Collaboration

UMP partners with Indian Institute of Technology to address future engineering educational challenges

Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) for a period of seven years at the IIT Campus at Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India on March 7, 2019

The MoU has been signed by the Vice-Chancellor of UMP, Professor Dato’ Sri Dr. Daing Nasir Ibrahim and the Director of IIT Varanasi, Professor Pramod Kumar Jain. The Deans of Research from both side witnessed the event. The MoU seeks collaboration in the areas of academic exchange (both students and staff) and collaborative research for technological advancements and social welfare. 

The Indian Institute of Technology, Varanasi (routinely referred as IIT BHU) is a public engineering and research institution located at Varanasi in the northern state of India (Uttar Pradesh). 

The institute has a long legacy in producing engineering and technological graduates for over a century; and their alumni network through world renowned engineers and technologists, most successful tech entrepreneurs, highly cited educational leaders in addition to the visionary statesmen and civil servants (https://iitbhu.ac.in/).

By signing the MoU, the Director Professor Jain said, that owing to the emerging research and educational scenario, IIT BHU has taken numerous initiatives to integrate its educational and research excellence by joining their hands through the world-class Institutions. 

“To this point, joining hands with UMP is a step forward as they have marked a global presence in less than two decades of their establishment and testifying their commitment in engineering and technological education for societal well-being,” he said.

Professor Dato’ Sri Dr. Daing said that the MoU with IIT BHU is a landmark in the history of UMP; the legacy and the prominence of IIT BHU would help UMP to strategically position in the emerging world scenario of disruptive technologies, artificial intelligence, and data-science. 

The UMP students would immensely benefit from the cross-cultural interaction with IIT BHU students and academics facilitated through this MoU. 

As for the UMP’s academics, the collaborative research and publications with their counterparts in IIT BHU would give them better global visibility – their visibility in the Malaysian scenario has already been certified by the Malaysian Research Assessment (myRA) through a Five-Star rating since the year 2017. 

He further added that UMP’s emergence as the No.1 technological University in Malaysia by the QS 2019 world university ranking list has put them in the radar of many renowned institutions including IIT BHU. 

He also thanked the legal units of both institutions and staffs engaged in realizing this MoU.

Research & Innovation

UMP awarded prestigious Motorola Solutions Foundation grant

By: IR. DR. NURUL HAZLINA NORDIN, DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRY COMMUNITY NETWORK 
 
Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP) was recently awarded the prestigious Motorola Solutions Foundation grant for its 'MySTEM Project: A STEM Outreach Program' at a ceremony in Penang on March 1, 2019. 

Motorola Solutions Foundation – the charitable and philanthropic arm of Motorola Solutions Inc founded in 1953 – awards annual grants to various organizations that support and enhance public safety programmes as well as technology and engineering education initiatives.
 
Funded by the Foundation and established back in 2017, UMP STEM Lab stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics education. Its long-term goal is to ensure that teachers are provided with the appropriate additional training courses to enable them to sustain and drive STEM education in schools.

Now with the RM82,000.00 grant, the UMP STEM Lab can continue to hold activities, such as after-school computer programming classes and programmes like the Pahang National Hackathon and Pahang National Foxhunting, to nurture students’ interests in science and engineering.
 

“The Motorola Solutions Foundation is honoured and privileged to support such project and programmes at UMP,” said executive director Matt Blakely. 

“We’re proud to be a part of organizations which continue to embrace and foster innovations, build partnerships and drive change; thus, making positive impact on communities,” he added.

Concurring, UMP Vice-Chancellor, Professor Dato’ Sri Dr. Daing Nasir Ibrahim said the university strongly believed that by encouraging the youngsters to see, think and explore for themselves, they would marvel at the many possibilities of their future.
 
“The overall aim of having this lab is to facilitate and boost the awareness in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics education, and the important role it plays in life, generally,” he said, adding that STEM is also significant in creating job opportunities and nation-building.

According to the Director of Department of Industry Community Network (ICON), Ir. Dr. Nurul Hazlina Nordin, courses taught at the UMP STEM Lab include Open Source programming, such as mBlock, Arduino.cc, MIT App Inventor Programming as well as basic robotic programming. 

“The lab also covers topics like radio wave propagation, trans-receivers and antenna designs. Using the trans-receivers designed in the lab, for example, students can locate beacons (fox) which transmit Morse codes signals.
 

“Survey on interest in such subject matters, conducted at the end of 2018, showed that 94 percent of the participants would consider pursuing studies in STEM-related fields.

“For 2019, we are looking forward to boost the number of engagements, especially in after-school programming classes and our signature programmes Pahang National Hackathon and Pahang National Foxhunting. New programs, such as Internet Security Awareness and Arduino Robotics, are also lined up for this year,” she said. 

Last year, UMP STEM Lab managed to attract a total of 350 participants, although initial targeted number was only 250. These participants attended the after-school programming classes, “Career in STEM” talks and the signature programmes Pahang National Hackathon and Pahang National Foxhunting.

For 2019, Motorola Solutions Foundation grants will support programmes to help more than three million students, teachers, first responders and community members around the globe. 

There is also a specific focus on providing grants to programmes that impact under-represented populations, including females, minorities, people with disabilities, veterans and others.

Research & Innovation

Functional dairy food seen as potential remedy to cancer and diabetes

By: SITI NURFARMY IBRAHIM, CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS DIVISION
 
A team of researchers from the Faculty of Industrial Science & Technology (FSTI) at Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP) – comprising lecturers and undergraduates – has embarked on a study of possible remedy for cancer and diabetes via the development of functional dairy food.

Headed by FSTI lecturer, Dr Jaya Vejayan Palliah, the research has successfully identified selected herbal plants within the country that are found capable of dual functions – to convert fresh milk that has gone through its coagulation processes into curd, as well as enhance the latter’s efficacy to create further biological activities. 

“As we are well aware, societies in developed nations are increasingly concerned about healthy diet, to the extent that they have begun to emphasize on functional food,” said Dr Jaya.

“Our very own research into such functional food was originally mooted in 2016, with the initial intent to study how the snake venom of a Malayan Pit Viper can be used as a milk coagulant,” he emphasized.

At the initial stage of the research, he said, the group of researchers was able to isolate and extract the enzyme with coagulant characteristic from the snake’s venom. 

However, due to safety concerns, they eventually turned to herbal plants to expand their research findings on how to manufacture the coagulated milk-based food products. 

“It was certainly a challenge for us to identify and locate herbal plants that can act as such coagulant. After much effort, we discovered four types of possible herbs,” he highlighted. 

According to Dr. Jaya, these selected herbs, recognized as super-coagulants, were subsequently formulated to ensure that their hydrolysis enzymes and compounded constituents are hyper-active. 

“These hydrolysis enzymes can act as the milk protein-cutter, and convert the liquid form into a solid one, while simultaneously adding efficacies like anti-oxidant, anti-diabetes and anti-microbes.” 

Malaysia’s tropical rainforest, with its biodiversity of plants and herbs, is seen by many to hold sources of potential remedies to various modern-day diseases. 

It is also a cradle of functional food sources, attracting the interest of the global population as they continue to move towards healthy lifestyle and diet. 

Dr. Jaya, who coveted the gold and special medals at UMP’s CITREX 2019 (Staff Category), said the team will continue to conduct series of para-clinical testing to fortify the capability of the super-coagulants, in order to substantiate the university’s application for patent and copyright, for its future pursuit of commercialization. 

He’s hopeful that the university’s research will get its due attention from external agencies, which could lead to future collaborations – for both parties to reap mutual benefits in business diversification from the production of long-lasting and quality curd.