by Dr. Kok Swee Leong
IET Malaysia Network is taking initiative to serve the members outside Klang Valley better by organizing technical seminar outside Klang Valley. Last month a technical seminar was organized in Penang and on the 26th September 2015, a seminar was being organized in Melaka for the first time on the topic of “University-Industry Engagement” and “Professional Registration”.
1st Talk on “University-Industry Engagement”
The seminar started by Assoc. Professor Dr. Chong Kuan Eng, delivered on the a topic of “University-Industry Engagement”. Dr Chong shared his experiences from the point of view as a person in charge in linking university and industrial partners. Dr. Chong has held management positions in the Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka as the Head of Department of the University-Industry Centre (UNIC), Director of Industry & Community Network Office (ICNet) and Director of Industry Liaison Centre in the Office of Industry and Community Network (PJIM).
One of the successful collaborations was Campus Connect Programme linking Western Digital (M) Sdn. Bhd, Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) and local universities in conducting students’ internship programs and research in Hard Disk Drive technology. Other on-going collaborations such as CEO Roundtable, Engineering Doctorate, SME-University Internship, Samsung IoT Academy @ UTeM, Apprenticeship Program, iCOE, MoHE’s Knowledge Transfer Program and collaboration with other agencies like CresT, MiGHT and TalentCorp.
The successful factors for a University-Industry collaboration are mutual trust, leadership and commitment of university’s and industry’s top management, expertise of researchers in university with multidisciplinary projects, develop a broad collaboration framework, constant communication between university academic and industry personnel with right people in charge who can cross boundaries, benefits and rewards gained from collaborations should start with quick win, focus on quality rather than quantity of output, motivations and financial support from government, organizing promotional events and online presence, institutional reputation and track record whereby a 21st century university should be a source of knowledge and competence to benefit society and not just as generator of ideas.
The successful factors for a University-Industry collaboration are mutual trust, leadership and commitment of university’s and industry’s top management, expertise of researchers in university with multidisciplinary projects, develop a broad collaboration framework, constant communication between university academic and industry personnel with right people in charge who can cross boundaries, benefits and rewards gained from collaborations should start with quick win, focus on quality rather than quantity of output, motivations and financial support from government, organizing promotional events and online presence, institutional reputation and track record whereby a 21st century university should be a source of knowledge and competence to benefit society and not just as generator of ideas.
2nd Talk on “Professional Registration”
Following from the effort of IET Malaysia Network in promoting Chartered Engineer application and registration outside Klang Valley in Penang last month. Ir. Dr. Matthew was keen in presenting the similar topic to the audience in Melaka. Some of the participants were travelled from as far as UTM and University of Southampton Malaysia Campus in Johor Bahru.
Ir. Dr. Matthew started his talk by introducing IET and the benefit of joining IET, and followed by professional registration process. He has also explained and emphasized what need to be prepared before going attending professional review interview. Some of the common failure cases were not being able to clarify the role and responsibility in one’s task/assignment in application form, and not being able to provide evidence during the interview.
Ir. Dr. Matthew started his talk by introducing IET and the benefit of joining IET, and followed by professional registration process. He has also explained and emphasized what need to be prepared before going attending professional review interview. Some of the common failure cases were not being able to clarify the role and responsibility in one’s task/assignment in application form, and not being able to provide evidence during the interview.
The audience were benefited by the clear explanation given by Ir. Dr. Matthew and one of the participants, Dr. Mohd Luqman, Head of Department of Power Electronic and Drivers of Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka was being inspired by the talk and currently working toward his application for his Chartered Engineer.