UiTMLaw stands proud in the European Mooting Scene

The Faculty of Law of Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia (UiTMLaw) participated in the Jessup Intercontinental Friendly 2021 which was held online for the first time since its conception due to the pandemic. The Jessup Intercontinental Friendly 2021 was organized by a collective group of four European universities from Bulgarian, France, Latvia and Portugal.

The team made it to the finals of the Intercontinental Friendly and went up against Portugal’s top law school from the University of Lisbon, having beaten out the top-ranked team in the group stage from Sweden in the semi-finals. They emerged proudly as the first runner-up. Ameerah Batrisyia added a feather to her cap when she was named the 8th Best Oralist of the Jessup Intercontinental Friendly 2021.

The team from UiTMLaw, led by Wardah Yumna binti Yunus (a winner of the Jessup Best Oralist in the Malaysian National Rounds in 2019 and 2020), also consisted of Ameera Batrisyia binti Reza Andrian Malikwi Wan Nur Fatini binti Wan Abd Halim, Farah Nurizzaty Afifa binti Azhar and Muhammad Iqmal Hazim bin Khairuddin. The team was trained by moot coaches Prof. Dr Irwin Ooi Ui Joo and Dr Ummi Hani Masood.

Teams were given a fictional legal case or a moot problem on issues of international law and must plead their stance before the International Court of Justice. This year, the competition embraced the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the world’s landscape and based the competition to appear before the court concerning the J-Vid-18 Pandemic.

Several similar friendly rounds such as the Jessup Intercontinental Friendly 2021 are also held in the Asia Pacific region and the South Asia region. These friendly rounds are treated as training.

These friendly rounds are treated as training grounds, culminating in the anticipated Jessup Global Rounds as the final leg of the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition. Jessup is widely held as the most prestigious mooting competition in the world and as the largest gathering of international law students in history.

In line with the needs of the legal industry, UiTMLaw believes that participation in mooting competitions will enable its students to develop their soft skills of critical thinking, research, writing and advocacy.  The UiTMLaw Mooting Team continues to be a powerful force nationally and continues to make Malaysia proud internationally.

UiTM celebrates International Mathematics Day

Honouring the beauty and significance of mathematics, the International Day of Mathematics (IDM), known before as Pi-Day, highlights the important roles played to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Supported by 16 international and regional organizations and coordinated by the International Mathematics Union, IDM featured a mixture of over 410 individual physical and virtual celebrations scheduled in more than 70 countries including in Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Malaysia.

This year’s theme “Mathematics for a Better World” is hoped to spark creativity and further enlighten the relevance of mathematics to other fields, concepts and ideas. International events complemented by national programmes include the organization of webinars, conferences, exhibitions, mathematics competitions, recreational mathematics, and classroom activities.

They demonstrated how mathematics helps improve the world as highlighted by Audrey Azoulay, the Director-General of UNESCO, “Mathematics, with its many technical applications, now underpins all areas of our lives. Together with algorithms, mathematics plays a key role in artificial intelligence and technological disruptions – and, as we address global issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change, we are reminded of the importance of mathematics in responding to the challenges of our time.”

UiTM was honoured to share a spot on the IDM‘s world map, for the second time. Themed Mathematics for Life, and working hand in hand with the Mathematical Sciences Association (PERSAMA) of Malaysia, the event started off on Friday, 12 March 2021 with a webinar on Mathematics and Humanity: the Past, the Present and the Future that detailed the interlocking among mathematics, the universe and civilization.

The webinar was aired on Webex and Youtube of Centre for Mathematics Studies, Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences, UiTM and was presented by Dr Muhammad Ikhwan bin Azlan from Kolej Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Selangor (KUIS). He specializes in Islamic Thoughts and Civilization and was with the Malaysian teams for the International Mathematical Olympiad in The United States of America and Scotland.

His session clarified the dependencies between mathematics and humanity but at the same time opened up interest in the issues relating to humanity that mathematics had failed to expose.

UiTM is determined to support the Dasar Sains, Teknologi dan Inovasi Negara (DSTIN) 2021–2030 and the government’s STEM agenda to realize the National Science and Technology Enrolment Policy of 60:40 of science to arts streams that are far beyond reach.

On Monday 15 March 2021, the celebration continued with Maths Mind, an interactive online workshop for school students that helped to create awareness on the use of various mathematical software and their applications in real life situations and problem solving so that they are technologically literate and able to perform in a global work environment.

UiTM students facilitated 109 school students, including 6 teachers as observers, from Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (SMK, Shah Alam through some virtual mathematical modelling and graphing activities, and fun quizzes and games.

UiTM students boosted their leadership talent when taking responsibility to organize and manage the workshop. They exercised their communication and social skills to guide and inspire the school students to build up confidence in their future studies and careers.

On a positive note, the workshop had successfully raised interest towards mathematic in 80% of the students. Nevertheless, only 48% of the students expressed their intention to pursue in mathematics at their tertiary level. Therefore, UiTM wishes to collaborate with the National STEM Association and other organizations to plan and build a solid STEM foundation through a well-rounded curriculum to ensure that school students are exposed to and interested in the STEM subjects from a very young age and throughout their educational career as to respond to the second wave (2016-2020) of the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025.

The Mathematics and Life video competition completed the UiTM IDM 2021 celebration. Besides the UiTM students, it welcomed our global partners, the Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology of India, the National University of Uzbekistan and Samarkand State University of Uzbekistan.

The competition aims for the students to showcase their ideas and bring mathematics to life in a way that can help to break barriers for those who may not otherwise understand how mathematics is used around us.

 

UiTM signs MoU with Microsoft Malaysia

The Faculty of Computer & Mathematical Sciences (FSKM), Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) and Microsoft (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on 19 March 2021.

The MoU aims at mutual cooperation to benefit the university and students from Microsoft’s expertise. The MOU was virtually signed by the Former Vice-Chancellor of UiTM, Emeritus Prof. Datuk Ir. Dr Azraai Kassim and Microsoft’s Managing Director, Mr K. Raman.

Under the MoU, UiTM can leverage Microsoft Learn for Educators (MSLE) resources to achieve its vision – to establish UiTM as a Globally Renowned University of Science, Technology, Humanities and Entrepreneurship.  The mission is to empower UiTM to lead the development of professionals through state-of-the-art curricula and impactful research.

Affiliated as one of the “Premier Digital Tech Institution”, UiTM is always looking forward to offering competitive programmes that fulfill market needs, spearhead national development and promote global prosperity.

This MoU will extend the opportunities to the UiTM lecturers and students to upskill with the Microsoft Future-Ready Skills through Microsoft Learn. It provides self-paced, digital learning resources to build skills and a foundational understanding of technology besides making available the resources to complement existing institution courseware and study materials to best prepare students for in-demand jobs and Microsoft industry-recognized certifications.

This MoU is expected to be able to improve UiTM’s graduate employability as it helps validate students’ knowledge of technology and potential to perform in technology industry jobs through Microsoft certification in the Azure Fundamentals, Azure AI Fundamentals and Azure Data Fundamentals courses.

Students will be equipped with relevant technical skills and graduate as certified IT professionals, making them more competitive in the job sectors which are becoming more digitized and automated, requiring strong technology skills.

The effort by UiTM is another step taken to strengthen the ICT and AI capacity building of students relevant to the current needs and changes affecting higher learning institutions globally.

UiTM students excel at IPB University’s Summer Course Program and International Student’s Competition

Students from the Faculty of Business Management (FBM), Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Malaysia, Faznie Hasniza binti Mohd Zanif and Ika Farina binti Mustaffa, stood out in the online Summer Course Program and International Student’s Competition organized by the Faculty of Human Ecology, Institut Pertanian Bogor (IPB) University, Indonesia on November 22 to 30, 2021.

Both students from the Bachelor of Business Administration (Hons.) International Business demonstrated their active engagement and enthusiasm by joining the summer course and succeeded to excel in the International Student’s Competition. Faznie Hasniza has been awarded as 2nd Winner Videography Group 2, while Ika Farina won a 3rd Winner Videography Group and 3rd Winner Poster Group competition.

The focus of the summer course was on “Learning for Human Development and Natural Resources towards Sustainability: An International Perspective”. Students participating from different countries had the opportunity to learn and exchange knowledge, ideas and experiences while earning credit units that can be transferred to their home university.

The course also integrated a competitive element to allow the students to showcase their talents and understanding of the topics learned during the program.

Overall, the Summer Course Program and its International Student’s Competition conducted by the Faculty of Human Ecology, IPB University, Indonesia, provided an excellent avenue for knowledge sharing and exchange between the two nations.

Additionally, it also opens the possibility for future collaborations between the two institutions, which UiTM is very much looking forward to in the near future.

UiTM receives grant for Digital Datapreneur Incubator Project

Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Malaysia, Kelantan branch campus was recently awarded a grant valued at RM94,000 from the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education for the Digital Datapreneur Incubator Project.

The grant which was awarded on 23rd November 2020 will allow Dr. Wan Fairos Wan Yaacob, the leader and her team members, Dr. Syerina Azlin Md Nasir, Dr. Nurazleena Ismail, and Dr. Wan Marhaini Wan Omar to continue building on the digital datapreneur hub initiative. This project primarily aims to centralise the mobilisation of young entrepreneurs from the public universities nationwide.

The Digital Datapreneur Incubator is aimed at equipping the growing number of participants with data-based analytical skills and encourage the use of data analytics approach to innovate the decision-making phase. This will add value to the entrepreneurs as skills in advanced technology will give them the competitive edge to not only run their businesses, but to also thrive the fast-paced economic landscape of Industrial Revolution 4.0.

Apart from providing the platform for young entrepreneurs to polish their skills in data analytics, this project will reach the local community in Kelantan by providing hands-on experience in using a wide array of applications to do their business activities. This programme has very far-reaching aims and hopes to facilitate the entrepreneurs involved through the identification of important business data which are pivotal for the decision-making process. Hence, this will enable them to make informed selection of target market, determine market segmentation, and to better strategise the market placement.

The Digital Datapreuner Incubator is one of the 10 collaboration incubators under the Structured Entrepreneurial Incubator Programme (SEIP) which is an entrepreneurship programme at the Ministry of Higher Education. Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, as the key figure for SEIP has been working hand in hand with Malaysian higher educational institutions, government agencies, as well as the industry to bring this project together.

Overall, this initiative is observed to principally produce human capital who is knowledgeable, skilled and competitive to pursue the development of digital entrepreneurship in Malaysia. The Digital Datapreneur Incubator project will contribute towards improving both data management and data analytical skills, and also ensure the sustainability across various sectors in Malaysia such as engineering, technology and digital entrepreneurship. This project will play an important role in national development.

UiTM Hybrid Synchronous Lecture Series: New vistas of learning with Uzbekistan

Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences (FSKM), Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) is hosting a fifteen-week Hybrid Synchronous lectures series aimed at students and lecturers interested in the area of Groups and Algebras scheduled from February 25 – June 1 2021. Topics covered include algebraic structures, groups, rings, polynomials and number theory, vector space, and algebra.

The move to online and hybrid teaching and learning environment offers faculties and students from all participating universities an opportunity to collaborate, experiment, analyze, and discuss mathematical problems together.

The lecture series taught by Prof Dr Isamiddin Rakhimov is a hybrid experience for the faculties and students from UiTM, the National University of Uzbekistan (NUUz), and Samarkand State University (SamsU) Uzbekistan.  

FSKM, UiTM hosted the first lecture in one of the Global Learning Spaces on February 25, 2021 (5.00 pm, Malaysian time). It was joined virtually by participants from other local universities and UiTM campuses nationwide. Lectures were streamed live via the Cisco Webex application and the Centre for Mathematics Studies, UiTM Youtube account.

The hosting of the hybrid synchronous series embarks a significant faculty’s role in education innovation delivery to be experienced by more students and lecturers in the future. It also offers the students and staff the taste of international exposure and strengthening our global engagement through knowledge sharing. 

Prof Dr Isamiddin Rakhimov who led this lecture series is a mathematics professor at FSKM, UiTM, since October 2019, with research interests in pure mathematics. With his presence, FSKM has successfully co-organized the International Uzbekistan-Malaysia Conference on Computational Models and Technologies (CMT2020) with the National University of Uzbekistan (NUUz) and several universities from Uzbekistan.

He also contributed to the recent MoUs with the National University of Uzbekistan (NUUz) and Samarkand State University (SamSU), Uzbekistan. Various organizations have awarded him for his achievements, such as the Lifetime Professor Award by the Supreme Attestation Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Excellent teaching (Faculty of Sciences), and Outstanding Scientist Award (INSPEM) by Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM).

He has extensive teaching experience in a few universities, including Saint Petersburg Electrotechnical University (LETI) in Russia, the National University of Uzbekistan (NUUz) in Uzbekistan, and University Putra Malaysia (UPM) in Malaysia.

UiTM collaborates with SKSU, Philippines on Halal Training Programs

The Research Initiative Group (Halal Management and Science) of the Faculty of Business Management of Universiti Teknologi MARA, (also known as iHALALMAS FBM UiTM), Malaysia organized two online training programs on halal involving 15 participants from the Sultan Kudarat State University (SKSU), Philippines late 2020.

These training programs transpired from the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) endorsed in December 2019 between both universities which revealed the aspiration of SKSU to venture into halal academic and business initiatives, and for UiTM to collaborate with SKU in halal development programs for the Asian region and the global market.  The main aim of the training programs was to provide awareness among the participants on the concept of halal in business and entrepreneurship, and able to apply those concepts successfully for businesses in the Philippines.

The first Halal Training Program was conducted in September 2020 where it concentrated on halal business and entrepreneurship. While, the second Halal Training Program conducted in October, focused on halal animal welfare and food processing.  Both training programs were coordinated by Dr. Ismah Osman, the Leader of the Research Initiative Group (Halal Management and Science) UiTM, assisted by Dr. Ruby Hechanova, the Head of Halal Department at SKSU.

The workshop on halal business was conducted by Prof. Dr. Faridah Hassan and Dr. Ismah Osman, while Associate Prof. Dr. Sharifah Zannierah Syed Marzuki and Dr. Hasni Abdullah discussed on the importance of Halal Entrepreneurship.

For the second training program session, Tuan Hj Mohd Nordin Zainuddin, a Compliant
Director from Sertwo International Sdn Bhd and a JAKIM certified trainer took charge of it.  The objectives of this workshop were to provide awareness on the concept of halal in meat production and food processing besides providing an understanding on the process behind the consumption of halal food products. As these were online training programs, other than lectures and discussions, activities such as quizzes were organised to engage the participants.

With these two training programs, SKSU hopes to be able to contribute to halal development in the Philippines and the world, especially on halal meat production. Concurrently, Dr Ruby hopes to community engagement so that the farmers may
become entrepreneurs of halal goat meat or chevon.

On another note, a research endeavour is hoped to be materialized between iHALALMAS,
FBM, UiTM and SKSU in developing more halal-based entrepreneurship and business, particularly in the state of Mindanao.

UiTM and Verdastro collaborate for production of bio-resin from oil palm trunk dust

On 9th December 2020, Micro Manufacturing Hub (MMH) Universiti Teknologi MARA, (UiTM) Pahang, Jengka Campus, Malaysia signed an agreement with Verdastro Sdn Bhd, Malaysia’s pioneer in the commercialization of bio-plastic company.

Verdastro manufacturing, a factory at Gebeng Industrial Estate, Pahang is famous for bio-resin or green resin production from the extraction of oil palm trunk (OPT). The crucial objective of this collaboration is to make UiTM Pahang the main production hub of OPT dust.

As Malaysia is a pioneer in the oil palm plantation, it’s a great initiative and opportunity to produce bio-resin from OPT dust. Bio-resin is a resin that derives some or all of its constituent monomers from biological sources and the current famous sources are plant-based such as oil palm, corn and soybean.

Bio-resin is considered a biodegradable material that is easy to be disposed of quickly within three days. Generally, oil palm plantation yield gradually decreases and requires a re-plantation after 25 years and above. The mature palm tree hence can be useful as a source of OPT dust and beneficial to further produce the bio-resin.

This collaboration is in line with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 15 to protect, restore, and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems. Non-biodegradable plastic has become a global crisis that may stay in the land for hundreds of years and contribute to health problems in humans and animals. Therefore, it’s important to provide environmentally friendly material known as bio-resin to disrupt the current plastic-based industry.

From this joint venture agreement, Woodtech, Faculty of Applied Science, UiTM Pahang may supply the space, basic facilities, the equipment that capable to transform the oil palm trunk to dust and more importantly as a source of manpower. This is a good opportunity for the internship and fresh graduate students from Woodtech to gain experience prior to the real-life work exposure.

Verdastro Sdn Bhd may provide a yearly operating budget of approximately RM 50,000 and pay a salary to the head of the laboratory which is the lecturer of Woodtech itself, Ahmad Fauzi bin Awang. It is firmly believed that this collaboration can impact the community at large and UiTM in particular.

UiTM explores halal business ventures

To support the Malaysian government’s initiative in creating more entrepreneurs and also to increase knowledge among the B-40, the Institute of Management & Halal Science (IHALALMAS), Faculty of Business and Management (FBM), Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Malaysia collaborated with NNN Technical Resources to run six training sessions on Halal Supply Chain for Industry. B-40 refers to the bottom 40 % of the low-income households in the country.

This program was awarded the HRDFGENERATOR Fund (National Economic Regeneration Plan) from the Ministry of Human Resources (MOH), Malaysia.  The training took place from October to December 2020 and was conducted in six zones such as Kuala Lumpur, Melaka, Perak, Kelantan, Terengganu and Penang.

The first five-day training, days was conducted in October 2020 at the Sime Darby Convention Center (SDCC), Bukit Kiara Kuala Lumpur. A total of 60 participants from various background participated in this program.

Three qualified instructors and experts in the field of Halal logistics, Dr Harlina Suzana Jaafar, Halal warehousing, Dr Emi Normalina Omar and Halal Retailing, Assoc Prof Dr Anizah Zainuddin, were assigned to complete this training.

This training program is important due to the fact that it is a field that has not been explored among Bumiputera. Therefore, this training aimed to provide exposure and impart knowledge on the opportunities available in the halal logistics business as a potential source of business and income, especially in the field of transportation, warehousing/storage, and retail business.

Participants were also taught about the importance of certification as well as Shariah compliance implementation procedures, which emphasized the critical point of halal control in the logistics process along the supply chain as outlined in the Halal Guarantee Management System, guidelines by the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (JAKIM), Prime Minister’s Department.

UiTM promotes visibility for local social entrepreneurship at SILKEN 2021 conference

On 26 March 2021, a team of lecturers from Universiti Teknologi MARA, Kedah Branch Campus initiated to provide visibility to social innovation and social entrepreneurship projects at SILKEN 2021. The UiTM team has been involved in these projects via a university community transformation centre grant by the Ministry of Higher Education since 2016

This conference was an initiative by a partnership between the British Council and a consortium led by Glasgow Caledonian University and the University of Northampton.

The theme of the conference which was Shaping Futures and Making Connections Conference, managed to garner participation from HEIs and other organisations from across Asia, the UK, and also other parts of the world. SILKEN has over 250 registered social innovators, leaders, researchers, entrepreneurs, and ecosystem players from all over the globe.

The UiTM Kedah team which consists of Syazliyati Ibrahim (senior lecturer, Academy of Language Studies),  Dr. Marzlin Marzuki (senior lecturer, Faculty of Accounting), Asrol Hasan (senior lecturer, Faculty of Art and Design) and Professor Dr. Maznah Wan Omar (Honorary Professor, UiTM Kedah Branch Campus) presented their plans to help promote and gain recognition for a group of social entrepreneurs at Kampung Hilir, a village which has been active in social innovation and social entrepreneurship projects for quite a number of years.

The initiatives discussed by UiTM Kedah and the villagers of Kampung Hilir were presented at SILKEN and thoughtful comments, as well as discussions, ensued for further enhancement of the visibility agenda.

UiTM Kedah is committed to promoting more social innovation and social entrepreneurship projects for the local people befitting the university’s blueprint of encouraging community service among its staff.