Month: January 2021

On 18^th November 2020, Kaohsiung Medical University Chung-Ho Memorial Hospital, ASUS and ACT Genomics, signed a letter of intent for a Strategic Partnership. The partnership agreement intends to combine ACT Genomics’ NGS (Next Generation Sequencing) database with ASUS’s AICS (ASUS Intelligent Cloud Services) to develop an “Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Medical Big-Data Search System” that targets precision cancer treatment at Kaohsiung Medical University Chung-Ho Memorial Hospital.

The new system will allow doctors to quickly search the tumor gene mutation database for patients, and predict the tumor size and marker index after patients have received medication-assisted treatment. Consequently, doctors will be able to develop a treatment plan with maximum efficacy and minimal side effects.

The ceremony was witnessed by the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Kaohsiung Medical University, Jian-Zhi Chen, during which time Professor Yuh-Jyh Jong President of Kaohsiung Medical University mentioned that the combination of AI and medical data would provide objective analysis and prediction capabilities at different treatment stages from prevention to acute medical treatment, and thus it would improve medical care quality tremendously.

Professor Yin-Wen Chung, Superintendent of Kaohsiung Medical University Chung-Ho Memorial Hospital, emphasized that AICS’ natural language processing technology was like acquiring a modern missile guidance system in the Stone Age, enabling doctors to have ful control and accurate critical information to fight against diseases and bolster the quality and quantity of cancer treatment.

GIK Institute has partnered with Getz Pharma to spread awareness through a live webinar titled “Public Health Failures and Lessons Learnt for a Post-COVID19 World”. The webinar focused on how different countries responded to the pandemic and the lessons we can take forward to ensure that we are better prepared for future health crises.

Dr. Troy Gepte, a public health epidemiologist from the Philippines, highlighted, “We must learn from the vulnerabilities in our healthcare systems that were exposed during COVID-19, as countries across the globe fell short of resources to effectively tackle the pandemic. We cannot be conclusive that COVID-19 is coming to an end, as new cases are still emerging. We are still very much in the battle, but we can learn from the gaps in our health systems to prepare for the future.”

Dr. Phillip Mwendo Muthoka from Kenya, Deputy Director Ministry of Health, addressed the shortfalls in testing capacity the country faced as testing was initially only conduced in laboratories in the main cities, but within two months the lab facilities were expanded throughout the nation.

“Governments around the world need to allocate more resources to healthcare, and a major proportion of funds should go to primary healthcare. We need to prepare better so we can avoid such future pandemic situations,” Dr. Muthoka said.

Dr. Saad Khalid Niaz, a leading gastroenterologist in Pakistan, discussed how the country had a delayed response to the pandemic, which led to gaps in policy-making and execution. Economy and health go hand in hand.

“If we have good health, we can have a good economy. Regardless of whether we are in the developing or developed world, in case of major health crises like COVID-19, humanity should rise above and countries should pool their resources to support each other across borders,” Dr. Niaz explained.

Dr. Wajiha Javed, Head of Public Health & Research at Getz Pharma concluded,” The major message we can take from this discussion is that there is a need to reinvest in primary healthcare and restructuring of health systems to have a bottom-up approach and be better equipped to tackle future crises. Without a multi-disciplinary approach to healthcare, we cannot move ahead. All sectors of society need to be on board to prepare for the future, and countries all over the world must collaborate across borders for the collective benefit of humanity.”

Department of Media Science, The Heritage Academy, Kolkata organized an interactive webinar, ‘JournoScope 2021’ a platform where students can listen to leaders in the area of Journalism and can interact with them on the virtual platform to get an insight of the current trends.

The webinar continued for two days i.e. 15th and 16th January 2021 and was addressed by Mr. Suvam Pal, International Journalist;  Mr. Gautam Bhimani, Author &  Raconteur; Cricket Commentator, Mr. Kaushik Deka; Deputy Editor, India Today, and Mr. Sai Abishek, Director- Original Content, Discovery Communications.

The event also witnessed the participation of the CEO of Heritage Group of Institutions, Shri Pradip Agarwal, Dr. Gour Banerjee, Principal, The Heritage Academy, and Dr. Madhupa Bakshi, Dean, Department of Media Science, The Heritage Academy, Kolkata.

Chulalongkorn University‘s third-year students have won the first prize and the honorable mention at an English debate competition on Human Rights 2020, organized by the Office of the National Human Rights Commission, during November 6 – 8, 2020 at the Evergreen Place Siam Hotel, Bangkok.  The awards ceremony was held on International Human Rights Day (December 10).

Mr. Chanakan Wittayasakphan, the First-Prize winner from Chula Faculty of Arts, and Ms. Nathaya Jaruvekin, Honorable-Mention winner from the Faculty of Commerce and Accountancy, are both 3rd-year students and members of the Chula English Debate Society. Both have prepared for the competition by weekly practicing debates, sharpening their critical thinking skills and developing clear delivery.

Having been interested in human rights issues, which have become significant in society locally and internationally, the students selected time-valid and challenging topics, such as “Should Celebrities be Forced to Voice Their Political Opinion?” or “Should the Community Have a Voice in Public Projects that Require Eminent?”.

According to Mr. Chanakan, his interest in participating in the competition started because it helped him stay abreast with world affairs, as well as realize that in every issue there are two sides to a coin. His tips for success and adding credibility to arguments are to draw contexts from real events, use simple language, and get straight to the point. Moreover, one has to practice giving speeches as often as possible and follow news and world affairs on social media and foreign news agencies.

“This prize came with the support of the Chula English Debate Society members, who took part in regular debates, and the society advisors: Asst. Prof. Piyanart Fakthongphan, Ajahn Bhanubhatra Jittiang, and Ajahn Pawat Satayanurug. Participating in various competitions, we move up to become successful speakers, are inspired to better in making English speeches and debates, and gain knowledge and experience,” the two winners said.

With the establishment of the Centre of Excellence on IoT, a Smart City Research Centre, and a Living Lab, the International Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad (IIITH) has laid the ground for international partnerships in education and entrepreneurship for smart city research.

Centre of Excellence on IoT

High-quality interdisciplinary research has long been the International IITH’s unique selling proposition (USP). It was what drew the EU-funded collaborative project titled ‘India-EU Cooperation on ICT-Related Standardisation, Policy and Legislation’ to set up a Centre of Excellence (CoE) on the Internet of Things (IoT) for Smart Cities in 2019.

The center comprises faculty drawn from various research centers such as Building Sciences, Signal Processing and Communications, Center for VLSI and Embedded Systems, and the Computer Systems Group, which is essential for work on IoT for smart cities. The joint venture’s primary focus is on the development of knowledge-based initiatives that include the organization of tutorials, hackathons, workshops, and conferences on the components of IoT like oneM2M standards for interoperability.

“We have now integrated OneM2M in our curriculum and it is a part of the IoT courses we offer,” says Dr. Sachin Chaudhari, Coordinator of the CoE.

Genesis Of The Living Lab

Another goal of the initiative is to facilitate the exchange of experts between India and the EU. Delegations from IIITH have visited the EU twice in 2019 to explore collaborative possibilities between French universities, and entrepreneurial ventures with startups and the government. During one of the visits, they saw ‘smart’ implementations at the Laboratory for Analysis and Architecture of Systems (LAAS-CNRS), Toulouse, and in Bordeaux Metropole, and were inspired to do something similar at IIITH.

Platform For Smart Research

In April 2020, in collaboration with the Government of India’s Smart City Mission, the Government of Telangana and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITy), IIITH set up a Smart City Research Centre (SCRC) to engage in research related to IoT verticals such as air quality, building energy, water quality and quantity. The goal is to provide a platform where novel IoT designs and ideas can be experimented with.

For this, a Living Lab has been established to facilitate startups planning on developing ‘smart city’ products. The Lab is in partnership with the European Business and Technology Centre (EBTC) and avails the expertise of the Amsterdam Innovation Arena – a football stadium used for testing smart-city related innovations on non-match days.

At the Living Lab, the first stage of deployment of air pollution nodes has been completed with work in progress on the other verticals.

“A dashboard with all relevant information will soon be available. Thanks to the CoE, we could also be a part of the Telecommunications Standards Development Society India and are contributing to it,” says Dr. Chaudhari.

The academic partnership has kicked off, too, with an MS student, Shubham Mante set to fly to LAARS-CNRS on a 6-month internship.

The Singapore Management University’s School of Computing and Information Systems (SCIS) has launched a new Digital Transformation track for 2021 under its Master of IT in Business (MITB) program.

The newly created MITB Digital Transformation track equips graduates with the blend of information and communications technology (ICT) knowledge and skills to strategize and execute digital transformation for a complex organization in a rapidly changing environment.

The curriculum was developed based on SMU’s survey of 20 experts in 17 public and private organizations from various industry domains to determine the talent requirements, in terms of knowledge and skillsets, for digital transformation.

The courses in the program comprise Digital Transformation Strategy; Digital Organisation and Change Management; Agile and DevSecOps; (digital) Product Management; Digital Governance and Risk Management; Experimental Learning and Design Thinking; Digital Enterprise Architecture and Business Applications of Digital Technology.

Professor of Information Systems (Education) Michelle Cheong, Associate Dean of SMU SCIS Postgraduate Professional Education said, “Digital Transformation is a game-changer that will empower organizations to not only sustain their business in an economic crisis, but also emerge as winners in the new normal.

“Companies that espouse digital transformation must invest in talent to innovate, optimize processes and develop new business models to maximize revenue streams.”

“At SMU, we are answering the impetus by training talent who can support organizations to succeed in integrating digital technology into all areas of business, with the launch of the new Digital Transformation track,” said Professor Cheong.

The program is already taking in applications, and will remain open till 31^st May 2021 for the new track which will commence for the August 2021 student intake.

Digital Transformation

The global digital transformation market size is expected to grow from US$469.8 billion in 2020 to US$1,009.8 billion by 2025, at a compound annual growth rate of 16.5%. The Asia Pacific is expected to grow at the highest rate of 20.7% during the forecast period. (PR Newswire).

Singapore’s Minister for Trade and Industry Chan Chun Sing commented in a national broadcast on 14 June 2020, “COVID-19 has pushed many businesses and consumers to embrace the digital world. The digital trajectory will only accelerate, and not reverse. We must enable every Singaporean, young and old; every business, big and small, to go digital and thrive. Companies will embrace digital tools to create new business models and transcend our local market constraints.”

SMU Master of IT in Business

SCIS regularly reviews the MITB program in response to emerging technologies and market demands in order to stay relevant to the industry. MITB graduates are highly sought after by organizations across many industries and most have made significant career advancements since graduation. The program has emerged as one of Asia’s best Masters in Business Analytics programs for 3 consecutive years – Asia’s #1 in 2019 and 2020, Asia’s #2 in the QS Masters in Business Analytics Rankings 2021.

With the launch of the Digital Transformation Track, the program offers four specialization tracks: Analytics, Financial Technology & Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, and Digital Transformation.

RehabMaker Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Malaysia has continuously won the gold award in this year’s international prestigious innovation competitions; Invention, Innovation and Design Exposition (IIDEX2020), Malaysia Technology Expo (MTE2020), and International, Invention, Innovation & Technology Exhibition (ITEX2020).

RehabMaker UiTM, a social innovation team, carrying the theme, “Empowering Communities Through Social Innovation”, gathered experts, leaders, and people in academia to brainstorm design and produce adaptive assistive device (AAD) for people living with disabilities (PWD) especially the one with lower income and B40 income groups in Malaysia which represent the bottom 40% of income earners.

Assistive adaptive devices or shortly known as AAD is one of the interventions to assist PWD to perform activities of daily living and reduce dependency level. World Health Organization (WHO) survey has reported that globally, 1 billion people need one or more assistive products. However, accessibility to AAD is limited to only 5-15% in middle- and low-income countries. As a reaction to this problem, WHO has declared accessibility to AAD as a human right. Acknowledging the increasing number of PWD that need AAD, the recent United Nations convention has included the accessibility to assistive technology into its action plan.

In Malaysia, the total reported number of PWD registered at the Department of Social Welfare in 2017 was about 453,258 persons. PWD with physical impairment has been recorded as the highest number which was 35.2%. Disabilities are very diverse which depends on the pathophysiological background, disease, and needs. AAD prescription is one of the interventions to address impairment and improve dysfunction, hence, independence level can be optimized. It is very crucial for the AAD to be customized to conform and amiable to a specific impairment.

However, in Malaysia’s local clinical setting, AAD prescriptions are limited and only address certain functions due to 1) Lack of ideas, limited skills, material, outdated designs, and production and designing methods and also 2) Lack of structured multidisciplinary or transdisciplinary framework.

Realizing this problem, RehabMaker UiTM proposed a multidisciplinary framework which consists of expertise from medical and engineering background to ensure the created products serve the intended function and patient-centric. RehabMaker also exposing academia and students on how to help PWD.

RehabMaker was spearheaded by the Faculty of Medicine UiTM and made possible by the Mechanical Engineering UiTM team comprising staff, and students, with related more to 3D printing technology for a fast and reliable AAD with the help of the Malaysian Academy of SME & Entrepreneurship Development (MASMED) UiTM for NGO registration and social entrepreneur business model canvas.

The team stipulated Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) under good health and wellbeing, industry innovation and infrastructure, and to reduce inequalities. RehabMaker UiTM currently featured 11 AADs, 4 copyrights, 8 publications and 3 Gold Awards in international competitions within one year from its establishment.

More details of RehabMaker works and achievements can be viewed here.