UMS to work with various industry players — VC
KOTA KINABALU: Universities must build and maintain strong relationships with the various industry players of the state, said Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) Vice Chancellor Professor Datuk Dr D Kamarudin D Mudin.
He said that a university was unable to work alone and it must have its own industry partners.
“Every unit in a university must have its own industry partner. For example, our (UMS) medical unit can work together with the Health Ministry or any private hospitals,” Kamarudin said in his speech at the closing ceremony of UMS’ Research and Design (Pereka) 2017 competition yesterday.
Apart from producing human capital, a university also bears the responsibility of producing high quality intellectual property through the research and innovation activities, just like the Pereka competition.
He reiterated that universities of this era should double up their efforts, adding that their efforts should be translated into products that can be seen by the public.
To achieve this goal, the citizens of UMS must work on the same line and theme, together, Kamarudin said.
Yesterday’s event also witnessed the signing of the two commercialization agreements between UMS and Villaco Sdn Bhd and Denim Care Sdn Bhd, respectively.
These commercialization agreements are for the UMS Eco-Solar Dryer and the Formulation of Fixing Agent For Textile Dyeing Application On Indigo Dye, respectively.
The Eco-Solar Dryer was created by Dr Jidon Janaun together with Villaco Sdn Bhd while the Fixing Agent for Textile was formulated by Prof Madya Dr Coswald Sipaut @ Mohd Nazri together with Denim Care Sdn Bhd.
Also present in the event was UMS Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research and Innovation) Prof Dr Shahril Yusof, who presented the prizes for the gold medal winners (for both the Research and Innovation categories) of the Pereka 2017.
He disclosed that a total of 249 projects were contested, 186 of which were for the Research category and another 63 projects were for the Innovation category.
“This figure is consistent with last year’s figure. This proves that the research and innovation culture amongst the citizens of UMS is well alive,” he said.