Year: 2021

Five Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) have been signed on 22nd December 2020 by Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Perak Branch with industry partners; Dewan Perniagaan Dan Perindustrian Melayu Perak (DPPMP), Urbanice Malaysia, E-Idaman Sdn. Bhd, Chulia Facilities Management Sdn. Bhd. and Richkey Creative Sdn. Bhd.

Managed by the Office of Research, Industrial Linkages, Community and Alumni Network, UiTM Perak Branch, the signing ceremony was held at Tun Abdul Razak Library (PTAR) UiTM Perak.

The MoUs were signed by the Vice-Chancellor of UiTM, Emeritus Professor Ir. Dr Mohd Azraai Kassim, and witnessed by Professor Sr Dr Md Yusof Hamid, Rector of UiTM Perak.

The collaborative partners from the local industry include Dato’ Hj. Muhammad Muhiyuddin Hj. Abdullah from Dewan Perniagaan Dan Perindustrian Melayu Perak – (DPPMP), TPr Norliza Hashim (Urbanice Malaysia), Mr. Ahmad Faizi Latifi bin Ahmad Faiz (E-Idaman Sdn. Bhd.), Mr. Shahfie Ahmad (Chulia Facilities Management Sdn. Bhd.), and Mr. Wan Hishamrudin Wan Ahmad Kaspi (Richkey Creative Sdn. Bhd.).

The primary purpose of the MoUs is to strengthen cooperation, promote mutual understanding, academic, cultural, and scientific thought, and personnel exchange and increase graduate employability.

The cooperation also anticipates equipping students and staff the essential entrepreneurial skills, green initiatives and approaches, exchange expertise and experiences in facilities management, training, short courses related to the built environment, and many more.

These MoUs are poised to boost new and more significant initiatives soon.

The Digital Intelligence and Literacy Research Unit (DIRU), Faculty of Communication Arts, Chulalongkorn University, with the Dean Associate Professor Dr Preeda Akarachantachote, presiding, has launched “Thaidigitalcitizen.net“,  an interactive learning website for the public to enhance their digital literacy skills and fact-check tools to monitor fake news contents.

Based on the concept of “think, talk, search“, the website is an effort to create a community of awareness and reduce online risks for people of all ages. DIRU is funded by the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Research and Development Fund for Public Interest (BTFP), Office of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC).  DIRU developed this website based on the research on risks in social media usage and the concept of online self-learning through the three processes of “think, talk, search”.

Through online interactive learning tools, users can learn by themselves with 8 self-study modules to understand and use social media platforms correctly and safely, reduce the risk of being fooled by fake news contents, scams, cyberbullying or online gambling.  Then, there are six simulated scenarios for users to learn: internet scams, violence, and cyberbullying, fake news, fake health information, exposure to sexually explicit contents, and risk of identity theft.

After users complete all the materials, they may take a test and if passed, they will receive a certificate of digital literacy that can be printed right away.

Users can exchange and learn about the risks of social media and the ways to mitigate them via chats and groups of members.  Users chat and share experiences about online news. They can warn each other and help to monitor the situations encountered by other users.

It is a digital community in the form of a social network.  There are articles, infographics, and videos that can be shared and discussion threads on various issues.

Users can fact-check the dubious information by themselves to increase media literacy.  There are websites or resources that the project has screened to be credible. It helps to filter the search, so users can get verified information.

Associate Dr Phnom Kleechaya, head of DIRU Research Unit said, “We have been developing this website since the beginning of 2020, and started our survey in 2019.  We identified 15 risks and grouped them into 6 risk groups. The website was launched in October 2020 for a three months’ test-run until the end of the year before handing the project to BTFP, the funding agency. We hope to keep developing the website.”

“It may not serve as a panacea for society to change today or tomorrow. Rather, it is a mechanism for continuous learning among users and we want to invite the public to make use of the website.”

Mr. Keshav Soni, BFA 3rd year student, Chitkara University, has won the “Best Photo Award” in the amateur category in the International Art Photography competition and Exhibition “Frames 2020” organized by Gayoor Art Foundation, Kashmir.

Frames-2020, a global online photography exhibition and competition, was organised on the eve of “World Photography Day”, from August 19 to September 19, 2020.

The competition was curated by Naushad Gayoor, contemporary artists from Kashmir and Jeetin Rangher, a multidisciplinary artist based in Bangalore. The Guest of Honour of the Art Competition was Rajender Tiku, an academic/visual artist, who has been also honoured by Padma Shri award.

There were three categories like Invited Category, Professional Category and Amateur Category, and over 1000 Artists participated in these different categories from all over the world.

GAYOOR “art foundation” is a non – profit organization which also works for the upliftment of Art & Culture in & outside Jammu and Kashmir for the last decade. The foundation has a successful picture in-terms of engaging veteran artists with upcoming artists and has contributed a lot towards the promotion of art and artists through some unique projects.

An online board of executive meeting was held on Wednesday, February 3, 2021. Attended by all university and faculty officials of Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR), this meeting also invited several international academics who shared their inspiration in university management.

During the meeting, Prof. Dr. Yong Zulina Zubairi, Associate Vice-Chancellor (International) Universiti Malaya, Malaysia explained various efforts made by Universiti Malaya in improving the quality of education and innovation in the academic field.

The Director of the ASEAN Center, Osaka University Professor Hitoshi Hisada explained various efforts to strengthen research and collaboration and also spoke about the efforts to collaborate with industry to participate in the downstream process of research and innovation carried out by educational institutions.

The Deputy President of Innovation and Enterprise National University of Singapore Prof. Freddy Boey,  explained the progress of NUS in developing innovation that it was able to produce more than 800 start-ups created by alumni.

“The university’s innovation orientation must now move from research to commercialization. Not to make money, but to train superior human resources,” said the engineering expert.

Prof. Freddy further explained, “NUS has three objective orientations in collaboration with innovation and entrepreneurship. The first orientation is the development of entrepreneurs who try to train intellectuals to be able to think and be economically competitive. The second orientation is the growth of innovation and is followed by the orientation of creating a superior business.”

These three orientations are reflected in various NUS innovation programs. One of them is BLOCK71 which is the first business and innovation incubator in Singapore. There is also a one-year MSc Venture Creation program that encourages participants to set up start-up companies.

Meanwhile, the Graduate Research Innovation Program (GRIP) is a forum for research staff and professors to encourage commercialization through start-ups.

“The program has successfully built affiliations with 250 companies and offered funding of over one hundred thousand dollars,” he added.

It has resulted in an extraordinary international network of research and innovation. NUS has consistently sent thousands of students to 15 entrepreneurial hotspot cities in various countries, from the United States Silicon Valley, Beijing, Tel Aviv, Munich, Nagoya, Bandung, and so on.

Prof. Freddy explained that the success of NUS in developing innovation and student skills departed from the ability to adapt to the Industrial Revolution 4.0 which brought the smart platform trend.

“In the last two years, NUS has doubled the quota for computer science students. Digital computers, artificial intelligence, and coding are trends and the future for university innovation spaces,” he explained.

So in a discussion moderated by the Vice-Rector for Internationalization, Digitalization, and Information, dr. M. Miftahussurur, M.Kes., Sp. PD-KGEH., Ph.D. Prof. Freddy emphasized that academic changes must be executed by all universities, including UNAIR.

“Academic institutions are obliged to produce graduates who are not only relevant in the present, but also in the future. We must be able to become innovation leaders and contribute to the realization of national research. NUS is well on its way to do that. And I’m sure UNAIR is too,” he said.

Hydrogen is a clean source of fuel, but its purification has been challenging until now. A recent paper published in the journal Separation and Purification Technology seeks to address this challenge.

In this study, a group of researchers from Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan, led by Professor Yuji Iwamoto, in collaboration with researchers in France, successfully characterized a novel membrane that allows highly selective separation of hydrogen gas generated from the PEC reaction.

Prof. Iwamoto says, “Membrane separation is attractive as a low-cost hydrogen gas purification technology. However, current techniques face several challenges, for example, water-induced swelling with polymer membranes and lower hydrogen permeance with metal, polymer, and supported liquid membranes.”

The researchers first developed an organic-inorganic hybrid polymeric membrane, primarily consisting of a polymer called “polycarbosilane” (PCS) formed on an aluminium oxide (Al₂O₃)-based porous support.

Prof. Iwamoto further explains, “By using high-molecular-weight PCSs with a melting point above 200°C, we showed that a superhydrophobic PCS membrane could be deposited on a mesoporousγ-Al₂O₃-modified macroporousα-Al₂O₃ tubular support.”

After successfully developing the PCS membrane, the researchers tested it under PEC reaction conditions. As hypothesized, the PCS membrane showed high hydrophobicity. Moreover, under the flow of a simulated highly humid gas mixture at 50°C, the PCS membrane exhibited excellent hydrogen selectivity.

Further analysis revealed that the preferential hydrogen permeation through the PCS membrane was governed by the “solid state diffusion” mechanism. Overall, irrespective of the ambient environmental conditions provided, the PCS membrane exhibited efficient hydrogen gas separation.

With the development and characterization of this new PCS membrane, it is inevitable that its commercial adoption will not just facilitate the use of hydrogen fuel for energy needs but also curb the use of non-renewable fossil fuels.

Prof. Iwamoto concludes, “With this technological development, we expect great progress in environmental-friendly and sustainable hydrogen production.”

Kyungpook National University held an agreement ceremony on March 4 at the main conference room of Kyungpook National University main building to form a “Regional Cooperation Council” to jointly promote the Ministry of Education’s “Local Government -University Cooperation-based Regional Innovation Project.”

The regional innovation project is a project by the Ministry of Education to support various regional innovation entities in the region, including universities and local governments, to establish a “regional innovation platform” to promote regional innovation plans.

It is a large national project that will cost 68.6 billion won (including 30percent of local expenses) in 2022. The Ministry of Education, which started a business competition in February, is planning to select a multi-platform in May.

The “Regional Cooperation Council” is an organization that deliberates and resolves major matters of regional innovation projects, with Young Jin Kwon, the Mayor of Daegu, Cheol Woo Lee, Governor of North Gyeongsang Province, and, Won Hwa Hong, the President of Kyungpook National University co-chairperson.

Thirteen regional innovation institutions including Daegu University, Daegu Metropolitan Office of Education and Gyeongsangbuk-do Office of Education, Daegu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Gyeongbuk Chamber of Commerce, Daegu·Gyeongbuk SMEs and Startups, Techno Park, and the Center for Creative Economy and Innovation, will participate.

Through this agreement, local universities, local governments, and local innovation institutions, led by Kyungpook National University, will declare the full-fledged implementation of the project and cooperate with each other for regional development and innovation.

When the project is selected, local governments, universities, and various industrial innovation institutions will establish a platform to select key areas that meet the regional mid-to-long-term development goals, and universities in the region will carry out various tasks.

Won Hwa Hong, president of Kyungpook National University, said, “We will foster innovative talents in key areas through regional innovation projects to encourage young people to settle in the region, and strengthen regional economic and industrial competitiveness.”

The research team of Samara Polytech together with North-West Polytechnic University scientists synthesized 224 previously unknown allotropes of carbon with crystal lattice energy close to that of a diamond.

Employees of the Samara Center for Theoretical Materials Science (SCTMS) of Samara Polytech together with scientists of Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU, China) generated low-energy carbon allotropes, i.e. substances of the same composition as the known allotropes, such as graphite or diamond, but different in structure and properties. The search for new carbon allotropes is a global trend, as they can become new materials with many useful properties, primarily with extremely high hardness and wear resistance.

The results of these studies are published in the journal NPJ Computational Materials (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41524-021-00491-y), published by Nature Publishing Group, that is one of the most prestigious scientific journals in the field of theoretical materials science.

There are infinitely many variants of atomic configurations, and the topological approach, which is implemented by the SCTMS employees in the ToposPro software package, allows to choose only those that have the required properties. This helped scientists discover 224 previously unknown allotropes of carbon with crystal lattice energy close to that of a diamond.

The authors calculated the mechanical properties of the generated allotropes and found simple relationships between the density of the allotrope and its most important mechanical properties, such as bulk and shear moduli that determine the substance hardness. As a result, an allotrope was found, the hardness of which is higher than the hardness of a diamond.

“This is really important research. We’ve taken another step in predicting superhard materials. Among the carbon allotropes we have modeled, there are other interesting structures, and now it is important for us to understand which particular features of their structure are responsible for the high substance hardness. We hope that the found patterns will make it possible to purposefully simulate other materials with extreme mechanical properties,” Professor Vladislav Blatov, the director of the center says. “

Research is carried out within the framework of a cooperation agreement between Samara Polytech and  Northwestern Polytechnical University, and I am glad that our cooperation is bearing real fruit.

Samara Center for Theoretical Materials Science (SCTMS) was organized in 2013; the center has been operating on the basis of Samara Polytech since 2018. Among the directions of SCTMS work are the software development for new materials modeling and intelligent analysis of experimental data; development of a new generation of electronic databases for heuristic prediction of the physical properties of solids; development of an expert system for the effective search for materials with specified properties; organization of a computer center for solids calculation by quantum mechanical methods; organization of schools, workshops, seminars on theoretical materials science.