After 10 years of scientific relationship, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering (FKM), Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Malaysia, and Fraunhofer Institute for Mechatronic Systems Design (Fraunhofer IEM), Germany have finally formed the much-awaited UiTM-Fraunhofer Innovation Lab.
The UiTM-Fraunhofer Innovation Lab is an exemplary platform to empower collaboration between university and industry. With the model and expertise from Fraunhofer IEM, it is aimed that the transformation of technology between university and industry can be successfully realized. This is aligned with Malaysia’s aspiration to encourage university-industry research activities and support the implementation of technology 4.0 among local industries.
The UiTM-Fraunhofer Innovation Lab was officiated by Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation) UiTM, Prof. Dr. Mohd Nazip Suratman and Head of Research Alliance for Intelligent System in Medical Technology (RAISE-MED), Mr. Martin Rabe on 24 September 2019, and witnessed by Fraunhofer Senior Advisor Malaysia, Prof. Datuk Dr. Ahmad Ibrahim and Assistant Vice-Chancellor (Strategy) UiTM, Prof. Ir. Dr. Abdul Rahman Omar.
The UiTM-Fraunhofer lab is a product of the Research Alliance for Intelligent System in Medical Technology (RAISE-MED) team lead by UiTM, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) and Fraunhofer IEM. The team was awarded the Asia Pacific Partnership Funding from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) Germany and the International Collaboration Fund (ICF) from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) Malaysia. The team has completed the first phase of the BMBF grant (2017-2019) and successfully secured the second phase of the grant for the year 2019-2022.
Prior to the formation of the UiTM-Fraunhofer Innovation Lab, the team organized the German Malaysian Workshop Series. The conference, workshop, and industrial visits were conducted during the event as a platform in building networks and encouraging knowledge exchange between universities and industry especially, in intelligent systems.
Innovation Lab focuses on the central region located in UiTM and for Southern Region located in UTHM, providing services such as innovation engineering, consultancy, research collaboration, training, hackathon, and talents project. The team comprises senior engineers and experts from Malaysia and Germany.