Seminar organizing committee

1. Chairperson:  Assoc Prof Dr Amalina
2. Vice Chairperson: Dr Fadzli
3. Secretary: Dr Suriani / Dr Fathiah
4. Treasurer: Dr Shazril
5. Promotional (poster & blast email): Dr Effariza
6. Invitation Committee: Dr Mahar Diana / AP Dr Che Rosmani
7. Protocol (floor manager): Dr. Ishida
8. Technical Committee: Dr Zulhelmi, Dr Mohamadarif
9. Protocol / Conference Kits: Dr Jegalakshimi
10. Advisors: Assoc. Prof Dr Zul Ilham & Dr Noraisyah
11. Faculty ICT team
    1. Mr Ali Emran (team leader)
    2. Mr Ku Mohd Haziq Ku Yusof (photographer / video)
    3. Mr Mohd Fauzi Pamuji (audio visual)
    4. Ms. Sainah Che Umar (zoom platform manager)

The Objective of the event was

1. To obtain information from the funder on the selection process, regulation, application process, technical issues, and auditing process. Funder organization invited are SATREP, JICA, JASTIP
2. Sharing session from successful grant recipients on the formulation of research idea, gathering of collaborators, work distribution, auditing process, report writing and some of the struggles and challenges in achieving the KPI of the grant. 
3. As a platform for the exchange of ideas and networking of future collaborators

To achieve the objective of the event, the seminar consists of 2 parts.

Part 1: 30 minutes talk and 10 minutes Q&A by representatives from the grant funders

1. Prof Faizah Ahmad: Panel Reviewer for KPT including the SATREPS grant since 2013 till present and is currently the Head of Basic Infrastructure Cluster
2. Prof Koichiro Watanabe: Senior Advisor of JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency)
3. Dr Taro Sonobe: Research Administrator at Kyoto University Research Administration (KURA), representing JASTIP

Part 2: Sharing session by successful grant recipients. The Panelist include

1. Prof. Ali Selamat from MJIIT, a JICA grant holder
2. Assoc Prof Dr. Mohd Arif Anuar Mohd Salleh from UNIMAP, has obtained a grant with Japanese Industries, CREST with NIHON SUPERIOR
3. Assoc Prof. Dr. Zul Ilham Lubis (UM), recipient of JASTIP
4. Dr. Mohd Ridha bin Muhamad (UM), recipient of AUN/SEED-Net Covid-19 Grant
5. Dr Mohd Faiz Mohd Salleh (UM) as moderator, also a recipient of the Sakura Science Exchange Program

Some pictures of the event:

AUN/SEED-Net UM ALUMNI CLUB: Seminar 2022 Programme Schedule & Speaker’s Information

Date: 24/8/2022                            Venue: Pullman Hotel Bangsar

Biodata of Speakers

Professor Dr. Fauziah Ahmad  
Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia  
Grant Panel:   
Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development, SATREPS

 Prof. Dr. Fauziah Ahmad MyIGS and APWIIN President and is a Professor in Geotechnical engineering also serves as Honorary Professor, Geotechnical Engineer and a Researcher at School of Civil Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Engineering Campus, Penang. She obtained her Diploma from UTM, BSc (Hons) and PhD from University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK. She has been teaching Geotechnical Engineering courses and other civil engineering courses for more than 30 years. Has been appointed as Program Chairman, Deputy Dean at School and Deputy Dean of Postgraduate Studies. She has been involved in the development of hill slope where she was appointed as Penang State Geotechnical Council and technical committee member in reviewing Penang development. Currently she is the President of MyIGS an International Geosynthetics Society for Malaysian Chapter and Asia Pacific Women Inventor and Innovator Network. She is actively involved in Asean Geotechnical Technical Committee (ATC10 – Urban Geoinformatic and ATC 1: Geo-Disaster in Climate Change) in collaboration with Japanese Geotechnical Society in establishing works using GIS Geotechnical Database research and Geo-Disaster in Climate Change. Her research interest is in the area of slope stability, landslide, ground improvement and Urban Geoinformatic (GIS). She has been appointed Panel Reviewer for KPT including the SATREPS grant since 2013 till present and is currently the Head of Basic Infrastructure Cluster.

Koichiro Watanabe  
Professor Emeritus of Kyushu University  
Grant Panel: Japanese International Agency, JICA

Koichiro Watanabe is Senior Advisor of JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) and Professor Emeritus of Kyushu University. He served as the Vice-President for international affairs and the director of the International Student Center during 2014-2020. He has co-published over 150 peer-reviewed papers focused on the application of geothermal geology, volcanology and on economic geology. He supervised 40 PhD students from 11 countries in the last 15 years.

Education:  
1981 – 1985 Department of Geology, Faculty of Science, Kyushu University, Degree: Doctor of Science  
1979 – 1981 Department of Geology, Faculty of Science, Kyushu University, Degree: Master of Science  
1975 – 1979 Department of Geology, Faculty of Science, Kyushu University, Degree: Bachelor of Science

Work Experience:  
2020 January – 2020 September: Senior Vice-President for International Affairs, Kyushu University  
2014 October – 2019 December: Vice president for International Affairs, Kyushu University  
2002 August – 2021 March: Professor as below  
1992 July – 2002 July: Associate Professor at Faculty of Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyushu University  
1985 August – 1992 June: Research Associate at Faculty of Engineering, Kyushu University

Dr. Taro Sonobe  
Kyoto University, Japan  
Grant Panel: Japan-ASEAN Science, Technology and Innovation Platform, JASTIP

Dr. Taro Sonobe is Research Administrator at Kyoto University Research Administration (KURA) office in Kyoto University, where he has been working as URA since 2007. Currently, he is also a member of the Provost-Office and International Strategy Office at Kyoto University. He has also served as Deputy-Directors for Kyoto University ASEAN Center in Bangkok, Thailand as well as Kyoto University European Center in Heidelberg, Germany. During 2008 – 2012, he served as Global COE Assistant Professor at Graduate School of Energy Science of Kyoto University. He received his Ph. D. in Energy Technology from the Joint Graduate School of Energy and Environment (JGSEE), King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT), Thailand in 2007. 

In 2019, he was appointed as a leader for promotion under the planning committee of International Network of Research Management Societies (INORMS 2021 Hiroshima) and generated the awareness of capacity development for research management and administration in the ASEAN region. Recently, officially endorsed by ASEAN Committee of Science, Technology, and Innovation (COSTI), he has jointly initiated the project of a series of online study group meetings on Science, Technology, and Innovation Coordinators (STI Coordinator) in Japan and ASEAN towards the Grand Challenge. 

Forum Panelist

   
Prof. Ts. Dr Ali Selamat  
Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology, MJIIT  
Grant Holder: Japanese International Agency, JICA

Prof. Ali Selamat is an academician at Malaysia Japan International Institute of Technology (MJIIT), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. An academic institution established under the cooperation of JICA (Japanese International Agency) Cooperation and Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia (MOHE) to provide Japanese oriented engineering education in Malaysia (http://mjiit.utm.my/). His niche areas are software engineering, machine learning, Intelligent systems, Information Systems, Software process improvement. Currently he is serving as the Dean for the institute. He is also currently the Chair of IEEE Computer Society, Malaysia Section. He is also the editorial board of Knowledge Based Systems Journal Elsevier, International Journal of Information and Database Systems (IJIDS), Inderscience Publications, Vietnam Journal of Computer Science, World Scientific Publications, Service Oriented Computing, Springer Verlag and PSU Research Review: An International Journal, published by Emerald Publications. Prof. Ali Selamat has received a B.Sc. (Hons.) in IT from Teesside University, U.K. and M.Sc. in Distributed Multimedia Interactive Systems from Lancaster University, U.K. in 1997 and 1998, respectively. He received a Dr. Eng. degree from Osaka Prefecture University, Japan, in 2003.

Prof. Madya Dr Zul Ilham  
Institute of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Universiti Malaya, Malaysia  
Grant Holder: Japan-ASEAN Science, Technology and Innovation Platform, JASTIP

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zul Ilham is a Panasonic Scholar for his M.Sc. (2009) and JICA AUN/SEEDNet Scholar for Doctoral (2012) study in Japan. His research works received coveted awards from Japan Institute of Energy and American Oil Chemists’ Society. His current research interest is energy and environment, with special focus on bioenergy and biomass science, having published 69 research publications with h-index of 17 (Google Scholar). In community outreach, he is actively promoting energy literacy, renewable energy, and climate action to youth communities (Sustainable Development Goals; SDG 7 and 13). Apart from national and industrial research grants such as FRGS, Gamuda Land and Petronas, strong relationships with Japanese researchers led him to secure JASTIP International Grant in 2019 and 2021. He is currently in Ithaca, New York as Visiting Associate Professor at the Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University, USA. 

   
Assoc. Prof. Ir. Dr. Mohd Arif Anuar Mohd Salleh  
Faculty of Chemical Engineering Technology, Universiti Malaysia Perlis, Malaysia.  
Grant Holder: CREST with NIHON SUPERIOR

 Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mohd Arif Anuar Mohd Salleh is currently the Deputy Dean (Academic and Research), School of Materials Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Perlis, Malaysia. He completed his undergraduate and master’s degree from UTHM, Malaysia and his PhD from the University of Queensland, Australia in 2016 majoring in Solder Alloys/ Electronic Packaging Materials. His expertise is in Materials engineering, lead-free solder materials, electronic packaging materials, light metal alloys, microstructure studies, composite materials, materials processing, synchrotron imaging and synchrotron micro-XRF technique. Dr. Arif is also active in contributing his knowledge & technical know-how in many conferences as chairman and advisor. He was the President for Tin Solder Technology Research, Malaysia Chamber of Mines, Ministry of Natural Resource and Environment, Malaysia in the year 2017 to 2019. Dr Arif is also the manager of Nihon Superior Electronic Materials Research Lab, part of UniMAP’s Center of Excellence Geopolymer & Green Technology (CEGeoGTech).

   
Dr. Mohd Ridha bin Muhamad  
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, Malaysia  
Grant Holder: AUN/SEED-Net Covid-19 Grant and collaboration with Japan Welding Research Institute.

Dr. Ridha is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and is jointly a member of Center of Advanced Manufacturing and Materials Processing at the University of Malaya. He obtained his Doctor of Engineering from Utsunomiya University Japan in 2015, specializing in magnetic abrasive finishing for finishing of tube internal surfaces. Prior to his doctoral study, he worked in Yamazaki Mazak Corporation as a Senior Mechanical Design Engineer focusing on prototype machine design and evaluations. Currently, he is working on a collaboration project with the Japan Welding Research Institute to optimize the friction stir welding process in a sustainable way to be implemented in the manufacturing industry in Malaysia. He is appointed Technical Training Consultant by Panasonic Malaysia for manufacturing quality control systems for staff education. 

Moderator: Dr Mohd Faiz bin Mohd Salleh.

Biodata

Faiz Salleh is currently a senior lecturer at Universiti Malaya, Malaysia. He graduated with a B. Eng. and M. Eng. in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Shizuoka University, Japan, in 2009 and 2011, respectively. He obtained his PhD degree in Nanovision Technology field in 2014 from Shizuoka University. He was a research fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science from 2011 to 2014. He was also a postdoctoral researcher at Research Institute of Electronics, Shizuoka University, before joining the Universiti Malaya in 2015. His research interests are in energy conversion materials and devices with a focus in thermoelectric, and in the development of thermoelectric characterization systems. He has published more than 50 scientific articles and made more than 100 presentations at national and international conferences on the aforementioned research topics. He was also active in developing and promoting thermoelectric research in Malaysia and was elected as vice chairman for Malaysian Thermoelectric Society. He has been successful in obtaining various Japanese Grants and Sponsorship, the latest was the Sakura Science Exchange Program, Course C: Science and Technology Training Course 2019 (Japan, India, Malaysia, Sri Lanka).