Tag: Management and Science University

If you happened to be the most respected guest when visiting in Uzbekistan, expect to be seated the farthest from the door. Management and Science University (MSU) learns more of Uzbek local customs at the MSU International Cultural Festival.

Welcomed on campus recently was Uzbekistan Ambassador to Malaysia His Excellency Ravshan Usmanov, and an Uzbek dance group.

His Excellency encouraged the students gathered at MSU’s Performing Arts Theatre to study hard, master social skills, and learn other cultures.

You are the only one who can make this world a better place, with more knowledge and more friends. Uzbekistan welcomes MSU in this effort to strengthen ties between our nations. It gives me great pleasure to be joining in this showcase of intangible heritage acknowledged by UNESCO.”

Receiving the entourage in MSU main campus in Shah Alam was MSU President Professor Tan Sri Dato’ Wira Dr Mohd Shukri Ab Yajid.

“Malaysia and Uzbekistan share a lot of values and traditions, and strengths that can be combined for the benefit of our two countries and our two peoples. Our purpose at the University is always about building a better future for everyone, and I believe that education is the best change factor,” remarked Professor Tan Sri Dr Mohd Shukri.

The Republic of Uzbekistan is the world’s only doubly landlocked country other than Liechstenstein. Considered to be of the Caspian region though not immediately bordering the Caspian Sea, its relationship with Malaysia dates back to 1992 with the establishment of a Malaysian embassy in Tashkent. The cultural visit to MSU coincidentally celebrates 30 years of bilateral diplomatic ties between the two countries.

Promoting international diversity and intercultural competency, the weeklong exchange at MSU embraced learning by sharing. Bahasa Malaysia was learned along with Uzbek, traditional dances were performed, and national costumes worn as well as displayed.

Across education as well as industry, Management and Science University (MSU) has collaborations in Pharmaceutical and Health Care, Halal Certification, Personnel Training, and Poultry as well as Agriculture with Uzbekistan. MSU also collaborates with Navoi State Pedagogical Institute, Bukhara State University, Bukhara State Medical Institute, and Samarkand State Institute of Foreign Languages.

Chemicals abound in daily living raise the risk of harmful exposure to humans; for the average person every morning before she or he even leaves the house, with as much as a hundred of them or more across the range of personal care products.

At the 33rd International Invention, Innovation & Technology Exhibition (ITEX 2022) Malaysia, researchers from Management and Science University (MSU) made a difference.

Bagging Best Invention for Women 2022 as well as a gold medal for MSU under ITEX’s Beauty, Fitness, Sports category and MSU’s key research area of Halal Studies, ‘Halah Lipstick’ is a project by MSU’s School of Pharmacy (SPH).

Led by Saeid Mezail Mawaz, with team members Dr Jiyauddin Khan and Bachelor of Pharmacy (Hons) student Nurul Aqilah Azreen Redzal, the project aims to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 3 for Good Health and Wellbeing; 9 for Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure; and 12 for Responsible Consumption and Production.

All natural in its ingredients as well as processes, the food-grade halal product prepared only by melting and moulding has palm oil as its base, beetroot and tomato giving it colour, strawberry for fragrance as well as flavour, and lemon oil preserving the formulation.

With over a hundred billion dollars in revenue having been generated by the beauty industry worldwide in 2022, and the global lipstick market size expected to reach 12.5 billion dollars by 2026, ‘Halah Lipstick’ is rising to the challenge of reducing the use of synthetic materials in meeting beauty and personal care needs through the world halal market.

Three more gold medals to MSU from ITEX 2022 came in through MSU’s Information Technology Innovation Centre (ITIC), Eye Care Centre (iCARE), and Faculty of Health and Life Sciences (FHLS).

‘Smart Poultry Farm Monitoring System’ by ITIC is a collaboration with MSU’s Faculty of Information Sciences and Engineering (FISE). Winning under ITEX’s Agriculture category and MSU’s Big Data key research area, the project is led by MSU Senior Vice-President for Research, Innovation, Technology and System Professor Dato’ Dr Md Gapar Md Johar, with FISE team members Ts Dr Asif Iqbal Hajamydeen, Associate Professor Dr Mohammed Hazim Alkawaz, and Dr Lilysuriazna Raya, Master in Computer Science (by Research) students Naila Zakia Malika and Fatria Jumara Adha at MSU’s School of Graduate Studies (SGS), and Dato’ Nasharuddin Shukor of MSU’s AgroBusiness Sdn Bhd.

‘MSU Assessment Chart for Children with Special Needs’ by iCARE, which had received a gold medal from the Malaysia Technology Expo through the Social Innovations and Entrepreneur Management sub-category of MTE 2022, received the ITEX 2022 gold medal in the Child Care, Special Care category and under MSU’s Blindness Prevention key research area. The project is led by Associate Professor Dr Mohd Zaki Awg Isa, with Master in Health Science student Fairuz Mohd Nordin and Master in Science (by Research) Biomedicine student Mohamad Khamal Haqqim, both at SGS.

‘The Effects of Nevgro® Forte in Treating Depression in Rat Models Induced by Chronic Mild Stress: A Behavioural and Histological Study’ by FHLS received the ITEX 2022 gold medal through the ITEX Medical, Health category, under MSU’s Applied Health Sciences key research area. The project is led by Muhammad Danial Ramli, with FHLS team members Dr Mahathir Mohd Uzid, Associate Professor Dr Norshafarina Shari@Kamarudin, and Anita Zara Weinheimer; as well as Bachelor of Biomedical Science (Hons) student Juwita Junit, industry partner Ganofarm R&D Sdn Bhd researchers Dr Syntyche Seow Ling Sing and Cheng Poh Guat, and Hussin Muhammad of Institute for Medical Research (IMR).

MSU also clinched three silver medals from ITEX 2022 respectively from FISE, FHLS and the School of Education and Social Sciences (SESS) along a bronze medal through FISE

Scientists worldwide are scrambling to characterize the Omicron variant; particularly to learn how contagious, how vaccine resistant, and how severe the diseases it can cause could be.

B.1.1.529, the coronavirus variant that would later be designated as Omicron, presents over 30 mutations on its spike protein – the outer covering targeted by vaccines and the natural immune response.

Such high mutations had not been observed in other strains. It distinguishes Omicron from those of the virus that first emerged in late 2019 – a time since when, more than 20 variants have been identified and tracked by the World Health Organization.

Omicron’s spike proteins could render it less vulnerable to neutralization by either vaccine-generated antibodies or natural immunity from past COVID-19 infections. Unlike in the Lambda and the Mu variants, early signs point to the need for swift attention on the Omicron’s mutations.

Even before it was named, Omicron had gained such attention from COVID researchers; among them, Oxford researchers led by Dr Suresh Kumar of Management and Science University (MSU) and MSU student of Bachelor in Bioinformatics (Hons) Thiviya S. Thambiraja; both at MSU Malaysia’s Faculty of Health and Life Sciences (FHLS).

Their research, just accepted by the Journal of Medical Virology, ‘provides valuable insight into the Omicron and the Delta variants and the mutations that drive them’. It has appeared as a spotlight paper on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website, highlighted on the Australian Government’s COVID-19 Critical Intelligence Unit brief report, cited in the Ontario Public Health Evidence Brief risk assessment report, and presented on various online news portal.

The work, a comparative computational study of spike protein between Omicron and Delta variants of SARS-CoV-2, found that the Omicron variant had a higher affinity for human ACE2 – angiotensin-converting enzyme 2, which is the protein that provides the entry point for the coronavirus to hook into and infect human cells.

The first to report Omicron’s potential for higher transmissibility as compared with Delta’s, this research provides a large amount of information that could help further investigations into how quickly Omicron could spread and how damaging it can be.

An increasingly urgent need to mitigate climate change through responsible urban development has led to a new collaboration with Management and Science University (MSU).

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Shah Alam City Council (MBSA) was signed early September 2021, with three major areas of focus – sustainable development goals (SDGs), entrepreneurship, and education as well as training.

The city of Shah Alam, population is estimated at 686,966 (2020), is located within the Petaling district as well as part of the Klang District in the state of Selangor.

A major city in the Klang Valley, with land area totaling a little over 303 square kilometres, Shah Alam is bordered by the cities of Subang Jaya and Petaling Jaya and the districts of Kuala Selangor and Kuala Langat.

The MSU participation entails a strategic partnership into the Green Technology Master Plan 2017-2030, the Selangor State Green Technology Blueprint, the Sustainable Smart Shah Alam (SSAM) 2035 Blueprint, the New Urban Agenda (NUA), and the Low Carbon Cities Framework (LCCF).

LCCF by the Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water (KeTTHA) 2011 concerns buildings, urban infrastructure, urban transport, and urban environment; whilst its Low Carbon Cities 2030 Challenge encompasses energy, water, waste, mobility, and greenery.

Twenty-three buildings in Shah Alam collectively recorded 2.43 percent less electricity consumed by end 2018 as compared with 2015 baseline figures; whilst shopping centres Plaza Alam Sentral and PKNS Complex in the heart of the city remained in the top two spots for annual electricity consumption.

Free service by the Smart Selangor Bus, which passes by the MSU campus grounds twice hourly daily, has also contributed to reduced carbon emission through reduced traffic congestion.

In April this year, Management and Science University (MSU) received its first Green Pass; a Diamond-2 rating from Malaysia’s Sustainable Energy Development Authority (SEDA) for the University’s main campus buildings’ operation in Shah Alam Section 13.

On the LCCF Framework and Assessment system, green spaces with trees are expected to reduce carbon emissions by as much as 2,600kg carbon dioxide per acre. A reduction of over 300,000kg of CO2 is anticipated through 127 acres of green spaces throughout Shah Alam.

With the MBSA-MSU MoU, complementary support is in the pipeline for MBSA’s Green City Project as well as MSU’s National River Trail Project.

Management and Science University had launched the MSU Environmental Sustainability Project (MESP) in 2019, with flagship programmes including MSU MyCoral and MSU MyMountain.

MSU Malaysia entered the inaugural Times Higher Education University Impact Rankings that same year, and was placed in the World Top 301+ overall for eleven out of the seventeen SDGs; among which were for impact on good health and well-being, quality education, and climate action.

Signing the MoU at the virtual ceremony were MSU President Professor Tan Sri Dato’ Wira Dr Mohd Shukri Ab Yajid and Shah Alam Mayor Dato’ Haji Zamani Ahmad bin Mansor. Also in attendance were MSU Vice President of Industry Linkages.