Events Calendar
Kota Samarahan, 16 March 2018: The MOU signing between Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) and Malaysia Pepper Board (MPB) marks another milestone in effort to engage partnership and collaboration between Universities and Industries. Represent UNIMAS, was the Vice Chancellor YBhg Professor Datuk Dr Mohamad Kadim Suaidi while for MPB was represented by Director General YBhg Dr Harry Entebang. UNIMAS has always strived to seek research collaboration with industries and always open doors to beneficial alliances that benefitted both the people and the country. This collaboration provides a win-win situation for Malaysia Pepper Board and UNIMAS in quest for new discovery and knowledge. The knowledge gained from the partnership activities will hopefully benefit our human capital development, economic and the community at large. The signing of this is very timely as the state government is charting activities towards digital economy. With this collaboration, both UNIMAS and MPB can offer their expertise to elevate knowledge and technical know-how in modern agriculture and techniques based on futuristic technology such as the Internet of Things and Big Data Analytics. It is known that researchers from UNIMAS have been working together with researchers from MPB at individual level and with this MoU the collaboration and partnership can be made official and extended to more activities in new areas. Two faculties have been working together with MPB; the Faculty of Resource Science and Technology (FRST) and the Faculty of Engineering. The FRST has been collaborating with MPB in various biotechnological research and student internship activities. The Faculty of Engineering will be working closely with MPB researchers to develop smart and precise farming system with the objectives of increasing quantity of pepper yield and to maintain the high quality pepper in Sarawak. There are planned to extend the research activities and to have joint grant application between UNIMAS and MPB. Thus, this MoU will provide the impetus to achieve higher goals. The Smart and precise farming system based on the Internet of Things (IoT) and big data analytic will one day provide farmers with sustainable consistence high yield.Its high time that advance technology is introduced in local farming practices and the most suitable agriculture sectors is the pepper production sector as Sarawak is one of the top pepper producers in the world. We hope that this MoU will later be translated to MoAs which will give more meaningful outcomes for both UNIMAS and MPB. Also present were Faculty Deans of Faculty of Resource Science and Technology (FRST) Prof Dr Othman Bojo and the Faculty of Engineering Prof Dr Al-Khalid bin Haji Othman, other Faculty Deans and Directors of UNIMAS and MPB officers.
