UniKL to leverage on NEC's facial recognition technology

KUALA LUMPUR: Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL) is planning to leverage on NEC Corporation's facial recognition technology in its attendance system.

President/chief executiveofficer Professor Datuk Dr Mazliham Mohd Su'ud said both parties are currently in discussions to develop the face detection and recognition system, with the information technology (IT) and network leader is one of the first in the world to introduce facial recognition technology based on speed and accuracy.

“We hope to implement the first phase of this system early next year at UniKL's IT campus here, which has about 2,500 students.

“The attendance system is currently using the Quick Response (QR) Code,” he told reporters after the presentation of the Technology Showcase Network Security Transformation Powered by Software Defined Everything (SDx) here, yesterday.

Mazliham said the adoption of NEC's face recognition system also allows the university to leverage on NEC's artificial intelligence (AI) and network to monitor the emotions of students as well as lecturers during classes.

“This can help us to do a better assessment of students and lecturers, and at the same, give us the opportunity to create a more conducive environment and improve our performance,” he added.

Earlier, at the event, NEC announced the successful completion of a Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SDWAN) trial with UniKL.

The project, funded by the Japan's Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry, aims to boost cybersecurity resilience among ASEAN member states.

The trial began in September 2018 using the WAN infrastructure in UniKL as the testbed.

“The trial showed that implementing NEC's open source based SDWAN Security Common Platform in UniKL's WAN allowed the network management and control to be completely centralised.

“It also allows the institution to manage its existing network equipment from multiple providers from a single SDWAN controller,” said NEC Corporation of Malaysia Sdn Bhd managing director, Chong Kai Wooi.

He also said the platform's implementation would also provide greater flexibility, agility and security to the university's networks.

As a result of the successful trial, NEC Corporation of Malaysia has been selected to deliver OpenMSA, an open network orchestration framework and a core component of NEC's SDWAN Security Platform, for the UniKL NEC SDx Centre of Excellence, a research lab, officially inaugurated yesterday.