THURSDAY, 15 NOVEMBER - The Centre for Industry and Community Network (CICN), Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) recently hosted the UMS Academia Industry Community Award 2018 (AICA 2018) in Kota Kinabalu.

The dinner was officiated by the Deputy Chief Minister cum Minister of Trade and Industries Sabah, Datuk Seri Panglima Wilfred Madius Tangau.

In his speech, he said the collaboration between university and industries are crucial of nations innovation systems.

“The benefits of university-industry linkages are wide-reaching. They can help coordinate research and development (R&D) agendas, stimulate various R&D opportunities and exploit synergies of scientific and technologies capabilities.

“University-industry collaboration can also expand the relevance of research carried out in public institutions, foster the commercialization of public R&D outcomes and increase the mobility of labour between public and private sectors,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of Board of Directors UMS, K Y Mustafa said the relationship with community counterparts is very important to UMS as helping the community in Sabah is one of UMS’s key mission to provide a better opportunity for the local community, to gain more knowledge and to enhance their socio-economic status as well as helping the development of Sabah.

“Currently in UMS, we are excited to share that we are in the process of starting a centre for Communications for Development, also known as C4D, with the financial and knowledge base support of UNICEF. C4D is a communication approach used by social development practitioners to support their projects whether they are in agricultural, education, health, legal, poverty alleviation, human rights or any other sectors.

“Through this centre, UMS will be more effective in carrying our community engagement projects which involves the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG),” he said. 

K Y Mustafa also mentioned that UMS is conducting knowledge transfer projects where numerous grants from the industries as well as the Knowledge Transfer Programme (KTP) grants from the Ministry of Education (MoE) are given to UMS.

“These enable UMS to reach to communities by transferring our expertise, knowledge training, and consultancy in technical and information technology as in line with the University’s direction in transforming towards University Industry 4.0 and significantly improve the community socio-economic status,” he added.

AICA 2018 is held to commemorate UMS’ linkages and activities with its local Industry and Community partners over the past two years. It was attended by 200 guests consisting of over 50 industry partners, 20 community partners and their UMS counterparts.

There were three set of awards given during the dinner, The UMS High Impact University-Industry Engagement Awards, The UMS High Impact University-Community Engagement Award and UMS Special Award.

Faculty of Business, Economic and Accountancy won the UMS High University-Community Engagement Award, whilst Faculty of Computing and Informatics won the UMS High Impact University-Industry Engagement Award.

Meanwhile the UMS Special Awards are given to three awardees, YTL Corporation; Yayasan Azman Hashim and Evergreen Livestock Sdn. Bhd.

All the winners and award recipients of AICA 2018 will be shortlisted as nominees for Majlis Anugerah Jaringan Akademia-Industri (AINA) 2019 organized by MoE.

FRIDAY, 02 NOVEMBER – The Housewives and Women Staff Club of Universiti Malaysia Sabah (KESUMBA) paid a courtesy visit to the consort of the Head of State, Toh Puan Datuk Seri Panglima (Dr.) Hajah Norlidah Tan Sri Datuk R.M. Jasni who is the Patron of the club, at the Istana Negeri recently.

The six-member delegation comprised Exco members of the Club led by its President, Datin Roha Asmara, and wife of the Vice-Chancellor of Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS).

 The main agenda of the visit was to brief the Patron of the upcoming Charity Dinner organised by the Club which would be held on 3 November.

The dinner which would fete selected B40 (low-income group) students studying in UMS would also be attended by the Head of State, Tun Datuk Seri Panglima (Dr.) Haji Juhar Datuk Haji Mahiruddin.  10 inmates of the Rumah Home Tuaran, a centre for orphans and poor children were also invited.

 It is heartwarming to note that all of the 10 children invited are ‘adopted’ children of some KESUMBA Exco and members.  KESUMBA would also be making a donation to the Student Affairs Department of UMS which would go towards Students Fund.

The Charity Dinner is also expected to be attended by the Chief Minister of Sabah, Datuk Seri Panglima Haji Mohd Shafie Haji Apdal.

WEDNESDAY, 31 OCTOBER – The Centre for the Promotion of Knowledge and Language (PPIB) in collaboration with the International Relations Programme of the Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Heritage (FKSW) held an International Conference on Politics and International Studies (ICPIS) 2018 at the Centre for Postgraduate Studies Auditorium, Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS).

The two-day conference themed “Globalisation at the Crossroads? The Revival of Nationalism and Identity Politics” was  attended by foreign and local participants including students from the International Relations Programme of FKSW.

In his speech, the Vice-Chancellor hoped that with the thought-provoking topics on political issues and international studies would lead to profound contribution to the corpus of knowledge which are vital for policy-making and further research.  His speech was read by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Academic and International, Prof. Dr. Rasid Mail who officiated the inaugural conference.

Earlier, Director of Career Centre UMS and Conference Chair, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Lai Yew Meng reiterated that the conference promoted critical discussions and sharing of research, novel findings, including informed opinions.

Also in attendance were Assoc. Prof. Dr Jualang Gansau, the Dean of PPIB; and Prof. Dr. Anthony Milner of the University of Melbourne who was also the Keynote Speaker in this conference.

TUESDAY - As the Kampung Kobuni on a fast track to become the next tourism destination in Sabah, 21 villagers and homestay operators took part in a workshop on food preparation and handling at Hotelab, Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) recently.

The workshop was organised by Borneo Tourism Research Centre, Faculty of Business, Economics and Accountancy and Kota Kinabalu City Hall (DBKK) where it focuses on menu planning, food and beverages preparation, handling, safety, storage and table setting.

The workshop was officiated by Deputy Dean of Postgraduate and Student Affairs for Faculty of Business, Economics and Accountancy, Dr. Arif @ Kamisan Pusiran.

In his speech he said, it is important for the villagers to know how to prepare and handle food correctly to ensure safety of the food that will be served to the visitors and tourists.

“Food and beverage is an important part in any tourism experience and it is the responsibility of the provider to ensure the food experience is always positive”.

He also commended the effort and the enthusiasm of the villagers in building their capacity to excel in the tourism sector.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the program, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Awangku Hassanal Bahar Pengiran Bagul hopes that the villagers will gain a deeper understanding and appreciation on high quality and standard of food and beverage, which directly contributes towards more positive tourism experience for the visitors and tourists.

“The workshop organised by UMS and DBKK is very valuable in preparing the villagers to go into tourism and this is an exciting times for the village as they are now receiving local visitors some from Japan and Korea,” he said.

Also present at the event was the Chairman for Village Development and Security Committee of Kampung Kobuni, Aji Rumbuton; and the Director of Economic, Tourism and International Relations Bureau DBKK, Fauziahton Awang Samad to represent the city hall and handing out the certificates to participants at the end of the workshop.

For the record, Kobuni Village is located in Inanam with close proximity to Kionsom waterfalls and launched its homestay programme in March 2018.

Last year, the village won the Cleanest Kampung Award under City Hall’s Litter-Free Kampung Competition.

Source: FPEP