UniMAP Female Lecturer Crowned Overall Champion At Istanbul Inventions Fair
7 March – A female lecturer from the Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP) School of Computer and Communication Engineering (PPKKP) created an historic success upon being crowned the overall champion in the Istanbul International Inventions Fair (ISIF) 2016 which ended yesterday.
Dr. Latifah Munirah Kamarudin became the winner of the Grand Prix Award the highest award at ISIF 2016 for her invention Unisense: Internet of Things for Multi Sensing which is a cloud-based environmental monitoring system.
Also the gold medal winner of the Malaysia Technology Expo (MTE) in Kuala Lumpur last month, Dr. Latifah said the invention would be able to take sensor readings of air and water qualities and send them to a database for monitoring and analysis.
The invention could be used to measure the air pollution index, rainfall distribution, water levels at major rivers and would be helpful in monitoring weather conditions including obtaining early readings should there be a disaster.
“This success is very important to the research team and I because the adjudication process is very strict, having only 32 gold medals for 500 entries, and therefore chosen as the best at ISIF 2016 could be regarded as my best performance thus far,” she said.
The award was presented by the Turkish Minister of Science, Industry and Technology Fikri Isik. ISIF 2016 is the inaugural Turkish innovation and invention exhibition jointly organised by the Turkish Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology along with the Turkish Patent Institute, the Anatolia Inventions and Inventors Association (ABDER) and the International Federation Inventors’ Associations (IFIA).
The exhibition which began on 3 March at the Istanbul Congress Centre, Turkey received participants from 25 countries such as Turkey, Bosnia, Korea, China, Germany, Poland, Romania, United Arabs Emirates, Bahrain, Iraq, Iran, Portugal, Iceland, India, Brazil and Malaysia.
Meanwhile UniMAP Deputy Vice Chancellor Academic and International Dato’ Prof. Dr. Zul Azhar Zahid Jamal said that the success of Dr. Latifah Munirah proved that female researchers are also capable of creating innovations that not only win awards but can also benefit society.
“This victory is an indication that UniMAP is not lacking in competent female researchers with the ability to bring distinction to both the country and UniMAP as well as to encourage other female researchers to strive to produce innovations of good quality,” he said.
Besides Dr. Latifah Munirah, UniMAP also scored another gold medal thanks to Shamala Ramasamy, a fellow at the Centre of Excellence for Geopolymer and Green Technology (CEGeoGTech) for her research Pro Eco-Paint which was under the supervision of former UniMAP Vice Chancellor Datuk Prof. Emeritus Dr. Kamarudin Hussin.
UniMAP researchers also won one silver medal via Dr. Rozyanty Rahman (CEGeoGTech) and four bronze medals through Dr. Muzamir Isa (School of Electrical System Engineering), Dr. Sharifah Shahnaz Syed Bakar (School of Materials Engineering), Baharuddin Ismail (School of Electrical System Engineering) and Nurul Razliana Abdul Razak (Faculty of Engineering Technology).
Besides UniMAP, Malaysian delegates also present under the Malaysian Research and Innovation Society (MyRIS) include schools like Sekolah Menengah Sains (SMS) Tuanku Syed Putra, SMS Hulu Selangor, SMS Muar, Sekolah Berasrama Penuh Intergrasi (SBPI) Rawang, Kolej Tunku Kurshiah, Sekolah Seri Puteri and Sekolah Menengah St. Michael Penampang Sabah. Malaysia took the second overall position behind Turkey by winning three gold, one silver and 13 bronze medals.
