KOTA KINABALU: The Borneo Tourism Research Centre (BTRC) at Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) will host a Community Based Tourism (CBT) Symposium in collaboration with Sabah Tourism Board.

The CBT Symposium will be held on the 2nd of December 2022 with the theme ‘Rural Tourism Prosperity: Transforming the Well-Being of Local Communities’. 

As the recovery of tourism continues, it is timely to deliberate on the importance of the CBT model in ensuring shared prosperity amongst destination communities. 

The symposium will take place in a hybrid mode, on-site at UMS and via Webex for remote attendees. Registration will open next month. 

Recently, Director of BTRC, Dr. Balvinder K. Kler and her team of researchers paid a courtesy call to Madam Noredah Othman, the Chief Executive Officer, Sabah Tourism Board to consolidate plans for the CBT Symposium and discuss further collaborations on research and training. 

BTRC hopes to document the important role played by Sabah Tourism Board over the past three decades to chart tourism strategies which continue to bear fruit as seen in the growth of rural tourism products.

Sabah offers numerous niche markets for example ecotourism including birdwatching, dive tourism, and adventure tourism.

A recently published book chapter focuses on another important niche market in Sabah. Titled “Battlefield Tourism: the Legacy of Sandakan in Malaysian Borneo”, co-authored by Dr. Balvinder and Ms. Cassie Forsythe, Communications & Digital Manager, STB. This publication is one of 36 chaptersin the ‘Handbook of Niche Tourism’ edited by the world renown Professor Marina Novelli and colleagues published by Edward Elgar Publishing.

The chapter documents how the tragedy of war in Borneo evolved into a niche market for tourism and also explores stakeholder relationships to battlefield sites around Sabah.  Both parties agreed to strengthen the relationship between town and gown to ensure research conducted at the university is impactful for community and industry.

KOTA KINABALU: Earthquake building designs have to be implemented in earthquake red zone areas in Sabah.

Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) Natural Disaster Research Centre (NDRC) main researcher fellow, Ts. Dr Noor Sheena Herayani Harith stressed that districts in Sabah that are earthquake prone such as Ranau, Lahad Datu and Kunak, need such building designs.

“The exposure in suitable building designs at these earthquake hot spots to avoid loss of lives, in addition to inculcating training to prepare the public for the disaster.

“Earthquakes by itself is not dangerous, but the rubbles from building structures will impact and threaten people’s safety and lives,” said Dr Noor Sheena when delivering a talk at the Sabah State Disaster Committee Secretariat Strengthening Programme (JPBN) 2022 recently. She is also the head of the NDRC Earthquake group.

The talk entitled “The Science of Earthquake in Malaysia: Status and Challenges” is organised by the Sabah Malaysian Civil Defense Force (APM).

A total of 40 officers from APM, which is the secretariat for JPBN and committee of the district disaster management in Sabah, attended the event.

Dr Noor Sheena, who is also UMS Engineering Faculty’s senior lecturer also shared the Malaysia Seismic Danger Map.

The map is based on the Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) value in the Malaysian Standard MS En 1998-1: 2015 National Annex 2017 by Malaysia’s Standard Department.

“The Seismic Danger Map is a product of joint research of specialists from several departments, private agencies, nongovernment organisations and universities in Malaysia whereby one of them is a specialist researcher in the field of earthquakes from NDRC, UMS,” she said.

Meanwhile, UMS NDRC director Professor Madya Ts. Gs. Dr Carolyn Melissa Payus informed that researches linked to the behavior and mitigation of earthquakes are one of the research focuses at NDRC, in addition to tsunami, landslides, floods, climate change, drought, beach and river erosion.

“Established since 2006, this centre acts as a focal point for all research in UMS linked to natural disasters.

“NDRC’s involvement in the talk such as this is hoped to be able to give beneficial input in terms of early preparations to the JPBN Secretariat and JPBD, APM Sabah, and also provide opportunities to research specialists to share their research to stakeholders in the management of natural disaster in Malaysia.

“This is in line with the NDRC establishment which is to generate new knowledge connected to the behavior, mechanism, impact and mitigation of natural disaster toward the management of natural disaster that is more effective and holistic in the country,” she said.

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah-born Professor Datuk Dr Kasim Md Mansur is the new Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) vice-chancellor.

The 61-year-old will assume his new appointment from next Monday.

A Business Administration degree graduate, he also has a master's degree in Economics from Indiana State University, Terre Haute, the United States and a Doctoral degree in the same field from the University of Wisconsin.

Kasim served as the deputy vice-chancellor (Student and Alumni Affairs) of UMS for five years from 2009 to 2014.

In a statement, the Higher Education Ministry said Kasim was a highly regarded academic figure among the university's officers and students.

"At the Sabah state level, he contributed significantly to Sabahans as a member of the Sabah Economic Advisory Council and a board member of the Institute for Development Studies, Sabah.

Based on the reputation of the leadership of the institution, Kasim, the statement said can form a harmonious network of working relationships with all stakeholders, especially in Sabah.

"The ministry is confident that he will lead UMS in becoming one of the preferred universities at the national level, thus promoting overall academic excellence."

The statement also extended acknowledgement and gratitude to former vice-chancellor Professor Datuk Dr Taufiq Yap Yun Hin on his contributions to UMS.

KOTA KINABALU: Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) and Digital Geoscience Global Sdn Bhd (DGeG), a geoscience services provider, have signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) to expand their collaboration recently.

Under the letter of intent, both parties aim to jointly harness each other’s strengths and experiences to enhance the growth of several academic and research activities.

The LoI was signed by the Dean of Faculty of Science and Natural Resources UMS, Professor Dr Jualang @ Azlan Abdullah Gansau and the Chief Executive Officer of Digital Geoscience Global Sdn Bhd, Siti Sarah Ab Rahman while co-witnessed by Aidah Noordin, Deputy Senior Registrar of UMS and Noor Nazira Nazari, the Chief Operation Officer of Digital Geoscience Global Sdn Bhd, who joined in carrying out the LoI signing procedures in an event held in Intercontinental Hotel, Kuala Lumpur.

Siti Sarah who is also a proud alumna of UMS co-founded DGeG with her partners in 2021 to enhance and upscale the quality of geological tasks. With the motto of “Digitalisation of Earth towards Sustainability”, DGEG offers robust solutions by using the most innovative integrated digital geology approach aligned with Industrial Revolution 4.0 and Sustainability Developments Goals (SDGs) adopted by United Nations (UN).

This collaboration was initiated through an initiative by DGeG and UMS to form a consortium to study the potential of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) in Malaysia with other well-established universities and companies. Through the Letter of Intent, FSSA also seeks to partner with DGeG to promote interventions that expand academic and research quality collaboratively. Specifically, both parties have unitedly agreed to manage activities, such as sharing expertise through teaching, research and publication activities, student internship, staff attachment, professional training, consultation, and any collaboration that benefits both parties for further networking and development.

“The collaboration between UMS and DGeG is a good step especially when we now encourage the involvement of industries in academics. With the sharing expertise and latest technology between industries and universities, we are hoping to empower research and development in geoscience field, especially related to energy resources. The planned research of carbonate and clastic rocks in Sabah could be a good start for further networking which serves particularly in sedimentology and seismic modelling through digital geoscience,” said Jualang.

“In DGeG, we believe that collaboration between university and industry is important, not only to achieve the fourth SDG which is to enhance quality in education but also to achieve a few other SDGs such as to promote clean energy, sustainability development in cities and human as well as to reduce climate change impacts. Hence, we aim to expand collaborations with industries and universities to enhance sustainability in geoscience and align with the 17th SDG which is to revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development by 2030” said Siti Sarah.

Appointed as chairman of Women in Geology 2023 by the Institute of Geology Malaysia (IGM) recently, she also addressed that there is no gender bias when we speak about the quality and there are many women in geoscience that have been awarded and recognized internationally.