DMNC November 2014

From the Vice Chancellor's Desk (November 2014)

Assalamualaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh and Salam Ilmu, Keikhlasan, Kecemerlangan UniMAP.

Alhamdulillah, I am thankful to the Almighty because with His consent I am given the opportunity to share my writings with the UniMAP community for this November's edition.

2014 is about to come to a conclusion and I am pleased with UniMAP's many achievements throughout the year. A few weeks ago we were awarded The Golden European Award for Quality & Commercial Prestige for 2014 for quality and commercialisation aspects which was given by Otherways Management & Consulting - France (OMAC).

Meanwhile, our researchers gained prominence when they won prizes at the British Invention Show (BIS) 2014 and the International Trade Fair, Ideas, Inventions & New Products (IENA 2014) exhibitions.

UniMAP is also proud of the accomplishments of Dr. Noorhafiza Muhamad for being awarded the L'Oréal-UNESCO Women in Science Malaysia Fellowship. This achievement has been won by UniMAP four consecutive times since 2011 by Dr. Ong Hui Lin, then followed Dr Hakimah Othman and Dr Ruslinda A. Rahim.

Another sweet success that we have achieved is for the research product “ZCC-OCDMA Code for Symmetric Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) In Access Network” that was chosen to represent Malaysia at the 2014 MSC Malaysia Asia Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA) Awards in November.

A great thanks to YAB Datuk Seri Najib Tun Abdul Razak and Yang Berhormat Menteri Pendidikan II Dato’ Seri Idris Jusoh for their congratulatory words on UniMAP's success in BIS 2014 at their Twitter page.

These successes show that we are on an avenue where our researches are productive and locally and internationally acclaimed. However, it is disappointing to learn that recently a news report in a major newspaper had disputed the direction of our R&D which appeared to not be financially rewarding. It is obvious the writer of the report failed to fathom the research philosophy which we bear, where the tradition of knowledge supersedes financial rewards.

Commercialisation is just one of the component in research, and our primary ambition is to form a university that teaches students to be humans who would be able to drive the economic development of the country.

University researchers are not merely scientists who concentrate their full attention on generating profit from the commercialisation of their researches. The more important matter is to give birth to a generation which is knowledgeable.

Another component which exists in R&D but is not easily valued by society is technology and knowledge transfer, as well as consultancy.

In fact UniMAP has generated more than RM5.5 million from consultancy which involves the process of technology transfer between the university and Small Medium Industries (SME).

I hope that the UniMAP community especially researchers will not be discouraged by the news report but allow it to fuel our spirit for us to create newer products that would benefit society.

As we already know, UniMAP is not only focusing on the fields of research and academic. Recently, the UniMAP football team has succeeded winning two championship titles for the Tuanku Syed Putra Foundation Cup and the Tuanku Syed Putra Cup. Furthermore, international students won the second place during the 2nd Maal Hijrah Arabic Debate Championship which was held at Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia (UIAM) and won the category for Best Traditional Dance during 1 World Culture at Nilai University, Negeri Sembilan recently.

Before bringing my words to a close, I would like to remind the UniMAP community not to be content with our accomplishments. We still have a long way to go and we have to strive together to further develop the UniMAP that we love. Insyaa Allah, the future will bring even more successes if this spirit endures for years to come.

Sekian,

Wassalamualaikum Warahmatullahi Taala Wabarakatuh.