was given the honor to walk and sit with Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad for the dinner event with Malaysians at Mandarin Oriental Hotel, New York. Dr. Rozzeta was invited to be with Tun Dr. Mahathir in the VIP holding room prior to the event. The meeting was attended together with Malaysia Minister of Foreign Affairs Dato’ Saifuddin Abdullah and his wife Datin Norlin Shamsul Bahri.
In the meeting with the Prime Minister, Dr Rozzeta emphasized on her current research and technology used at Microfluidics and Nanofluidics Research Laboratory and collaboration with industries. She was really delighted to be with Tun Dr. Mahathir to speak on her research at MIT and how she can contribute the research output to the society to be applied. She also discussed with Tun Dr. Mahathir on articulating the idea and possible solutions for UTM to collaborate with MIT and create a ‘start-up’ engineering hub and technology transfer between the two countries.
Soon after the discussion at the holding room, Dr. Rozzeta walked him to the main hall to proceed with “Majlis Makan Malam Bersama Rakyat Malaysia”. She had the chance to share her thoughts on important issues of our country and received the work-life balance advice from Tun. Tun Dr. Mahathir expressed his insights to see more Malaysian women getting involve in engineering and science field. As many technologies in our country are not solely owned and initiated by us, he is concerned on the lack of innovation to develop the country. The Prime Minister gave an example of renewable energy potential in Malaysia, and the sustainability of the resource is one of the key factors that need to be focused on.
Tun Dr. Mahathir also pointed out the necessity of engineering capability for a country that is visioned to become developed. The involvement of private sectors to build the third national car is hoped to stimulate the engineering business to the country. In short, Tun Dr. Mahathir emphasized on learning how to produce things with engineering knowledge.
She is really inspired with Tun Dr. Mahathir’s enthusiasm since he was the fourth Prime Minister. Dr. Rozzeta admires Tun Dr. Mahathir’s credibility in getting things done under his Look East Policy introduced in the early 1980’s which challenged Malaysians in the economic and industrial sectors to learn from Japan and South Korea. The Star wrote an article about Dr Rozzeta and the Look East Policy, and how the policy has had an impact on her career.
Her experience in Japan was very precious and valuable. Tun Dr. Mahathir was impressed with the article which had been published in The Star newspaper on 5 March 2016. Meeting with Tun Dr. Mahathir on 28 September 2018 was really an irreplaceable moment for her to get a close discussion to learn more from the most legendary leader of the world, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad.
With this title – Ts. Dr. Rozzeta Dolah CEng MIET, her interest is in renewable energy for biomass conversion into transportation fuel using Taguchi experimental design, Design of Experiment (DOE) and optimization. She was involved in designing and optimization of a second-generation pyrolysis reactor of bio fuel conversion from oil palm empty fruit bunch. As postdoctoral fellow at Prof. Rohit Karnik’s Lab of Microfluidics and Nanofluidics Research Laboratory in MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering, and having the experience in robust measurement and metrology during her Ph.D study at Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan, the research has enabled her to develop skills in robust engineering method for nanotechnology.
She teaches quality engineering and her experiences in quality engineering were gained under the direct tutelage of Engr. Shin Taguchi, the son of the late Dr. Genichi Taguchi, the pioneer of Taguchi Method. Dr. Rozzeta thanked UTM, Malaysia Ministry of Education, Embassy of Malaysia in Washington, D.C. and Consulate General of Malaysia, New York, USA for the remarkable support, and encouragement in ensuring that she could keep on raising the Malaysia flag high.
Dr. Rozzeta’s advice to the community out there is to always be prepared and never wait for the opportunity to come. Just do the best in everything we are doing because we are not sure when the opportunity knocks. The secret of success is to be ready when your opportunity comes. It is never about ‘luck’, it is about the hard work that we put in that brings us to reach our aim.
Dr. Rozzeta also mentioned that we need to prepare and to work hard in order to capture the right opportunities. Otherwise, the opportunity will just pass by you. Grab the challenges and chances to hone your skill and talent. The challenges or difficulties can be the opportunities that push ourselves forward. When challenges and opportunity knock, do not let fear hold you back. Open the door and embrace the opportunity that has come to you. You never know how perfect something could turn out to be. Regardless of any field we are in, be sure it has an impact and can be applied to the society. Be practical, think practical. Most importantly, be prepared for your future, thus to have a ‘Vision’ is very important and plan the things you are going to do for your own niche.
Let’s Strive for More!
By : Dr Rozzeta binti Dolah, Senior Lecturer of UTM