KUCHING: The Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus has signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with other universities for exploration and collaborative partnership in research and development projects on Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem here yesterday.
With the aim of establishing smart cities in Sarawak, the project will involve Curtin Malaysia, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) and Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Sarawak Campus.
The signing was part of the three-day Industry 4.0 Awareness Programme held at the university from 16 to 18 October. It is jointly organised by Swinburne Innovation Malaysia (SWIM) Sdn Bhd and Swinburne’s School of Information and Communication Technologies, Faculty of Engineering Computing and Science, and supported by the Ministry of Industrial and Entrepreneur Development (MIED) Sarawak and Sarawak Multimedia Authority (SMA).
Present to witness the signing ceremony were Deputy Chief Minister, Minister for Industrial and Entrepreneur Development and Second Minister for Urban Development and Natural Resources, Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan, and Assistant Minister for Industries and Investment, Malcom Mussen Lamoh.
“This programme is therefore timely as it aims to encourage more Sarawakian manufacturers to move toward Industry 4.0. At the same time, the programme would also foster a stronger industry-academic ecosystem that addresses the specific needs and expectations within the industry.
“On the agreement, I hope this collaboration will encourage more effort that can accelerate our move towards industrialisation that is based on modern technology, creativity and innovation,” said Tengah.
Also present were Permanent Secretary of MIED Datu Liaw Soon Eng, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive Officer of Swinburne Sarawak Professor John Wilson, Vice-Chancellor of UNIMAS Professor Datuk Dr Mohamad Kadim Suaidi, Rector of UITM Sarawak Professor Dato Dr Jamil Hamali and Associate Professor Dr Ramasamy Nagarajan on behalf of the Pro Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of Curtin Malaysia Professor Jim Mienczakowski.
The MoA outlines the engagement between the four top universities in Sarawak to design, build and deploy a minimum IoT ecosystem in an existing city using low-cost, off-the-shelf components.
The ecosystem consists of a low-powered wide area network (LPWAN) together with selected end-devices and infrastructure around the pilot locations namely Swinburne campus in Kuching: UNIMAS campuses in Kuching and Kota Samarahan; UITM campuses in Kota Samarahan and Mukah; and Curtin Malaysia campus in Miri.
The pool of expertise from these universities will be responsible in the local deployment of IoT base innovative applications. For example, loop sensors, cameras and beacons that could be used as end-devices for smart traffic monitoring. The collaboration is expected to produce a body of knowledge that can be served as enablers for urban development.
Apart from the MoA signing, yesterday’s event also featured keynote addresses titled ‘Society 5.0: Digitalisation of Food and Agribusiness’ by Geuko Bosker, Senior Specialist for Technology and Innovations, NTT Data Corp, Japan; ‘Assisting Manufacturing SMEs in Digitisation: An Australian Perspective’ by Dr Nico Adams, Director of Factory of the Future, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia, and ‘Industry 4.0 for Manufacturing Plants’ by Ir. Dr Mohd Danial Dato’ Dr lbrahim, Senior Lecturer, UNIMAS.
Other highlights include focus group discussion, on-campus demo and laboratory visit.
