Month: March 2021

Program Management Unit on Area Based Development (PMUA) selected Thammasat University to be a prototype for ‘smart’ community in Pathumthani province by accelerating research on “smart city integration” plan to promote sustainable development for the university using the Center of Academic Excellence in Research and Innovation for City Transport as the regulatory authority to drive all projects.

Associate Professor Dr Pawinee Iamtrakul, Faculty of Architecture and Planning, Thammasat University, states that the project is funded by the Program Management Unit on Area Based Development (PMUA) and the Office of National Higher Education Science Research and Innovation Policy Council (NXPO) under the platform  “research and innovation to promote spatial development and reduce inequality” and program  “innovation for the foundational economy and innovation for the community and university”.

The key objectives are for area development, for enhancing the competency of local communities, and for the local people to develop self-reliance and self-management based on the sufficiency economy philosophy.

Thammasat University, Rangsit Campus, and surrounding areas within a 10 km radius will be developed as a prototype of “Thailand’s Smart City” with the development of seven aspects of innovation which are smart environment, smart energy, smart mobility, smart economy, smart governance, smart living, and smart citizens.

The problem of land development often brought by the rapid changes and expansion of the university and real estate area in the surrounding land. Therefore, the university area is seen as the first area that needs to be evolved by integrating knowledge and solutions from various expertise.

Historically, 90% of successful smart city development came from using the university as a testing ground for innovation. The aim, then, is to create coherence of the work among the community and the university and collectively drive the project through to the end.

The Center of Excellence in Urban Mobility Research and Innovation, Faculty of Architecture and Planning, Thammasat University, is therefore used as a control site for the project. The project is well supported by the government sectors such as Pathumthani city hall, Tha Khlong Municipality, Sam Khok Municipality, Khlong Luang Municipality, Rangsit Municipality, and private sectors such as the Federation of Thai SME, Pathumthani, Navanakorn, Talaad Thai, and Thammasat University.

There are eleven sub-projects , including the development of Thammasat Smart Bus in the Rangsit Campus; the development of large-scale travel data storage, analysis and display systems for the provision of smart transportation services in small urban areas;  the justice in smart city and digital community development to stimulate justice in the society; the creation of an urban analysis platform for the smart planning of land usage;  the innovative beds for elderly people and a sustainable caring ecosystem for the elderly; the development of a database and monitoring system for urban trees to support agricultural information management of the smart green city;  the creation of a database of elderly and buildings that can accommodate old people in Rangsit, Thanyaburi, Pathumthani Province and Tha Khlong, Khlong Luang, Pathumthani Province;  smart people for smart cities;  smart waste management;  the development of gas sensors to measure air quality in smart cities; and a smart exchange mechanism for sustainable development of economic transactions.

Assoc. Prof. Dr Pawinee Iamtrakul, Faculty of Architecture and Planning, Thammasat University, is the head of the main project and subprojects on Thammasat smart bus in Thammasat University community (Rangsit Campus).

The goal of this research is set to create comprehensive learning and an exchange process of urban development which consists of six platforms. These are Smart Mobility for seamless, efficient and flexible travel across various modes in the community;  Smart Living for developing the urban environment and livelihood in terms of safety, health, and food; Smart Infrastructure allows complete and quality IOT telecommunication systems; Smart Energy Management for developing innovation for energy and environment management; Smart Economic is to encourage the digital economy to improve quality of production as well as community economy; and Smart Governance & People is to enhance quality and efficiency of citizen service and develop into the skills of people in the 21st century.

All integrated plans in these six platforms will improve and focus on people as a centre of development which will depend on the linkage of data in each platform within the major economic areas. The development of a prototype of a smart city will greatly improve the quality of life, education, public service and environment in Pathumthani Province and more.

Dr J.S.Keshminder, Economics lecturer from the Faculty of Business and Management,(FBM), Universiti Teknologi MARA ( UiTM), Malaysia shared his thoughts on the challenges of Covid-19 and the government initiatives in facing them at various Malaysian TV programs(RTM and BERNAMA).

In the interviews with BERNAMA TV mid-2020, DR J.S.Keshminder highlighted that these economic stimulus initiatives must take into account certain crucial aspects such as the need to ensure the survival of small and medium business during and post-pandemic as well as sustaining jobs and controlling the unemployment rate.

He highlighted that the Pelan Jana Semula Ekonomi (PENJANA), an initiative set by the government is not to be missed by the labour force and businesses as there are great opportunities that await them to overcome the challenges caused by Covid-19.  Aptly, this initiative could uplift Malaysia’s economy,  sustain businesses and create employability.

In another TV program in July 2020, he encouraged the micro and Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) to champion the e-business market to sustain themselves, significantly amidst Covid19.  Their involvement in digitalizing their businesses can ensure their survival and boost the e-business in Malaysia.

He spoke on the “steps to assist the entrepreneurs in acing digital business, which are indispensable as the market post-Covid-19 is highly digitalized”.  He even shared his thoughts in his write-up on “COVID-19’s role in boosting e-commerce and restoring market mechanism” (BERNAMA. https://www.bernama.com/ en/thoughts/news.php?id=1844108 – 22 May 2020).

Not only has the economy become highly digitalized, but also the emergence of the gig economy post-Covid-19 is very evident. In RTM’s Selamat Pagi Malaysia program and Berita Perdana in October 2020, Dr J.S.Keshminder highlighted the concept of the gig economy, the transformation of our work culture and the economic benefits of gig jobs amidst Covid-19.  He also discussed the need to develop an initiative or strategy to elevate gig jobs and setting policy measure to increase employability.

The thoughts shared by Dr J.S Keshminder help to give a better insight to the public on the various initiatives or strategies that could assist in the uplifting the Malaysian economy, sustaining businesses and increase employability.

Based on long-standing and successful cooperation, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM), Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) and the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechatronic Systems Design (IEM) from Germany jointly set up two innovation labs with a joint brand “innovationlabs.my”. The cooperation is supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in Germany.

The aim is to establish the Fraunhofer model for applied research in Malaysia by promoting the transfer of knowledge and technology between research and industry and the development of innovations at universities. The innovation labs serve as showrooms for research results and provide room for cooperation with local companies.

Based on the laboratories, an innovation network has been established in order to better initiate cooperation between universities and companies. Through different events, both parties are networked, e.g. in order to exchange information on a technology or in a so-called “corporate makeathon” where solutions for technical challenges from companies are developed.

In the course of the project, IoT and data analytics was chosen as the technology focus. In the area of Smart Health, a data-based system for the diagnosis of spasticity is being developed. With the help of a clinical study, machine learning algorithms are developed to recognize spasticity on the basis of data from wireless sensors. The Industry 4.0 area is concerned with retrofitting existing production machines with sensors and radio technologies in order to predict or prevent the failure of a machine on the basis of collected data.

The industry 4.0 competency of Fraunhofer IEM and our industry partners provide support for our innovation labs in Malaysia to excel in the field of Industry 4.0. The successful concept lies in the combination of technology transfer to the small- to medium-sized companies in the region, cooperation and intensive knowledge sharing within an innovation network. The lab offers a creativity stimulating working environment for innovations in research and industrial projects. The interior design and equipment enables new, agile forms of work in interdisciplinary teams and promotes creativity and thinking off the beaten track.

In the Ideation area, workshops can be conducted, for example, to examine a IoT based product or process for innovation potential. The walls can be described and covered (“whitewalls”) and different workshop materials are available. In the creation area, ideas can be quickly transformed into functional prototypes.

Internet of Things (IoT) kits, 3D printers, virtual and augmented reality glasses and other physical equipment are available for this purpose. In addition, a digital infrastructure in the form of data science servers is available, e.g. for teaching machine learning. Both areas are modern and thus also serve as a “showroom” for the research results of the universities.

The innovationlabs.my webinar series has been launched in 2021 and takes place every 2 weeks. The webinar series discusses different, new technologies and how they lead to innovations in practice. What makes it unique is the combination of two perspectives covering the topic of each week: academic researchers provide insight into a technology; industry practitioners provide insights into their challenges and how the applied technology can overcome the challenges.

The target group of the webinar are therefore scientists as well as practitioners, such as CEOs or engineers from companies, physicians or urban planners – depending on the topic. Each webinar has its own topic, 2-3 presentations are given and afterwards, a Q&A session is used for discussion with the audience. The webinars are free of charge and always take place on a Thursday – only pre-registration is required.

As the world came to a standstill with COVID-19 Pandemic, technology and human resiliency rose to the occasion and connected people beyond boundaries. One such endeavour of an international specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health, the World Health Organization (WHO) in association with the health and life science-focused Deemed University, JSS Academy of Higher Education & Research (JSSAHER) joined hands to strengthen capacity building in the Pharma Sector.

WHO and JSSAHERhave collaborated for training the Middle and Small-scale Pharma companies to understand the requirements of WHO pre-qualification and mentor them to achieve such standards with experts drawn from all over the world.

This collaboration extended further in conducting training programs in Hemovigilance to the South East Asian region countries and supporting the development of blood safety standards and hemovigilance tools. The key to the success of the collaboration was the technologies and expertise that JSSAHER had and shared with WHO for a global cause.

WHO had undertaken a joint SEARO-WHO India Survey on Pharmaceutical Units in India, with an inter-ministerial effort of Govt of India. It led to several key recommendations for several ministries in India to promote access to medical products for meeting national and global health needs. Strengthening the current GMP with the support of WHO among pharmaceutical units engaged in manufacturing APIs, formulations, and medical devices was one major recommendation of the Survey.

The Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) Online Training was conceptualized, to take the recommendations forward and to particularly address the COVID-19 challenges. A series of 6 workshops is being organized and implemented by all three levels of WHO (Country Office, Regional Office, HQ) in collaboration with JSS Academy of Higher Education & Research (JSS AHER),  and  Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA).

The pilot cGMP workshop for Pharmaceutical Units was organized from 1st –14th December 2020 for a period of 12 days on a unique and dedicated JSS AHER web portal specifically designed for the workshop. 41 Experts including 11 international Speakers shared their knowledge and expertise on the various topics. External partners, US Agency for International Development (USAID), Medicines, Technologies, and Pharmaceutical Services Program (MTaPS), and Promoting the Quality of Medicines Program (PQM+) of United States Pharmacopoeia (USP) contributed towards developing course content.

The workshop provided an opportunity for them to familiarize themselves with the requirement of strengthening and capacity building of their facilities and systems to meet the WHO Pre-Qualification (PQ) standards.

The WHO in its feedback had mentioned, “It’s the first time anywhere in the world such a Workshop has been attempted by WHO – in person or digital format that we have accomplished. The challenge of COVID-19 was channelled into an opportunity for wider access to industry and all stakeholders came together (industry, academia, government, international organizations including WHO) through a web platform, for which JSSAHER performed a critical role”.

World Health Organization Blood Transfusion Safety program has been established to develop strategies for blood safety and promote them on a global, regional and national basis through advocacy and the provision of technical support to WHO Member States.

Whilst the National Haemovigilance systems are well established in many countries, there is a lack of effective Haemovigilance in many resource-limited settings, and implementation in such settings remains an important and challenging problem. In the COVID 19 scenario, it was not possible for the experts to travel to countries and evaluate and train staff in Haemovigilance.

Mindful of this situation, the WHO and JSS AHER conceptualized a pilot virtual training program that would include prerecorded Audio-Visual educational modules which were developed by 26 domain experts from 8 different countries. 26 pre-recorded audio-visual modules were relayed during the program, with 8-panel discussions for live interactions between the participants and the experts.  240 participants registered and participated from 5 SEAR countries namely, Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Maldives, and Timor Leste.

The participants from the 5 SEAR countries understood the need for Haemovigilance in blood safety and showed their interest in the development and implementation of Haemovigilance systems in their respective countries.

The feedback collected from the participants on each day of the 5-day program showed that 100% of the participants were interested to attend such programs in the future. 92% of the participants opined that the learning experience of the program was excellent and 8% of them felt it was good.

The representatives from countries where the hemovigilance system is yet to be developed were motivated to initiate and implement concepts learnt during the program for enhancing the safe transfusion practices. The participating countries felt that conduct of such online programs in future should be continued.

JSSAHER is further collaborating with WHO in conducting a “ Regional Desk Review (situational analysis) of regulations overseeing quality and safety of Blood and Blood Products in member states of South East Asia region” and Contributing to the  “ WHO-Working group on Haemovigilance Tools”.

As there are different mechanisms of regulation of blood and blood products in various South-East Asian Region (SEAR) countries, harmonization/ standardization of such mechanisms would be the primary approach to bring down such regulatory differences and thus the quality of blood and blood products.

With an aim to conduct a situational analysis of the existing legislation and regulations overseeing blood transfusion systems in member states of South East Asia region and form a regional consortium of regulatory experts of blood and blood products, WHO and JSS AHER has undertaken a Desk review and that can help in the necessary standardization of the systems through effective haemovigilance network.

Further with a strong need to standardise the global haemovigilance systems, the experts from the International Society for Blood transfusion (ISBT), the International Haemovigilance Network (IHN) and WHO experts including Dr. Surinder Singh, the Vice Chancellor of JSSAHER are actively involved in a global working group. The group aims to establish guidelines and tools for haemovigilance that will bring forward comprehensive and safe blood transfusion services.

JSSAHER strongly believes in supporting the global cause in Health Sciences Education, Research and Training that will build resilience in these challenging times.

MALLIE, a complete English–learning game chatbot, the latest innovation from Chulalongkorn University‘s Faculty of Education received Gold Award from the “2020 Kaohsiung International Invention and Design EXPO, Taiwan.

MALLIE chatbot – the New Normal of Learning English with Challenging Chatbot Games – is designed with the key concept of “Practice makes perfect!” in mind for learners whose English is a second language to be able to cross the language barrier confidently.

MAILLE is an innovative English-learning program that allows learners to practice listening, speaking, as well as grammar, and vocabulary through a chatbot anytime they want.  Students can use an avatar when they practice their English.

“This is quite effective in helping to reduce students’ embarrassment when they have to pronounce English words,” Assoc. Prof. Dr. Jittavee Khlaisang and Asst. Prof. Dr. Pornpimol Sukavatee, from the Department of Educational Technology and Communications, and the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) Program, Faculty of Education, explained the innovation which recently received the Gold Award from the “2020 Kaohsiung International Invention and Design EXPO in Taiwan.

MALLIE uses Chatbot program with Challenges to chat, monitor, nurture, and support learners in developing their English communication skills through six learning levels: M – Meet and Greet, A – All sets, L – (i) Love Grammar, L – Let’s review, I – I am avatar, and E – Enjoy it.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Jittavee further elaborated on how to use the app, “when students register, the MALLIE character is automatically added as their friend on Facebook and Messenger applications to chat and interact with them. At the first level, MALLIE will send learners 10 words a day with an exercise, which the students will have to learn and complete within one day.  Each level has three lessons, each with vocabulary and exercises for 5 days, similar to the levels in games. The English content is high-school level English to fit the target of first-year students.”

“After learning the vocabulary and grammar, students will be given a link to log into the iReview website and receive an assignment to make a video clip, using Mini Studio Box tool for a product review in English as the final project.  Students can choose to use an avatar in producing the product review as well.“

The MALLIE’s layout and functionality have been meticulously designed based on app usage behaviour data collected from over 500 college students nationwide, with the input of many digital technology experts after which it was tested on over 100 first-year students of the Faculty of Education before the ultimate mobile application for English learning was launched.  MALLIE also collects learners’ progress data to help analyze and evaluate each learner as well.

“Students with MALLIE as their English language companion have significantly improved language grades and English communication skills, and when asked, university students would be also more likely to acquire and use this innovation to promote their English skills,” said Associate Professor Dr Jittavee.

This innovation project received research funding from Thailand Science Research and Innovation (TSRI).  In the next phase, the project aims to broaden the scope of contents to meet the needs of more professional fields.

“In the next phase, MALLIE plans to add niche services, such as a collection of vocational terminologies like medical, nursing, and accounting terminologies, to help students learn specialized English with greater ease and efficiency.  At the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, this kind of innovation could be an option for teachers to develop and apply to language learning all over the world,” Associate Professor Dr Jintawee concluded.

Malaysian Academy of SME & Entrepreneurship Development (MASMED) in UiTM Shah Alam has organized a program regarding the business plan which aims to provide a platform for students who want to improve or add value to business activities involved in their studies. The approach of this program is more to provide advice, mentorship, guidance, and performance monitoring from the participants.

Abdul Hafy Shah bin Abd Halim Shah, a student from the Department of Printing Technology, Faculty of Art & Design, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) has been awarded “The Best Innovative Student” and has won a business grant after being a final participant for the Graduate Accelerator Entrepreneurship (Grace) Lab. Hafy came out with the idea of a business plan for Robotic Consultation through his own company name as AHS Ideas Resources (AHS IDEAS).

His involvement in offering robotic training services has given him credit for making him the final participant for the program, with the classes and training provided by the organizer, allows him to prepare excellent modules and business plans. He has presented his business plan to the industry and brought positive results.

The impact brought by the program enables UiTM to produce a group of students who are able to become successful entrepreneurs and make it part of UiTM’s aspirations. He has brought the name of the faculty in being among the participants born from an artistic background to a successful entrepreneur.

The Russian Science Foundation (RSF) has awarded sponsorship under the grant competition to two projects of Tomsk Polytechnic University scientists. With the support of the foundation, the scientists will develop artificial blood vessels by a new method and synthesize new compounds of chlorine, bromine and iodine. The equipment of Centres for Collective Use in St. Petersburg will be used for experimental and practical parts of the research.

The projects received grants in the RSF competition: Research Based on the Existing World-Class Research Infrastructure. The competition is particularly intended to support conducting research in large-scale facilities of the scientific infrastructure of Russia, including the research centres of a home university and other organizations.

The foundation supported the project of the TPU research team under the supervision of Mekhman Yusubov, Professor and TPU Vice-Rector for Research. It is large-scale fundamental research aimed to obtain new compounds of iodine, chlorine and bromine. In the long run, the research findings will help to create new environmentally-friendly catalysts, promising materials and radiopharmaceuticals for positron emission tomography (a method of internal body examination).

The experiments will be conducted using the equipment of the Research Park at St. Petersburg University (SPbU).

“The research requires world-class facilities and all the necessary equipment is available at the SPbU Research Park. This project is another milestone in the cooperation of SPbU and TPU chemists. It should be reminded that, currently, we are collaborating to create a network laboratory of X-ray crystallography to study non-covalent interactions in molecules. It is a new research area for Tomsk,” Mekhman Yusubov notes.

With the sponsorship of the foundation, the research team under the supervision of Evgeniy Bolbasov, a research fellow of the TPU Laboratory for Plasma Hybrid Systems, will develop a technology to obtain artificial vessels from biodegradable polymers using a multi-jet electrospinning method.

Basically, the electrospinning method implies drawing superfine threads of polymer solutions under an electric field. The multi-jet electrospinning allows for inputting different polymers through independent channels and creating a composition of several polymers, which can not be achieved by other methods. This method has never been used before to create artificial vessels. We have to develop the technology and conduct the research on the developed materials. We expect that the multi-jet electrospinning will allow creating blood vessels mimicking the structure of natural vessels as accurately as possible, which is crucially important in the development of this kind of implants,” Evgeniy Bolbasov says.

Biological preclinical studies of the developed vessels will be conducted at the Preclinical and Translational Research Centre of the Almazov National Medical Research Centre of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation in St. Petersburg.

The Almazov National Medical Research Centre is a Russian leading centre, suitable to conduct a full range of biological tests, from the study of how artificial materials interact with cells to full-scale studies in experimental animals. It is obvious, that just a few technical universities have the similar infrastructure, which allows conducting such research work at a high level. However, the research is essential for further development of new medical materials,” the scientist says.

As noted by the TPU Scientific and Technological Programs Office, both projects received funding worth 6 million rubles per year until 2024 with an opportunity for extension.