ACCELERATING INTELLECTUAL EXCELLENCE

per year. th my engineering background, I came h a creative way to manage complicated he said. alm oil processing factory generates 200 of EFB per day and there are more than tories in the country. waste is an industrial problem, which solved by making biochar using a method microwave-assisted pyrolysis where mie energy in a chamber is used as a means ng mechanism in the absence of oxygen. tarted basic research in 2002. In 2010, a aduate student focused on in-depth reIn 2012, we built the BMC pilot plant at engineering faculty and this year, we fioduced commercial units of the biochar.” re is a trend of using biochar in powder agriculture in Europe where the biochar d with soil and fertiliser, enabling crop o double. “Biochar has properties as a for fertiliser and moisture, and it provides system with bacteria to help enrich it.” char produced from the BMC in the form ettes is targeted at the energy sector as a source. Consumers include boiler users, d service industry such as catering comrestaurants and hotels as well as retail for barbecue application. yah is involved in the business side of Go Green, listening to potential investors, ers and partners to come up with prodth the right market fit. ar Go Green recently signed a mutually ial agreement with Sime Darby Plantar an agro-based venture. It has also ennto a collaboration with Usaha Strategik d to market biochar products — powder quettes — to local and international markar

Go Green aims to be a market leader vative green solutions, especially for biooducts in the agriculture and energy secith strategic collaborations, in three years’ e aim to supply biochar as a soil enhancer prove oil palm plantations here as well as biochar as green fuel for power generath locally and in Asia,” added Atiyyah. rently working out of a pilot plant, Pakar en is looking to build a factory within the th full scale output by year-end. r her stint of dealing with many new techal findings, Atiyyah, who has juggled studmanaging the company since last year, cided to pursue a master’s degree in a field at UPM.

“The Innohub platform has guided me with a structured model. I have been mentored to pitch to funding agencies and potential investors, and have gained insight crucial to our business model.

“Through Innohub, I have been exposed to start-up/technology competitions, mentoring programmes and exhibitions. I have enhanced my knowledge as an effective leader.”

Professor Dr Rahinah Ibrahim, a senior professor of architecture and former dean of UPM’s Design and Architecture Faculty, has a doctoral degree in Construction Engineering and Management from Stanford University in the United States. But she had initially failed to obtain supervisory committee approval of her main doctoral research at the end of her third year.

Desperate to complete her thesis before her scholarship ended in one year, she appealed to appear before the committee in one month with a new research question and a synthesis of 1,000 journal articles on a new topic given by the committee for her to explain why none of the existing knowledge could help her find solutions.

She had no choice but to discard her previous approach to collating information. After one month of solitude, she came up with a significant research inquiry and received the committee’s approval to proceed. Most importantly, the invigorated approach helped her to complete the thesis in one year. When graduate students at UPM were in a similar dilemma, she taught them her unconventional way of developing research proposals, giving rise to the Excellence Accelerator for Grounded Learning Environment (E.A.G.L.E) Programme which is being commercialised by Grounded Learning (M) Sdn Bhd, founded by Rahinah who is also chief innovation officer.

Grounded Learning recently graduated from Innohub and is licenced to commercialise the E.A.G.L.E Programme worldwide.

The programme is a creative and interactive visual navigator which helps doctoral students to develop impactful theses. It provides an interactive structured method and system to transform a regular professional into someone with critical postgraduate skills in a shorter period.

“The key innovation of the programme starts at the formulation of the main research question. The E.A.G.L.E. tool for this problem helps students to formulate a high impact research question and it can inform them on their rigorous literature review, whether they will eventually pursue a master’s degree or doctoral research, long before they embark on it,” said Rahinah, adding that while it took her three years to finalise her doctoral inquiry, it will only take less than one hour for a new student with the easy E.A.G.L.E. tool.

The second innovation is the development of the E.A.G.L.E. Table, a monitoring and management tool for the three-year doctoral journey.

“One can have a bird’s eye view of the three-year journey in two days. Since doctoral graduation requires students to create new knowledge, the programme places emphasis on theory development by providing a fast fourlevel critical literature review process.”

Many students were able to propose their unique theoretical framework in less time by knowing where to focus in gathering information and how to present their findings in verbatim and orally.

This critical thinking aspect, in turn, develops scholarship in students. The critical literature review process is fast yet it can uniquely reduce plagiarism among non-native English speakers who have a tendency to paraphrase sentences for authenticity.

The E.A.G.L.E. approach and tools have been used in a research methodology course at the Faculty of Design and Architecture in UPM more intensely after 2008 and the ease and simplicity of developing scholastic skills has attracted students from other faculties to join the class. The E.A.G.L.E. Programme is copyrighted in four languages: English, Malay, Arabic and Farsi at Intellectual Property Corporation of Malaysia. It is licenced to Grounded Learning for worldwide dissemination. It was selected to enter the Innohub Programme in 2015 when it received its first seed funding of RM80,000.

Rahinah’s former research assistant, Rafeah Mustafa Kamal, was appointed as chief executive officer of the company. Rafeah had previously worked on commercialising Rahinah’s earlier invention, SABSystem, a modular timber framing construction system patented in eight countries.

Rafeah, a Bachelor’s of Applied Arts and Design (majoring in Industrial Design) graduate from IIUM, has the experience of translating research into practical application and is a certified HRDF Trainer and a member of the Malaysian Institute of Human Resource Managers with plans to further her studies in the field of education at UPM.

“The E.A.G.L.E. Programme is available in the market through Grounded Learning. By the time the firm graduated from Innohub, it has secured RM3.64 million in sales and contracts. It has conducted workshops for more than 500 participants during its time at Innohub and had garnered traction to have signed three memoranda of understanding to disseminate the programme to Japan, Indonesia, Middle Eastern countries and India,” said Rafeah.

The company has recently signed a three-year contract to train 75 certified trainers and 2,500 students at Healthcare Research Inc. based in Tokyo, Japan.

“The company is proud that Healthcare Research Inc. is keen to become its Japanese partner for training and promoting E.A.G.L.E. techniques to Japanese universities and research institutes. The Malaysian E.A.G.L.E. team will be conducting its first training in Japan after the Eidil Adha holidays.”

Grounded Learning is poised to become a global player in helping people innovate their future potential in the knowledge economy.

The traditional higher education model does not support different learning cultures of individuals and organisations, specifically at doctoral level. Exposing potential doctoral students and existing ones to the simple E.A.G.L.E. tools will help build up their intellectual capability and confidence in a shorter period.

“The company believes that with such support system, it can help research and higher education institutions in Malaysia and developing countries to achieve educational excellence based on their respective local knowledge,” added Rahinah.

“The company’s strength is its capability to produce a number of great innovations for the global society to improve its well-being. By transforming mindset, people can move the world. Grounded Learning targets to be ready for an Initial Public Offering in several years’ time.”