Phase 2 handover ceremony > p10 - Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman

UTARHORIZON4 AUGUST 2012From Talks to ForumsBig Data-enabled innovation for New Business ValueProf Andy Koronios (picture) from University of South Australia, who is also the appointed externalexaminer for UTAR Information Systems (Hons) Business Information Systems programme gave a publiclecture on 8 August 2012 at UTAR Perak Campus.‘Big Data-enabled innovation for New Business Value’ was the title of the talk in which Prof Koroniosled the audience to discover the colossal amount of data collected by enterprises and discuss theopportunities for creating competitive advantage through new business model innovation. He said thatthe proliferation of social media, mobile devices and sensor technologies are exploding the amount ofdata that is generated and collected each day. However, those who are capable of managing and makingsense of the data can create important and enormous business value.“The way businesses make decisions has transformed from intuition and ‘gut-feel’ to evidence-based, auditable decisionmaking,” he said. He added that IT students can profit by becoming business analysts, information managers, data scientists,innovators, marketing sentiment analysts and so on, just as long as they are good at mathematics and statistics.“Prepare yourself for the 21 century jobs; don’t prepare yourself for only one job,” he advised the crowd.Data Challenges inMultimediaEnvironmental SettingProf Paul Roe (picture) fromQueensland University ofTechnology (QUT) was at UTARPerak Campus on 19 June 2012to speak on ‘Data Challengesin Multimedia EnvironmentalSensing’.The QUT Science and EngineeringFaculty professor said traditionalbiodiversity monitoring is labour intensive and expensive.He explained that multimedia sensors can provide asolution to this problem. However, unlike traditionalsensors, multimedia sensors’ data collection process andmanagement can be challenging due to the distributedand voluminous nature of the data.Prof Roe, who is an expert in distributed computing,presented ways in which he addressed the abovechallenges including dynamic and adaptive data movementand processing through his research findings.The Mitigations andRehabilitations of Some NaturalDisaster in Malaysia and Amendment tothe Engineers’ Act MalaysiaIr Dr Ooi Teck Aun (picture), a well-knownand experienced geotechnical engineerin the region delivered a professional talktitled ‘The Mitigations and Rehabilitationsof Some Natural Disaster in Malaysiaand Amendment to the Engineers’ ActMalaysia’ on 1 August 2012 at UTAR KualaLumpur Campus.Held in conjunction with UTAR 10th anniversary, the talk wasattended by more than 50 students, lecturers and delegates fromDaiwa House Industry, one of the largest developers in Japan.Dr Ooi spoke on ethics, professionalism, and responsibilities ofengineers. He cited numerous case studies of natural disasters inMalaysia such as flood, landslide, and tsunami which were linkedto the carelessness of design engineers. One of such exampleswas the Highland Tower landslide incident. Lastly, Dr Ooi brieflydiscussed on Engineers’ Act Malaysia to raise awareness amongthe engineering students about their roles and responsibilitiesupon graduation.Stem Cell & iPSC SymposiumUTAR held a symposium on Stem Cell and induced Pluripotent Stem Cell (iPSC) on 25 June 2012 atUTAR Sungai Long Campus, which brought together 132 local scientist and clinicians from variousinstitutions including Universiti Malaya, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Universiti Putra Malaysia,International Medical University and Universiti Teknologi MARA.Besides educating the participants on the developments in the stem cell and iPSC field, thesymposium also aimed to create a platform for them to share their research findings.Among the topics discussed were mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) therapeutic in Malaysia by UTARDean of Faculty of Medicine and Health Science Prof Emeritus Dr Cheong Soon Keng (picture) andiPSC in treating metabolic disease by Singapore Bioimaging Consortium (SBIC) Group Leader DrShigeki Sugii.