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Month: August 2021

Sunway University represents Malaysia in a Europe-Southeast Asia consortium

Posted on by Darren Yoong

Cultural heritage is the backbone of every nation and gives people a connection to certain social values, beliefs, religions and customs from the past. Understanding the importance of heritage conservation, Sunway University now represents Malaysia as the official partner of Decolonizing Southeast Asian Sound Archives (DeCoSEAS), a Europe-Southeast Asia consortium.

DeCoSEAS is a three-year research and community engagement project funded by the Joint Programming Initiative (JPI) on Cultural Heritage and Global Change supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme. It focuses on hearing and listening as dialogical modes of learning and understanding of cultural heritage.

The project proposes the decolonization of heritage curation with three objectives: the improvement of access to heritage, the transfer of agency to stakeholders of their heritage, and the diversification of heritage curation. For this aim, researchers based in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and France work together with academics, curators and NGOs in Southeast Asia in opening the access of three unique sound collections located in Europe to increase accessibility for researchers and cultural originators.

DeCoSEAS strives for the inclusion of voices, stances and interpretations that have previously remained unheard in existing talks about heritage by attending to multiple voices simultaneously (those recorded from the past and those from Southeast Asian partners today). With these goals in mind, DeCoSEAS aims to provide new insights and practices of heritage curation and participation.

Sunway University is the Malaysian higher education institutional partner in collaboration with Malaysian Audio-Visual Archives (MyArchives), with the aim of providing access in the region and discussing the repatriation of material and development of an archive to be housed at the university. This would provide access to materials from recognized institutions and prominent universities in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and France.

“Sunway University is very pleased to participate in this Horizon 2020 European-Southeast collaboration on Cultural Heritage to add to other prominent projects with the University of Cambridge on Infectious Diseases, Harvard University on global Health, MIT on CO2 Capture and utilisation and institutes in Singapore on Microbiomics and nutrition,” said Professor Sibrandes Poppema, President of Sunway University.

Assoc. Prof. Mayco Santaella, Head, Department of Film & Performing Arts, Sunway University and MyArchives Project Coordinator said, “Future plans for MyArchives includes the digitization of Audio and Visual documentation from various collections in Malaysia and overseas. The project aims to establish a
digital archive developed through the joint efforts of scholars, performers and researchers focusing on traditions, past and present. The material is preserved in digital format for the purposes of research, sustainability and viability of the performing arts heritage of the country.”

KNU selected again for ‘Open-Lab Support Project’ by the Ministry of Science and ICT

Posted on by Kyungpook National University ‏‏‎ ‎

Kyungpook National University (KNU) has once again been selected to receive funding from 2021 Open-Lab Support Project for Local Industry-Affiliated Universities by the Ministry of Science and ICT, and the Commercialization Promotion Agency for R&D Outcomes, for the second consecutive year.

The Open-Lab Support Project is a project that designates university laboratories as Open-Labs to establish a technology commercialization platform that customizes and supplies technology and human resources to local industries.

With the final selection this year, KNU will receive approximately KRW 1.8 billion to successfully develop this platform and support local industries with the advanced skills, techniques, and specialization of KNU Open Labs.

Through the establishment of the following 6 Open-Labs, KNU plans to contribute to the promotion of strategic industrial planning and the direction of policy-making for the development of core industries within the region.

  • Production of World-Class Products through Advanced Performance of Next-Generation LAMP Molecular Diagnostics (Professor Choi-Kyu Park, College of Veterinary Medicine)
  • Development of Technology for the Practical Use of Theranos based on the Removal of Reactive Oxygen Species (Professor Yongmin Chang, School of Medicine)
  •  Cohort Research on Skin Microbiome for Functional Cosmetics Development (Professor Jae-Ho Shin, School of Applied Biosciences)
  •  Advancement and Commercialization of IoT-based Smart Monitoring and Management Technology for Water and Sewage Facilities (Professor ChoonWook Park, Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation)
  •  Development of Fiber Optic Splicing and Non-Destructive Measurement Devices for WDM Packages (Professor Mansik Jeon, School of Electronic Engineering)
  •  Development of Mecanum Wheel-Type Heavy-Load Pallet Robots with Autonomous Driving based on Environmental Awareness (Professor Soon Yong Park, School of Electronic Engineering).

Jeehyun Kim, head of KNU Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation as well as of this project, states, Last year, 70% of the KRW 3 billion KNU achieved in technical service revenue was produced from biological or IT-related fields directly affiliated with regional industries. Through the project this year, KNU plans to act as the central hub for regional development, stimulating the regional economy and employment via the establishment of Open-Labs and innovative platforms.

UiTM drives university-academia discussion on Pharmacy Perspectives on COVID-19 vaccines

Posted on by Faculty of Pharmacy, UiTM Editorial Team

Faculty of Pharmacy, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) held its inaugural international-themed webinar entitled Pharmacy Perspectives on COVID-19 Vaccination from the 31st March to 1st April 2021.

Spearheaded by Dr Mathumalar Loganathan, the programme brought the industry and learning institutions together to discuss and share matters surrounding vaccination from Malaysia and the United Kingdom perspectives and the status of infection, prevention control, and vaccination in Thailand and Indonesia.

Given the concern around the increasing number of COVID-19 infection cases globally and the apprehension towards vaccination and its side effects, this webinar was timely and of significant importance to pharmaceutical industries and academia.

Over 700 participants attended the webinar involving Pharmaniaga Berhad (local pharmaceutical company), the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) Malaysia, Boots Pharmacy (UK-based community pharmacist) and two ASEAN education institutions Mahidol University, Thailand and Bandung Institute of Technology, Indonesia.

The seminar is also one of the activities planned as part of the memorandum of understanding UiTM has with the two education institutions mentioned above.

The virtual seminar served as an excellent platform for sharing knowledge and expertise on the current vaccination-related health policies and its challenges to increase vaccination uptake by the public. The web-based sessions were made interactive and engaging for teaching and learning purposes.

Post-graduate students attending the webinar were introduced to aspects relating to policies, management, operationalisation and sustainability of vaccine-related services and disciplines, including manufacturing and cold-chain management of COVID-19 vaccines.

The two half-day events drew participants from medical and health sciences backgrounds from various countries, namely the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, India and Malaysia.

The presence of all counterparts enabled a meaningful exchange of knowledge between medical and health sciences practitioners from public hospitals, namely Kuala Lumpur General Hospital, Klang General Hospital and academia from universities, such as UiTM, Management and Science University, the National University of Malaysia, Bandung Institute of Technology, Universitas Gadjah Mada Indonesia, Mahidol University Thailand and Gitam University India.

It is also hoped that the event enabled a significant exchange of knowledge and expertise and fostered closer and strategic ties between all parties involved.



Brazil, Canada and USA are the winners of IV International Economics Olympiad

Posted on by Ksenia Bregadze

The 4th International Economics Olympiad (IEO) has announced its winners after taking place online in Latvia. The competition was organized by HSE University and the University of Latvia.

The forty-four national teams in the competition included participants from Australia, Brazil, China, Canada, New Zealand, the USA, and others. Brazil won the gold
medal in the team category for the third year in a row, with silver going to Canada and the USA taking the bronze. Russia came sixth in the team category and won a gold medal and four silvers in the individual category. The overall winner was Canada’s Andy Wei. All Olympiad competitors can apply to study at HSE University without taking entrance exams.

“I am sure that every student’s road to their national team has been different. However, the start is almost always found at their regional level, where students are invited to start their journey with the encouragement of their parents, teachers and friends. The challenges that the participants will face this year of the competition reflect their major real-life societal issues like pandemics, crime, unemployment, the rise of automation and transition to sustainability. I’m pleased to see students from
so many countries investing their time in understanding and searching for practical solutions to these modern-day challenges,” remarked Egils Levits, President of Latvia, during the opening ceremony.

Despite taking place online due to the pandemic, this year’s schedule was full of competitions, lectures from invited experts, and fun events. The IEO has three stages: a financial literacy game in an online simulator, finding solutions to economics-based tasks, and presenting a solution to a business case. This year’s business case tasked participants with developing a strategy to revitalize a factory in Latvia by coming up with a product for the factory to manufacture and outlining its target market. The case was presented by the Latvian division of EY, an international audit and consulting company and partner of the Olympiad.

The chairman of the IEO Board of Trustees is Eric Maskin, Nobel laureate in Economics. On the first day of the competition, participants attended an open meeting with N. Gregory Mankiw, professor at Harvard and one of the most influential economists in the world according to RePEc. Attendees also had the opportunity to hear lectures by Rafael Repullo and Manuel Arellano of Spain’s CEMFI institute; Mārtiņš Kazāks, Governor of the Bank of Latvia; Jānis Ozoliņš, Head of Corporate Banking at SEB bank; Dr. Michel Zouboulakis of the University of Thessaly (Greece); and Diana Krisjane, EY Baltics Assurance Partner.

The general partners of the Olympiad were HSE University, the University of Latvia, the National Centre for Education (Latvia), SEB bank, and the Latvian mobile operator LMT.

The International Economics Olympiad was first held in Moscow in 2018 and is the only event of its kind in the world. This year (as in previous years), participants from countries without a national team could unofficially take part in the competition’s ‘OpenTrack’ category. Over 500 people took part in the OpenTrack, including those from 14 countries not yet on the list of official IEO participants. Overall, competitors from 58 countries took part across both tracks.

Team of Tomsk Universities share their experience of Urban Greenhouse Challenge Held at TPU

Posted on by Tomsk Polytechnic University

The team titled as Environmental Engineering Group representing Tomsk Polytechnic University, Tomsk State University, Tomsk State University of Control Systems and Radio-Electronics, Tomsk State University of Architecture and Construction reached the final of Urban Greenhouse Challenge: Reforest, an international competition of student projects.

The team members shared what helped them to create a successful project and whether it was easy to work together with students from different universities.

It is the first time Urban Greenhouse Challenge: Reforest, international competition has been held at a Russian university. Tomsk Polytechnic University became its main organizer. The key task of the contestants was to develop a project of a city farm, an autonomous greenhouse for growing coniferous and deciduous seedlings on multi-tiered shelving units. The prize pool of the competition is $10,000.

According to the team members of the Environmental Engineering Group, the main concept of their project since the beginning of the project has not changed. It is a small city greenhouse that can be located in public spaces to enhance awareness of the population on the problem of growing coniferous plants and to demonstrate the process itself.

The contestants are also willing that their complex could operate without an operator and are intended to pay special attention to the design and environmental friendliness of the project so that the greenhouse could harmoniously fit the city landscapes.

“An educational course that was quite deep and fundamental, as well as consultations with mentors helped us so much. It was helpful to hear the experts’ opinions as some moments even did not come to our minds. For instance, we were suggested to pay attention to material recycling and reuse,” the students say.

Moreover, all the team members study different majors: optical engineering, circuit design and programming, ecology, architecture and construction, marketing. Despite the different experience and situation with a distance learning mode, it did not obstruct them to work well together and invent their concept.

“Everyone has a similar vision of our concept from the beginning. Due to the fact that all the team members have competencies in different areas, we could have created the final concept of the project quite fast. Simultaneously, we learned something new from each other, for instance, I learned a lot about microclimate control systems in greenhouses.

“We did not face any problems with communication as we were in touch on social media and via Zoom. It was much convenient to work in this way as we all have different opportunities and schedules. At the moment, one of the team members is in Italy. What about our chances for victory, we have cautious optimism.

“From what we have seen and heard, we have realized that our vision of a city greenhouse is different from what the other teams are developing. We love our project and we are sure that it will be positively assessed,” Sofia Romanenko, a student of the TPU School of Advanced Manufacturing Technologies, the head of the team, shared her thoughts.

Thammasat University launched “The Circular Innovation Challenge”

Posted on by Thammasat University

SDG Lab: School of Global Studies, Thammasat University in collaboration with Indorama Ventures Public Company Limited, a world-class chemicals company with a global leader in PET partners including the SEAMEO Regional Centre for Sufficiency Economy Philosophy for Sustainability, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) launched “The Circular Innovation Challenge” on April 26, 2021, to persuade young people between the ages of 16-30 to present their innovative ideas for general practice and development in order to create a circular economy, improve plastic waste management and solve hygiene problems.

This challenge offered a prize valued at over 200,000 baht together with learning session and workshop by experts from leading international organizations

Prof. Dr. Prapaporn Tivayanond Mongkhonvanit, Dean of the School of Global Studies, Thammasat University as the initiator of the Circular Innovation Challenge held by SDG Lab: School of Global Studies, said that the objective of the Circular Innovation Challenge is to raise awareness of circular economy issues.

In addition, it helps young innovators to enhance new skills to propose solutions concerning our society and the environment. The contest will be held as a hackathon, which is a design sprint-like event in which participants brainstorm to solve waste management issues.

Mr. Yash Lohia, Chief Recycling Officer of Indorama Ventures, said, “We are proud to support ‘The Circular Innovation Challenge’ and hope to provide tools and spaces for new generations to create a circular economy for the future. Moreover, they can learn from various experts directly. We hope this project will provide a better understanding of the circular economy in Thailand and promote the benefits of using recycled products because good innovation makes a comprehensive circular economy like our PET bottles, which still circulate in the economy loop.”

“For example, we are the first Thai company with the success of high-quality PET bottle recycling for the production of medical PPE which can be washed and used repeatedly replacing the single-use one.”, Mr Lohia added.

Recycling is the core element of a circular economy and a clear practice to reduce waste problems. Therefore, the company cooperates with both domestic and international organizations to support a universal declaration to increase the use of recycled products aiming at increasing the PET bottle recycling capacity to 50 billion bottles/year by 2025.

Mr. Renaud Meyer, UNDP Representative in Thailand said, “The poor waste management problem has a very negative impact on the environment and human life, especially the impact on marine resources, onshore biodiversity and public health. During the COVID-19 crisis, we saw the vulnerabilities of the waste management system, infrastructure as well as changes in waste management.”

“However, this crisis allowed us to initiate a more sustainable model of innovation, define green spaces, build resilience to life and develop modern innovations. The United Nations Development Program believes that innovation plays a key role in solving waste management problems. Thailand supports young entrepreneurs and communities by transferring knowledge of the waste management approach through circular economy principles,” Mr Meyer continued.

“The concept of circular economy is not only a guide to more sustainable resource management, but it also helps to achieve other sustainable development goals. One of them is Goal 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.”

For the second straight year, Chula makes it to top 100 for Academic Reputation by QS WUR 2022

Posted on by Chulalongkorn University

The results for this year’s QS World University Rankings 2022 have Chulalongkorn University holding the prestigious ranking as one of the one hundred best universities in the world in terms of Academic Reputation. This is the second straight year that Chula has occupied number 96 and once again it is placed as the best university in Thailand.

The university also takes pride in being recognized as the top university in Thailand for the 13th consecutive year (since 2009) and for placing among the 215 best universities in the world.

This year’s rankings show that Chula still retains its prime position as first in Thailand for academic reputation which serves as the indicator with the highest-ranking value. It is a reflection of the level of confidence that Chulalongkorn University enjoys from the perspective of more than 100,000 representative academics, entrepreneurs and academic institutions around the world.

Apart from that, Chula ranks 101st in the world in terms of Employer Reputation, an improvement from last year where it was at 125 in this category. The same goes for the Faculty-Student ratio and International Student ratio where Chula also sees an improvement from last year as well.

The latest rankings are a reflection of the success in the developments implemented by the University known as “Innovations for Society” which have brought about significant recognition in both academic and industrial circles at the international level.

EdUHK Dr Winnie Lam’s online evidence-based assessment system for student group activities

Posted on by eduhk

Undergraduate students usually need to collaborate with others to complete various types of group projects. However, it is not easy to distribute the work evenly among the group members, and some members are even called “free riders” because of their small contributions to the project.

As a result, teachers usually receive complaints at the end of the semester on this issue. In view of this, Dr Lam Wai-man at the Department of Mathematics and Information Technology of The Education University of Hong Kong developed an Online Evidence-based Assessment System called GMoodle for collaborative learning.

Instead of assessing the final outcome, the process of collaboration is recorded. Students can keep track of the progress of individuals and their group members in GMoodle. Whereas teachers can make use of the progress report to set assessment criteria and identify free riders.

As it is not easy to ensure all students are actively and equally contributed and collaborate with each other in group projects, this system can provide an objective measure to reflect the actual contribution and activeness of each student. It is also useful for students to review their learning goals.

Besides, each student has an individual GMoodle account to store their own learning activities. Once they have logged in the platform, they can view their contribution scores and compare theirs with the average in class to understand their learning progress is on track or not. Most importantly, students can make use of the discussion forum, chat room and Wiki report to create a proactive collaborative learning environment.

GMoodle has been recognised for its innovation and creativity. It obtained the Silver Medal and Special Award – Special Inventor Award in the International Invention Innovation Competition in Canada in 2019. Riding on the success, Dr Lam invited other external parties to collaborate for further development and improvement of the platform.

Future developments in the pipeline include incorporating AI and data mining to customise learning materials, applying to multi-disciplinary courses, adding more collaborative tools, adding co-teaching features, and launching in secondary schools.

LCCM opens its doors for a Music Industry Insiders Day

Posted on by Global University Systems

On 14 August 2021, London College of Creative Media is opening its doors to anybody who is thinking of a career in the industry.

The ‘Music Industry Insiders Day’ event will be hosted at LCCM’s iconic Music Box campus, where potential students can attend one of the college’s ‘Box Talks’ events with DJ Semtex – DJ, presenter, A&R and the host of ‘Hip Hop Raised Me’ podcast.

People thinking of a career in the music industry will have the opportunity to experience industry-relevant masterclasses, taster workshops in performance, song writing, music production and music business as well as receiving advice from key trade organisations including Ivors Academy, Incorporated Society of Musicians and the Music Publishers Association.

“Our Music Industry Insiders Day is perfect for those avid musicians and entrepreneurs of tomorrow who want to make their mark on the music business, whether it’s as a performer, songwriter, producer, executive or anything in between,” says JD Donovan, LCCM’s Industry Liaison. “Not only will the day be informative with workshops and tours of our state-of-the-art studios, but also fun as we welcome back people to the Music Box after 18 months!”

Attendees will meet leading LCCM staff and tutors, as well as current students and alumni, and watch the first year’s Music Business Management and Music Performance students’ joint event, ‘LCCM Worldvision,’’ which celebrates the college’s performers from around the world.

Registration and tours will start at noon with a welcome talk and then a student performance at 12.30 pm. At 1 pm, potential students can take part in a songwriting workshop or Music Business Management taster session before a Performance workshop at 2 pm. The ‘LCCM Worldvision’ performances (Level 4 student project) or Music Production drop-in session will be at 3 pm, followed by the Production workshop at 4 pm and the Box Talk with DJ Semtex at 5 pm.

Throughout the day, where COVID-19 guidelines will be in place, admissions advisers and current students will be on hand to answer questions and there will be all-day access to stalls from LCCM’s music industry partners. In addition, there will be an open-door policy in certain rooms in the Music Box and free soft drinks and snacks from the Venue Bar.

Difficulties in reading recent Japanese names

Posted on by Tokyo University of Science

Assistant Professor Yuji Ogihara from the Tokyo University of Science analyzed approximately 8,000 names of infants born between 2004 and 2018 obtained from the database of a life insurance company. He first chose four recent common names for boys and girls each (Boys: “大翔,” “陽翔,” “翔,” “颯,” Girls: “結愛,” “陽菜,” “愛,” “杏”) on the basis of popularity rankings for each year.

He then comprehensively surveyed all their readings and calculated the ratio and number of ways to read each name. These results were published on June 21, 2021 in the international journal Humanities and Social Sciences Communications.

Assistant Professor Ogihara discovered that there are at least 18 ways to read “大翔” (Figure 2), and at least 14 ways to read “結愛” (Figure 3). Even single-character names like “颯,” and “杏,” had seven and five readings, respectively. The readings each differed greatly in pronunciation, length, and meaning. Assistant Professor Ogihara showed that the
other names have many readings, too.

He further found that parents were not only using the common readings of each character, but also using readings that do not exist for a character or using a character for its meaning and imagery. For example, “大翔” was also read as “Tsubasa”(meaning “wing”). Neither “大” nor “翔” formally have “Tsubasa” as a reading. “翔” is read as “Tsubasa” because it has the meanings “flap” and “fly,” and a reading associated with the imagery of the character is observed. The character “大” is given, but not pronounced, and the meaning “to flap broadly” is obtained. Hence, the character is only added for its imagery or meaning.

Assistant Professor Ogihara also saw a pattern of abbreviating common readings. For example, “大翔” was read as “Taishi.” “大” has the reading “tai,” and “翔” has the reading “shou.” “Shou” was abbreviated to “shi” and combined with “tai.” He also found instances where the meanings of characters are read in foreign languages. Take “結愛 Yura,” for example. While “結” comes from the common reading “yu(u),” “愛” is generally not read as “ra,” but because “愛” means “love” (rabu) in English, it is possible to omit the “bu” and use it as “ra.”

In this study, Assistant Professor Ogihara systematically analyzed actual name data and empirically investigated the difficulty of correctly reading Japanese names. The investigation of these difficulties contributes to deepening our understanding of naming practices and the characteristics of names, not only in Japan but in the Sinosphere, which includes East and Southeast Asia.