Skudai, 7 March 2020 – TEDxUTM2020, powered by UTM Centre for Student Innovation and Technology Entrepreneurship (UTM XCITE) was recently held at the Sultan Ibrahim Chancellery Building, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). In its fourth year running since 2017, TEDxUTM2020 wants to spread message through it theme, ‘Theory X’.

X, often known as an unknown yet to be discovered, viewed by TEDxUTM2020 as boundless prospect to be explored, symbolized by two crossing lines. Those single lines have been pulled to cross each other that metaphorically means people with the same energy and positive purposes will be pulled together and meet one another anytime and anywhere. Although humans are set apart by their own mind and thoughts, TEDxUTM2020 believes that every individual has their unique story to share. This was the message in which TEDxUTM2020 want to convey to the public.

Extending their original intention to bring in ideas worth spreading to local community, TEDxUTM2020 had invited photography artist Keda.Z, clinical psychologist Dr. Chua Sook Ning and Gary Yap, founder of MYReaders Alex Lim, lecturer and strategist Dr. Helen Tan Sui Hong, action stunt woman Germaine Yeap, author Zamir Mohyedin, neuro-linguistic programming master coach Myke Celis, entrepreneur Wythe See Yuan Feng, actress Koe Yeet, model Azfar Firdaus and lastly, founder of ShaShinKi.com Dr. Koh Kho King.

TEDxUTM is an annual event of UTM since 2017. In addition to sharing sessions by the 12 invited speakers as the highlights of the event, there were also merchandise booth selling products, photobooth, board game, claw machine, VR station, drone flying station, barista workshop and korean flower arrangement workshop which had attracted a lot of students to come over.

One of the accomplishment for TEDxUTM2020 was that they had successfully managed to invite Kapten Buehbossa as a special guest to perform magic bubble show inside the hall, which had never been done in previous TEDxUTM event. A lot of UTM performers had been invited such as Losting Music Club in collaboration with Kapten Buehbossa, Wushu Club in collaboration with 24 Festive Drums, Flying Dance Studio (FDS) in collaboration with Freedom Dance Crew (FDC) and these performances were indeed eye-catching and won thunderous applause from the audiences.

According to the director of TEDxUTM2020, Lim Meng Kei, the committees consist of a total of 38 students from various schools. The whole team has spent for around a year in planning the event to make sure everything run smoothly. Throughout the whole process, she said the most challenging part was raising funds. She also revealed that the tickets were sold out within 45 minutes. Even though there were many who still wanted to buy the tickets, the committee were not able to open more tickets due to limitation set, which according to the TED regulations, the number of attendees for each TED event either 100 seats or 1000 seats. At present, the number of attendees for TEDxUTM is limited to 100. “We hope to move on to thousand in the future,” said Lim Meng Kei.

From the 1^st of March 2020 to 3rd of March 2020, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) held the first ever South Business Simulation Challenge 2020, organized by UTM Centre for Student Innovation & Technology Entrepreneurship (UTM XCITE) in collaboration with Azman Hashim International Business School (AHIBS). The program involved a total of 25 participants from 5 Public Higher Education Institutions in southern part of Peninsular Malaysia namely UTM, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM), Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTEM) as well as Polytechnic Metro Johor Bahru, where participants each institutions are just and limited to 5 participants only.

SBSC 2020 used MonsoonSIM, an award-winning business simulation and gamification education platform, as the core basis for the program. The platform recognized by Enterprise Resources Planning (Business) – SAP and has been used in business education in various universities around the globe since 2013. MonsoonSIM allows educators, lecturers, teachers to change the way they teach the business concepts and indirectly provide students with early exposure to many aspects of business processes.

SBSC 2020 was a 3 days program where the first 2 days took place at UTM Maker Space, while the third and final day of the program took place at Cyberpenuer Lab, AHIBS. The first day of the program was just a short session compromising of minute introductory activities such as registration, briefings and ice-breaking. In the second day the program starts to intensify where participants get to understand, train and experience all 12 modules in the MonsoonSIM simulation, in stages, coached predominantly by Mr. Shafudin bin Mohd Yatim (AHIBS), Dr. Mohamad Shah Bin Kassim (AHIBS) and Dr. Zulkifli Hamisan @ Khair (School of Human Resource Development & Psychology, (SHARPS)), whom are certified, skilled and experienced guiding UTM students in various national and international competitions from 2016 to 2018.

On the third day, the entire morning session was slotted for participants to practice on what they learnt the day prior. Then in the afternoon a 2 round competition was held, in where the teams were evaluated and positioned according to the average score from both rounds. Tong Xin Jo, Ong Jia Eek, Muhammad Hafiz Faisal, Tan Lun Yong and Lian Tat Xian (Team Explosion Z) from UTM for won first prize and brought home RM1000, certificates of achievement, and a trophy. The second prize of RM700, certificates of achievement, and a trophy went to Team Tuah from Universiti Teknikal Melaka Malaysia (UTeM). The third prize went to Team Gladiators from Universiti Teknologi MARA Johor Campus and they carried home RM500, certificates of achievement, and a trophy. Consolation prized went to Team Untouchables from Politeknik METrO Johor Bahru and Team Paritking from Universiti Tun Hussien Onn Malaysia, where they both carried home RM300 and certificates of achievement.

All in all, SBSC 2020 was a success thanks to the mentors, organizing committees, participants and joint partners of Southern Business Simulation Challenge 2020. The closing ceremony was attended and officiated by Dr. Noriza Mohd Jamal, the Director of Accounting and Finance Program of AHIBS and also attended by Muhammad Nabil Fikri Bin Yahaya, Research Officer of UTM XCITE, Mr. Shafudin bin Mohd Yatim, a senior lecturer and certified MonsonSIM trainer of AHIBS, and Dr. Zulkifli Hamisan @ Khair, senior lecturer of SHARPS. Students who have the potentials will be selected to be members of the team representing their respective institution to the national level, and further to the Southeast Asia level.

UTM XCITE ingin merakamkan sekalung ucapan penghargaan dan terima kasih kepada Dr Afnizanfaizal Bin Abdullah diatas segala bakti dan sumbangan yang telah dicurahkan sepanjang memegang jawatan sebagai Timbalan Pengarah (Inovasi) UTM XCITE. Semoga Allah sentiasa merahmati dan memberi ganjaran yang besar atas usaha murni yang dilakukan sepanjang perkhidmatan beliau. Kami di UTM XCITE mendoakan agar Dr. Afnizanfaizal lebih cemerlang, gemilang dan terbilang di tempat baharu.

AP Dr Mohd Zaidi menyampaikan hadiah kenang kenangan kepada Dr Afnizanfaizal

AP Dr Mohd Zaidi menyampaikan hadiah kenang-kenangan kepada saudara Akmal

UTM XCITE juga mengambil kesempatan ini untuk mengucapkan jutaan terima kasih kepada saudara Muhammad Akmal Ahmad, pelajar ‘internship’ yang telah berjaya menamatkan tempoh penempatan beliau di UTM XCITE. Selamat maju jaya kami ucapkan.

Pembangunan Mahasiswa Holistik menjadi tumpuan,

Begitu juga graduan dengan ciri-ciri keusahawanan,

Walaupun sedang melalui beberapa penstrukturan, 

Namun UTM XCITE sentiasa bergerak ke hadapan.

 

Big Data dan Machine Learning 

Menjadi trend dan sebutan semua

Namun ramai yang juga jadi pening

Hanya Dr Af yang faham Serba Serbinya

 

Burung helang terbangnya tinggi,

hinggap sebentar di pohon jati,

terima kasih Dr Afnizan yang bestari,

memberi sumbangan sepenuh hati.

 

Letih berjalan di tengah pekan,

Singgah sebentar di gerai siti,

Terima kasih kepada Dr Af kami ucapkan,

Atas segala jasa dan bakti.

Approximately 300 students thronged UTM Centre for Student Innovation and Technology Entrepreneurship (UTM XCITE)’s Innovation Unit building to participate in Sustainable Entrepreneurial Mindset Showcase 2019 (SEMS 2.0) on 3 December 2019, organized by Office of Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic & International) and UTM XCITE. This marked the second time SEMS was organized to enable students to experience entrepreneurship processes.

One of the participants demonstrated their prototype and product to the judges

The students from UHAK and UBSS courses demonstrated their products and services that were developed based on United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They have been guided by entrepreneurship lecturers from the beginning of the semester. Each group was given 10 minutes to pitch and demonstrate their innovation to judges that included experts from industry as well as academic. The purpose of the event was to expose UTM students to entrepreneurial activities, which included the vital processes of validating ideas and prototype development.

One of the model showcased at SEMS 2.0

Another example of product showcased at SEMS 2.0

QTPI, a group from Faculty of Science, with their product Eggshells Fuel, won Best of the Best award, bringing home RM400 and a medal of achievement as well as certificate of appreciation. They were supervised by Dr Muhamad Afzamiman Bin Aripin (Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities). Sprout Crowd, a group from the School of Mechanical Engineering supervised by Dr Sabrinah Adam (Azman Hashim International Business School), with their product Bright Sprout won second place while third prize went to Smart Alarm from the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities. The group was supervised by Dr. Corrienna Abdul Talib (Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities).

SMART ALARM receiving their prizes from Prof Dr Shafry Mohd Rahim

SPROUT CROWD receiving their prizes

And the winner goes to QTPI with their product Eggshells Fuel!

The closing ceremony was attended and officiated by Prof. Dr. Mohd Shafry Bin Mohd Rahim, Chair, Office of Undergraduate Studies (UGS) and also attended by Dr Umar Haiyat Abdul Kohar, Deputy Director (Entrepreneurship) of UTM XCITE, and Mr Mohamad Nabil FIkri Yahaya, Research Officer at UTM XCITE.