Due to the current pandemic situation, the management of Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) has taken the initiative to set up a disaster operation center in order to ensure that Movement Control Order (MC) is well managed at the university. The disaster operations center is a joint venture of the UiTM Shah Alam Disaster Operation Department together with UiTM Health Centre, UiTM Student Affairs Divison, Auxiliary Police UiTM, and the Office of Infrastructure Development & Infostructure. Two FEE lecturers, Ts. Dr. Mahanijah Binti Md Kamal and Assoc.
Prof. Ts. Dr. (CEng) Mohamad Fahmi Bin Hussin @ Mohamad volunteered to man the 24-hour operation center. The main task of volunteers at the operation center is to be on standby and take turns on an 8-hour daily shift. Besides answering phone calls, the volunteers had to answer inquiries from parents, reporters, and university staff about COVID-19. As there are students still residing on the campus, these volunteers are required to provide the latest information to the parents on the current situation.
Health care professionals are also faced with another challenge currently that is the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE), which has increasingly become problematic as Covid-19 cases continue to soar. Therefore, another initiative taken by FEE was to design and fabricate face shields for the frontliners where 100 face shields were sent to one government hospital, Selayang Hospital in Kuala Lumpur, and another 40 face shields were sent to a teaching hospital, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre. This project was led by Ts. Dr. Noorfadzli Abdul Razak with the support of FEE staff and students. Currently, the lecturers are in the process of preparing another 500 pieces of the face shield for UiTM dental faculty.
The face shields using 3 units of 3D Printer located in the Dream Factory, a laboratory at FEE, equipped with all the necessary tools and machines to design and fabricate these PPEs. The materials used to build these face shields are transparent PVC plastic, rubber bands, and ABS and PLA type plastic filaments. More face shield is expected to be produced and to be delivered to other hospitals.
It is hoped that the small effort will do little to help the country deal with the outbreak. In addition, this effort can be a motivation for staff and students at UiTM and other educational institutions to help the country in their own way.