UiTM Scientists, from the Faculty of Applied Sciences not only won the Grand Prize but also the Special CREST award during the Tech Plan Demo Day 2019. The pitching competition was held at the Dewan Mahkota, SME Corp., Platinum Sentral, Kuala Lumpur on 20th July 2019 and was organised by Leave a Nest Malaysia Sdn. Bhd. The award included JPY 300,000 cash prize, round trip air tickets and accommodation for 2 team members to participate in the Tech Plan Demo Day in Singapore.
The group Electrochemical and Materials Sensor (EMaS) Research Group was headed by Associate Professor Dr Zainiharyati Mohd Zain, who successfully pitched in 9 minutes on her biosensor technology entitled “Clinical Usage of DNA-Nanowires on Gold Electrode as Breast Cancer (BRCA) Screening Device”. The Judges’ were very impressed with the innovation and some of the encouraging comments include “this innovation has some critical touch points.”, “it’s an innovation trying to solve a global problem to detect breast cancer at a very early stage”, “this is a unique and novel innovation”.
The Tech Plan Demo Day is a showcase event which awards young researchers and professionals who present innovative technologies or ideas. It is an initiative to discover and nurture the new technologies which have a potential to become a great product, and match the innovator with the right partner for a sustainable start-up business. The organizer, Leave a Nest Sdn Bhd also provides support for collaboration for R&D, investment opportunities and partnerships with large corporates. Since 2014, the event has been held annually.