Red-dressed men and women with jubilant and excited faces thronged Perkasa Ballroom at Le Grandeur Palm Resort, Senai. It was the night in which UTM Centre for Student Innovation and Technology Entrepreneurship (UTM XCITE) hosted its inaugural Appreciation Night 2019 and UTM XCITE Entrepreneurial Award ‘18 (XEA18). ‘Xcitingly Red’ was the theme of the eventful night.

The event was held to honour staff and students who have excelled in their service as crew members, programme volunteers and event organizers. Among the attendees were a group of students from TEDxUTM, Startup Weekend JB @UTM and Nescafe UTM as well as crew members for MTDC Business Challenge 2018 (MBC18) as well as secretariats of Koperasi Mahasiswa UTM Berhad (KMU). A representative from SMK Bandar Uda Utama, UTM XCITE partner school, was also invited to the event.

Assoc. Prof. Dr Mohd Zaidi Abd Rozan in his opening speech mentioned that the night was organized specially to appreciate students who had committed their time and skills in helping UTM XCITE  organized many successful initiatives throughout last year. Several staff from other units such as UTM Innovation and Commercialization Centre (ICC) and UTM Centre for Information and Communication Technology (CICT) were also present that night.

UTM XCITE Entrepreneurial Award ‘18 (XEA18) was also held to recognise outstanding entrepreneurial achievements by students in 2018. Bryan Chua Seck How, a fourth year Mechanical Engineering student, won Outstanding Entrepreneurial Leader and his Nescafe UTM team has been awarded with Outstanding Student Enterprise. While for Outstanding Innovative and Entrepreneurial Award, the prize goes to Startup Weekend JB @UTM led by Tong Xin Jo, a student from School of Civil Engineering.