Year: 2021

The Academy of Language Studies, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Cawangan Pulau Pinang (UiTMCPP) organised the International Workshop, Seminar & Innovations (IWSI) with the theme Japanese Meet Malays: When Languages and Cultures Dance Together virtually on 27 January 2021.

The webinar commenced with an uplifting speech on Colours of Language by Professor Ts. Dr Salmiah Kasolang, the rector of UiTMCPP and the president of the Malaysian Tribology Society (MYTRIBOS) who touched on diverse Malay and Japanese cultural aspects while stressing that language is knowledge, and it adds colours to human lives.

Your Excellency Mr Kanoya Shinichiro from Consulate-general of Japan in Penang proceeded to feature numerous aspects of Japan including its regions, initiatives implementation in Japan, cultural project collaborations to introduce Japan in Malaysia, and tertiary education opportunities for Malaysians in Japan.

The following panellist, Professor Dr Kanao from the Department of Mechanical Precision Engineering, Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia who is also a Guest Professor at Kyushu University, Japan shared his insightful perspectives in terms of engineering and cultural aspects in Malaysia and Japan as well as collaboration through shared expertise, and knowledge sharing between Malaysia and Japan towards a prosperous society.

Professor Ir. Dr Syahrullail Samion from the Department of Thermofluids, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia who completed his undergraduate and post-graduate studies in Japan mentioned fascinating similarities and differences between Malay and Japanese languages in terms of sentence structure, meaning, content and context. The senpai and kōhai mentor system at education and work levels, and the simplicity elements in technology and work culture were also discussed.

Ts. Dr Nik Roselina Nik Roseley from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA Shah Alam shared her personal experience of being an undergraduate at Kobe University, Japan by describing the cultural environment, Kansai dialect, Japanese waste disposal system, Malay and Japanese cultural activities, and part-time job experience in Kobe, Japan.

The final panellist, Dr Rofiza Aboo Bakar from the Academy of Language Studies, UiTMCPP who participated in the Youth Exchange Programme in Katsushika, Tokyo in 2003 focused on the remarkable origins, characteristics, and close affinities between Malays and Japanese in exploring their languages and cultures.

The webinar ended with a question-and-answer session by the moderators, Ms Marni Jamil and Ms Jihan Johari from UiTMCPP.

The afternoon session proceeded with three interactive online segments on Malay and Japanese cultures as Ms Emi Yamazaki, the President of the Pink Hibiscus Club awed the participants with an easy-to-follow Yukata demonstration, which was followed by Kanji (Japanese calligraphy) and Haiku vs Pantun competitions hosted by the committee.

IWSI reached more than 3000 views and it has established educational and social connections between academicians and non-academicians across languages and cultures besides uplifting the spirit of collaboration through global exposure in the borderless world.

Management and Science University (MSU) has become the first university ever in Malaysia to initiate a comprehensive collaboration with Malaysia’s Fire and Rescue Department (JBPM) in combatting COVID-19.

The University ran the MSU Public Sanitization Campaign on February 26, there days ahead of its students returning to campus beginning March 1.

Such proactivity indicates a high commitment to ensuring health and safety for all, said JPBM Director YS PKPjB Norazam Khamis; who led two teams of a combined twenty from the Shah Alam Section 15 and the Kota Anggerik stations carrying out disinfection of MSU’s U-Plaza, U-Concourse, The Hub, Cinnamon Café, Library and Resource Centre, and lecture halls.

MSU President, Professor Tan Sri Dato’ Wira Dr Mohd Shukri Ab Yajid, said that committing to health and safety on campus is crucial to ensuring uninterrupted continuity and quality in the University’s teaching and learning through the blended mode of delivery.

Such a commitment has led MSU to offer the University’s private specialist hospital MSU Medical Centre (MSUMC) as a future vaccine centre.

Situated adjacent to the MSU main campus in Shah Alam Section 13 and the University’s student accommodation The Residence, MSUMC is the first hospital in Malaysia purpose built by a private university.

Image caption: This photo shows the possible mechanism of increased homology-directed repair efficiency and suppression of off-target effects by controlled activation of CRISPR-Cas9 depending on the cell cycle phase.

This story was first published on the Hiroshima University website.

Following the most recent ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) December 2020 exam sitting, three of Sunway TES great achievers scored as the best ACCA Top Affiliates in Malaysia with their impressive exam scores.

Nur Aida Sabriena Binti Ramli, the Yayasan TM Scholar, ranked as the 1^st ACCA Top Affiliate in Malaysia with an average of 74.5% marks.

“I was offered a scholarship by Yayasan TM to study in Sunway TES. I believe why they have chosen this college is due to its prestigious name, not to mention its ability to produce excellent achievers in every exam sitting. For those who love accounting, you are highly recommended to study in Sunway TES. The facilities are impressive, the lecturers are very much helpful and regular internal exams are so effective that they will remind students to always get ready for the real final,” said the Yayasan TM Scholar.  Nur Aida Sabriena was also the Malaysian Prizewinner for Taxation (MYS), in December 2018.

The Yayasan Peneraju Scholar, Iffah binti Chek Peei also ranked as one of the ACCA Top Affiliates in the December 2020 exam sitting. Being ranked as the 2^nd ACCA Top Affiliate in Malaysia at the average of 73.25% marks, Iffah shared “Although the ACCA course is challenging and requires a strong commitment to passing, it for sure provides greater job opportunities in future. To those interested to pursue ACCA, I do recommend Sunway TES due to its experienced lecturers and great facilities. I had a great time and experience for the past 3.5 years here.”

This ACCA Top Affiliate title is awarded to ACCA students who achieves the highest average marks for the ACCA Strategic Professional level exam.

“I applause my students who attained great achievement in the CAT and ACCA December 2020 examinations that make Sunway TES CAE proud.  Sunway TES CAE stands as a leader in the education and training of professional accountants is due, in part, to the core of qualified, experienced, committed, and caring lecturers. Sunway TES CAE is privileged to receive continuous support from the Big 5 professional services firms who contribute significant roles in imparting practical and industrial knowledge to my students through guest lecture series, audit simulation programme and many more to name.” said Mr Teo Ee Sing, executive director of Sunway College and Founder of Sunway TES.

“As well, I wish to record my gratitude to Yayasan Peneraju, Yayasan Telekom Malaysia (YTM) and other sponsorship organisations for their confidence in Sunway TES CAE by entrusting their scholars to study ACCA at Sunway TES CAE. I am very certain that the scholars excel in their studies as they are well supported by the dedicated team of lecturers and provided with a conducive campus environment,” he added.

One of the greatest achievers, Lim Xin Ying ranked as the 3^rd ACCA Top Affiliate in Malaysia at an average of 73% marks. “The lecturers are very competent and experienced in teaching. They always teach with enthusiasm and they are very well-prepared for the classes. Besides, they will also provide additional learning materials for the student to gain a better understanding of the syllabus,” said Xin Ying when asked about her opinion of the Sunway TES lecturers.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Sunway TES strives to provide quality education for all the students even during these exceptional times. As a testament to Sunway TES’ quality of education, multiple world prize and Malaysian prize winners for CAT and ACCA were achieved by Sunway TES students for the ACCA December 2020 exam sitting. Throughout Sunway TES’ 27 years of its incorporation into Sunway College, it has consistently nurtured prize winners for Certified Accounting Technician (CAT) and ACCA programme.

Mr Teo shared, “As a firm believer and practitioner of quality education, best practices in teaching and learning, and life- long education, I endeavour to produce graduates who are the preferred choice of employers and who will work towards a sustained and inclusive socio-economic, cultural and green environment in the irrespective communities, societies and countries.”

To date, Sunway TES has produced a total of 216 world prize winners for CAT and ACCA, and a total of 673 Malaysian prize winners for CAT and ACCA. Sunway TES was awarded a Platinum Status Approved Learning Partner since the year 2003 and has since held onto the status for a consecutive 18 years. This signified the consistent top-quality education that was provided to students on top of achieving high passing rates.

Researchers from Peter the Great St.Petersburg Polytechnic University (SPbPU) developed and manufactured a unique 3D printer named the “Prism”.

The 3D-printer was manufactured and firstly demonstrated on January 29, 2021. The main purpose of the developed printer is to print structures made of titanium, an expensive material, but essential for various industries due to its strength properties and low specific weight.

The printing system is located in a chamber with an inert atmosphere. This printer may also be used to print products made of steel, aluminum, magnesium, nickel alloys. The researchers used the wire as a raw material to ensures the high productivity of the process.

The layer-by-layer deposition is performed in the 3D printer, in which the wire is melted due to the burning of an electric arc. In the developed printer, two wires can be fed simultaneously to increase productivity and to synthesize new alloy or gradient structures from two dissimilar wires.

Concerning the numbers, German and Spanish companies are limited in wire feed rates at the level of 6 m / min, the printer developed at the Polytech University prints at the feed rate of 12 m / min.

“Our printer “Prism” has higher performance characteristics compared to the analogs. Due to the use of a chamber with an inert atmosphere, we can print any metal, even very active like titanium,” says Oleg Panchenko, Head of the Laboratory of Light Materials and Structures SPbPU.

“Also, the technology of printing itself was improved by the scientific group of SPbPU by developing a double wire feeding system and the special shape of a current and voltage waveforms that used for electric arc burning.”

“In fact, it is allowed to use two dissimilar materials during 3D-printing. Using two different wires helps to create innovative materials with gradient transitions in the structure or, for example, intermetallic compounds that are rarely used now due to the complexity of product manufacturing,” adds Oleg.

“Thus 4 kg of titanium product can be printed within one hour. Our printer, due to the use of the robotic arm, can be adapted for the needs of a specific enterprise, in particular, to increase or, on the contrary, to reduce its printing area,” notes Oleg.

Scientists have already obtained several patents for the solutions used in the printer.

The Faculty of Mechanical Engineering (FKM), Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Malaysia, Shah Alam, in partnership with the Smart Manufacturing Research Institute, UiTM organized the 2020 Virtual Conference on Trends in Mechanical Engineering Analysis, Tools and Applications (MANTAP 2020) on December 2-3, 2020.

The international conference was held in association with Universitas Indonesia, Indonesia, Trinity College of Engineering (TCE), Trivandrum, India, and the Shibaura Institute of Technology (SIT), Japan. The virtual event, which was hosted on Cisco Webex^®, is intended to promote the advancement of mechanical engineering specifically in the aspects of analysis, tools and applications.

21 research papers encompassing seven research fields including Industrial Engineering and IR4.0, Computational Modeling and Analysis, Biomedical Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, Manufacturing Technology, Thermofluids and Sustainable Energy and Environment were presented in this two-day virtual conference.

Assoc. Prof. Dr Sugeng Supriadi from Universitas Indonesia presented a keynote address entitled “Realization of Biomaterial for Medical Devices” in the field of Biomedical Engineering on the first day of the conference.

The following day witnessed one keynote address and a plenary session by Prof. Dr Akihiko Hanafusa (SIT, Japan) and Dr Arun Surendran (TCE, Trivandrum, India), respectively.

Prof. Dr Hanafusa delivered a keynote entitled “Research on Life Support Engineering”. Dr Arun presented a plenary in the area of Engineering Education entitled “Possibilities and Potential of Online Education in Engineering”. A few FKM lecturers are collaborating with Prof. Dr Hanafusa in conducting research in the field of Medical Systems Engineering in SIT, Japan.

Dr. Arun contributed his recent 25-page review article “Online Education: Learning Anywhere, Anytime!” to the audience, among which are university lecturers in constant search of improvising the delivery of online classes.

The conference was attended by 90 participants comprising researchers, lecturers and students from local and international universities. Student participation includes about 24 undergraduate students from the Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia and around 18 post-graduate students from FKM, UiTM Shah Alam. All the 21 conference papers have been submitted to various Scopus indexed-journals for review and publication.

Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR) established a business and technology incubator in late 2017 to support students’ start-ups.

Dr. Achsania Hendratmi, S.E, a lecturer at Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB) UNAIR, also the Head of Business and Technology Incubator BPBRIN UNAIR explained that the total start-ups in BPBRIN UNAIR from 2017 to 2020 has reached 111 start-ups. Previously, in 2017 there were only three start-ups joining the Business & Technology Incubator.

“In 2018, start-ups in business & technology incubators increased to a total of 34 start-ups, which then became 86 in 2019,” she continued.

54% of these start-ups are in the digital sector, out of which 17% of them focuses on health issues.

Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), leads with 32 start-ups. It is followed by the Faculty of Science and Technology (FST) with 24 start-ups.

“Several start-ups that have joined include Alinamed, Telasin, Legalhub, Kelola.Net, Varicose Veins Indonesia, Doing Business, Midcare, Kakidiabet Indonesia, and Smart Water,” explained Achsania.

The purpose of establishing UNAIR BPBRIN’s Business and Technology Incubator is to help UNAIR’s start-ups to develop. After the incubation period, the start-ups are expected to run their business in a more stable manner, able to compete and become a strong and independent start-up.

According to Achsania, business and technology incubator institute plays a very important role because in general, start-up companies are very vulnerable to failure or bankruptcy in the early stages of establishment. This failure can be caused due to a lack of capital, difficulty in implementing technology, poor business management, and lack of experience in the business world.

The incubation process provided by the incubator includes assistance, guidance, training, facilitation of product development and access to financial and marketing institutions. All these facilities are expected to increase business and the product competitiveness of fostered start-up business.

“Therefore, through the incubation process given to these startup companies, hopefully, they will be able to increase their business and increase the competitiveness of their products and businesses,” she concluded.

The Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU) School of Computer Science and Robotics is launching a new Master’s Degree program in Industrial Safety Systems. Students of this educational program will study the basic principles of software, dataware and hardware of industrial safety systems and will learn how to design and operate these systems as well.