M’sians get gold at Thai expo

Researchers win 31 medals in all after defeating teams from 20 countries

KANGAR: A Malaysian researcher has won an international award for creating a product that does not need the presence of people to monitor the water quality of fish-breeding ponds.

Dr Ammar Zakaria of Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP), whose research product won the Best Asian Invention Award, said the “Aquasense Real Time and Integrated Prawn Farming Monitoring” is a wireless water quality monitoring system for seawater ponds that are used for the breeding prawns, fish and other seafood.

He added that the water quality readings could be sent to a control centre every 15 minutes without the need for the presence of manpower at the farm cages.

He was among a group of Malaysian researchers who emerged champions after they defeated teams from 20 countries at the Bangkok International Intellectual Property Invention, Innovation and Technology Exposition (IPITEX 2016).

Malaysian Research and Innovation Society (MyRIS) president Prof Emeritus Datuk Dr Kamarudin Hussin said the Malaysian delegation won 24 gold, five silver and two bronze medals, bringing glory to Malaysia at the exposition.

“Malaysia’s participation, sponsored by MyRIS and the Malaysian Invention and Design Society, involved 31 entries including six from primary and secondary schools,” he said in a statement here yesterday.

Kamarudin said Malaysia’s participation was in conjunction with Thailand’s Investors Day 2016.

The five-day exposition, held at the Bangkok International Trade and Exhibition Centre, which ended on Saturday, was opened by Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister Prajin Juntong.

Among the participating countries at Ipitex 2016 were China, Poland, Indonesia, Iran, Britain, Canada, South Korea, the Philippines, Romania, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Kamarudin, who is also UniMAP vice-chancellor, said he was proud that 17 researchers representing the university won 16 gold medals and one bronze.

UniMAP had sent a delegation of young lecturers from various departments including the Technology Engineering Faculty, Centre of Excellence for Advanced Sensor Technology, Centre of Excellence for Geopolimer and Green Technology, and Centre of Excellence for Renewable Energy.