Article #2

Faculty of Information Technology Renamed to faculty of Computing and Infomatics

Cyberjaya, 9 February 2012 - The Faculty of Information Technology (FIT) at Multimedia University has been renamed to the Faculty of Computing and Infomatics (FCI) effective immediately.

The name Faculty of Computing and Informatics better reflects the faculty’s two-pronged vision of providing academic programmes that encompass key computing disciplines (computer science, information systems, information technology and software engineering) as well as interdisciplinary majors in computing.

FCI will be offering the new Bachelor of Computer Science undergraduate degree programme with three specialisations, namely Software Engineering, Information Systems and Game Development. These aptly-structured 3-year programme ensures that students are able to grasp the rudiments of computing prior to delving into the depths of the respective specialisations.

FCI is committed to ensure that students enrolled in the B.IT (Hons.), B.MM (Hons.) and the current Bachelor of Computer Science programmes are able to complete their degrees as prescribed by the respective programme structures.

Source : MMU

Article #1

KLIUC Improves Internet User Experiences with SANGFOR

Kuala Lumpur Infrastructure University College (KLIUC), the well-known Malaysia tertiary education institution, has improved the Internet accessing experiences for campus users by deploying SANGFOR's IAM solution. IAM's bandwidth management feature based on application guarantees smooth web accessing speed and provide an enjoyable Internet environment for students and staffs.

KLIUC which was established in 1998, is the focus of Kumpulan Ikram's tertiary education activities. Guided by motto of "For Knowledge, For Humanity", KLIUC aim to produce graduates with outstanding technological and management skills, possess high moral values to meet the challenges of Vision 2020 and the K-economy.

Enhanced with up-to-date academic facilities, highly qualified lecturers among whom are industry practitioners, KLIUC strives to ensure high quality education in areas of Engineering, Business and Information Technology. 3 years into the business of education, KLIUC is already recognized for its quality management system achieved through ISO 9001 :2000 certification in December 2000.

By deploying SANGFOR Internet Access Management solution, KLIUC is able to audit the the Internet flow situation through detailed reports. It is identified large amount of P2P download and on-line video stream occupying bandwidth and causing slow Internet accessing speed. Therefore, IAM performs the bandwidth limitation for P2P and on-line media, which make sure enough bandwidth for campus related applications.

Source : KLIUC

Article #4

Sarawak Can Serve as Tech Lab for IT Researchers

KUCHING: Sarawak can serve as a technological lab for IT researchers as it offers an insight into the digital divide between the urban and rural users.

Universiti Malaysia Sarawak vice chancellor Professor Dr Khairuddin Abdul Hamid said it had carried a 12-year project called the e-Bario in the effort to bring technology into the rural highland comunity for the Orang Ulu tribe. The settlement is also the producer of the famous Bario rice.

"Technology makers only concentrate their products for the urban users, but there are many more that have no access to these modern technologies.

"There is a vast potentials in developing new technologies for the rural folks," said Khairuddin said yesterday at the 7th International Conference of IT in Asia (Cita) which started yesterday.

The conference sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Computer Society and is collocated with the International Workshop on Internalisation of Products and Systems (IWIP 2011).

The three-day event saw 100 international participants including Google's User Experience Research Manager Dr Patrick Larvie who will be presenting his paper on Thursday.

Unimas’s computer science and information technology dean Professor Dr K Narayanan said there were many challenges in carrying out the project including dealing with the reservation from the Bario community.

"When we first started, there were many objections to it, but once they realise and start looking at the bigger picture, they began to accept that it can help in their daily lives.

"With mobile phones coming into the picture, it is now a challenge to bridge that gap to the people there," said Narayanan. He said Unimas is looking at using the e-Bario program to help the farmers in their harvest especially in data collection.

"With rising demand for Bario rice, we want to help the farmers in bringing technology to them in the near future. This is part of the plan that we have for them," said Narayanan.

SOURCE : UMS, by Dennis Wong

Article #3

German Firms To Set Up Advanced Testing Lab

BANGI, 26 April 2012 - The National University of Malaysia (UKM) and two German companies look set to cooperate in setting up an advanced materials testing laboratory said to be the most advanced in the country.

UKM also intends to work with another German firm in a slew of projects involving the environment and information technology.

Its Vice Chancellor, Prof Tan Sri Dato' Wira Dr Sharifah Hapsah Syed Hasan Shahabudin was among those who witnessed the signing of two MoUs between the two German conglomerates, Zwick Asia and Infineon Technologies and UKM today.

Zwick Asia will equip one of the laboratories at the Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment with cutting-edge testing equipment while Infineon Technologies will supply the semiconductors for the hardware.

At the function UKM also signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) with the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) to submit a proposal to the German Academy of Sciences to fund studies on the environment and climate change.

Prof Sharifah Hapsah in her remarks noted that UKM has been undertaking many joint projects with German companies or universities, most of them in engineering and the environment.

She commented that the collaboration of many of UKM’s researchers have been funded by the German Academy of Sciences and the European Union.

She said there was a lot of interest in environmental technologies, climate change and information technology not only between UKM and German companies, but also between Malaysia and Germany.

Prof Sharifah Hapsah cited the joint PhD programme between UKM and UDE in engineering as having shown a lot of promise.

Also present at the signings were the German Ambassador to Malaysia, Dr Guenter Gruber and Deputy Vice Chancellor, Academics and International Affairs, Prof Datuk Dr Noor Azlan Ghazali.

SOURCE : UKM, by Saiful Bahri Kamaruddin

Article #2

SERDANG, March 14 – The International Conference of Information Retrieval and Knowledge Management (CAMP ‘12) which was held from 13-15 March 2012 was the ideal platform for academicians and researchers from various countries to discuss the challenges of Information Retrieval, Computational Linguistics, and Knowledge Management.

Deputy Vice Chancellor of Industry and Community Network, Prof. Dr. Tai Shzee Yew said he was amazed by the rapid development of software and applications and noted that CAMP ’12 offered a great opportunity for participants from various countries to share information and create solutions for many technical challenges.

“Through this conference, there was transfer of knowledge and expertise and the promotion of research activities aimed at producing cost-effective base technology platforms,” said Prof Tai, who added that the role of such a knowledge-sharing platform was vital to help the nation become a high knowledge society through innovation and creation.

PECAMP President, Prof. Dr. Tengku Mohd T. Sembok believed that Malaysia needed its own search engine in order to manage the political, societal, and business sectors.

The three-day conference theme, “Towards Global Information Seeking and Knowledge Success” was targeted to bring together participants from private industry, government agencies, and academic institutions to share their ideas and findings gained from their research and creations.

The keynote speakers for this conference were Prof. Dr. Fabio Crestani from the University of Glasgow, UK, Prof. Dr. Alan F. Smeton from Dublin City University (Ireland), and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tang Enya Kong who is a well-known authority on machine translation.

The 100 participants were from various countries including India, Japan, the Middle East, Myanmar, USA, France and Malaysia while UPM was represented by a total of 30 participants.

The Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology (FCSI), UPM was the main organizer of this very successful conference.

Source : UPM, by Nur Hafiza Pakhurdin

Article #1

UTM-MIT to help government make science and mathematics more innovative and interesting.

SKUDAI, 20 September: Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) will provide programmes to assist the government make science and mathematics education more innovative and interesting.

Vice Chancellor Professor Datuk Ir Dr Zaini Ujang said, the programme, known as Blended Learning Open Source Science or Math (BLOSSOMS) will be led by Professor Richard Larson, founding Director of the Center for Engineering System Fundamentals.

He is also founding Director of Learning International Networks Consortium (LINC) and Principal Investigator of Blended Learning Open Source Science or Math. (BLOSSOMS) at MIT.

MIT, a world renowned university and most advanced in technology has worked with UTM to develop BLOSSOMS Center in UTM.

UTM and MIT will make recommendations to the government to create programmes that would attract more students in this country to choose the subjects of science and mathematics.

Professor Larson is ready to offer his expertise to assist the government create programmes in order to produce more students who are interested in both fields.

UTM and MIT are also in discussions to organize a summer camp at the MIT next year and UTM the following year involving students from around the world.

To strengthen relations between both institutions, UTM and MIT have established research collaboration involving 10 UTM academic staff to pursue studies at PhD and post doctoral level at MIT.

Professor Larson will also present action plans to establish BLOSSOMS at UTM before Her Royal Highness Raja Zarith Sofiah binti Almarhum Sultan Idris Shah.

Source : UTM, by Sabri