FRIDAY, 11 DECEMBER – The UMS-KPT Taekwondo Championship Fiesta 2015, which will be held for three days kicks off today and promises to be a fierce competition among athletes who are competing.

 The tournament saw a total of 117 athletes from 12 teams made up of institutions of higher learning (IPT) and local Taekwondo Club encamped at Universiti Malaysia Sabah for the two categories, Poomsae and Kyorugi.

For the Poomsae event, the competition is opened to under 17 category, Under-14, Under-12, and IPT Open for Women and Men individual, Men and Women Team, and Mixed category.

For Kyorugi open category for IPT eight categories are introduced; fin weight, fly weight, bantam weight, feather weight, middle weight, welter weight and heavy weight.

The tournament was officiated by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Student Affairs and Alumni UMS, Associate Professor Dr. Ismail Ali representing the Vice-Chancellor of UMS at the Taekwondo Hall, this morning.

In his speech, he said the organisation of the tournament which was in cooperation with the Ministry of Higher Education was able to uncover young talents in Taekwondo.

“The Taekwondo Championship is not merely to battle and compete for the sake of winning, but what is important is the spirit of sportsmanship shown throughout the competition.

“It is hoped that athletes would be able to make this tournament as a platform to gain experience and to explore opportunities for establishing personal rapport with the athletes competing,” he said.

Also present at the opening ceremony was the Sports Secretary of IPT, Hazally Jali and the Director of Sports UMS, Mohd Asyraaf Fong. – MA (fl) 
Photo by: Suzeanywati Gasinin

FRIDAY, 11 DECEMBER – Centre for Postgraduate Studies (PPPS) recently held a Dialogue Session between its Management and students at PPPS Auditorium.

The dialogue enabled PPPS management met with lecturers and supervisors from all faculties, centres and institutes in Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) that offered courses at postgraduate level and their students.

In her opening speech, Dean of PPPS, Professor Datin Dr. Mariam Abd Latip said the main purpose of the dialogue was to disseminate the contents and enforcement of UMS Postgraduate Study Method 2015 to all lecturers, supervisors and its students.

“The dialogue session is a platform for all teachers, supervisors and postgraduate students to raise any issues, views or suggestions that could help strengthen the quality of management and supervision of postgraduate students at the university to achieve UMS’ goal in increasing the number of postgraduate students who would graduate on time (GOT),” she said.

Her speech was read by PPPS Deputy Dean (Academic and International), Associate Professor Dr. Patricia Matanjun.

She added that PPPS also hoped that this dialogue session would be used to further strengthen the existing cooperation between PPPS and faculties, centres and institutes.

At the dialogue session, a total of 82 postgraduate students attended and expressed a variety of proposals and issues relating to the education and welfare, including briefing on UMS Postgraduate Study Method 2015. – (fl)

 Source: Centre for Postgraduate Studies, UMS

The undergraduates were under the supervision of Dr. Pushpalatha M. Palaniappan, lecturer of Biology of Marine Reptiles at the Borneo Marine Research Institute (BMRI).

The programme was held at the Aquarium and Museum of Universiti Malaysia Sabah and involved a total of 20 students from Pusat Minda Lestari (PML), UMS.

According to the programme director, Noor Diani Bambang Dwi Harsono, the programme’s aim was to expose and increase awareness on sea turtles amongst students from PML.  

In addition, it also gave the opportunities to the final year students of Marine Science to build their leadership skills.

The four activities organised were introduction to types of sea turtles, how to measure sea turtle, threats towards sea turtles and how to protect sea turtles. The students were given the opportunity to interact with a live sea turtle.

“In future, we hope that such programme can be held annually with cooperation from the goverment and non-goverment agencies.  

“We also hope to involve more participation from the public,” said Noor Diani.

The curator of Marine Aquarium and Museum of UMS, Flora Anne Asalin, was also present at the event.

Source: BMRI

Photo : Cheong Chah How

THURSDAY, 10 DECEMBER – A total of 200 staff and students of Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) today had the opportunity to listen to an innovation sharing delivered by ‘innopreneur’, Robert Yong at the Sharing Session: Innovator that was held for an hour at the Main Lecture Hall 2, UMS.

According to Robert, great innovation started from a simple idea and would develop into a creation that would make it easier for users.

“There are four things that should be considered when producing innovative products that would make it easy and profitable,” he said, citing a number of his innovations that were accepted by the public such as POLYCLONE Instant Rubber Stamp Machine; MOBIHEAT Portable Water Heater; KAMIKAZE Mosquito Glue, TIME-LOCK Remote Control and some other products.

He explained that these four factors were Imagination, Creativity, Invention and Innovation that made the very foundation of every creation and innovation he created.

Through the products he innovated, he earned for himself many awards and accolades such as the Malaysian Inventor of the Year 1994 award, National Youth of the Year 1997, Gold in the Malaysia Technology Exhibition 2006, Gold in the London International Invention Fair, UK 1998, Silver medal in Inventions Competition in Geneva, Switzerland 1999 and many others.

Robert was specially invited to share on his knowledge and experience in the industry in conjunction with the Research and Invention Competition (PEREKA) 2015 organised by the Centre for Research and Innovation (PPI), UMS which began on 9 December and ended this evening. – CD (fl)

Photo: Ramdan Saleh Nain