Activities 2018

Malaysia Locally Grown Research Group Shines in Chip Olympics for the First Time in the History

From 10th – 15th February 2018, the Head of Analog, Digital & RF Research Group, Assoc. Prof. Ir. Dr. Harikrishnan and his doctorate student Mr. Lawrence Lim Chee Cheow  represented University Malaya and Malaysia, presenting the ground breaking research work in the 65th IEEE international Solid State-Circuits Conference (ISSCC) 2018 in San Francisco, California.  ISSCC is known is “chip olympics”, it is the most prestigious international conference in the world in the field of electronics, with a rigorous paper selection process. It is also the world’s largest and highest-level conference on solid-state circuits, which showcases annually the latest trends in global solid-state circuit research and development. This year’s conference attracted more than 30,000 chip designers around the world from both academia and industries. With an honor, Dr. Harikrishnan’s group is the FIRST locally grown research group, whose paper is accepted in the history of Malaysia and ISSCC since its inception in 65 years, bringing Malaysia into the world stage of nano scale electronic design. By using advanced circuit technique, the work presented the world’s highest Figure-of-Merit (FoM) oscillator in 65nm CMOS technology, suitable in WiFi, Bluetooth BLE, mobile and the evolving 5G application. This work was also included in the conference technical highlights. CASS Malaysia chapter extends warmest congratulations on the achievement, which have made all of us proud. Keep up the great work!

Towards IR4.0: IoT hands-on workshop

The Internet-of-Things (IoT) hands-on workshop was conducted by the IEEE CAS (M) in partnership with Universiti Putra Malaysia last April 17, 2018 at the Computer and Communication Systems Engineering Lab. The workshop was part of a 3 days program organized by Universiti Putra Malaysia and Maktab Rendah Sains MARA (MRSM) Taiping called Program Emas Hitam. It aims to provide exposure for the high school students about the industrial revolution 4.0, hence providing them the opportunity to design and apply “Internet-of-Things (IoT)” with interesting approach under the facilitation of experts in the field. The 40 MRSM Taiping students were inspired to explore the basic electronic theory, programming concepts and the latest communication technology applications. The workshop was started by a brief lecture on the introduction of the industrial revolution 4.0 (IR4.0) by Dr. Fakhrul Zaman Rokhani. The hands-on workshop led by Dr Fakhrul Zaman Rokhani was facilitated by Masyitah Amat Sairin, Lim Yang Wei and Muhamad Harriss Zainudin. At the end of the workshop, Dr Sharifah Mumtazah demonstrated and explained about an application example of IoT, which is a robotic arm that is remotely controlled. The program is hoped to be continued so that we can cultivate more interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) in students. Other than that, it helps promote the transition of technology-minded initiatives to the younger generation and hence produce youth technoprenuer who are competitive and professional in the era of industrial revolution 4.0.

Fun Engineering Session Organized by IEEE CASS Malaysia Chapter and FOE, MMU

 On 28^th March 2018, IEEE CASS Malaysia together with Faculty of Engineering (FOE) Multimedia University (MMU) organized a School Program entitled Fun Engineering Session, which is intended for secondary school students. A total of 40 Form 4 students and 2 teachers from a local school, Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan USJ8 were brought in to FOE MMU to participate in the program. The program was held to engage and inspire young students in high schools to take up Engineering Career. The program starts with an overview of MMU, followed by a short talk on “Engineering Career Path” and a brief introduction to IEEE CASS Malaysia Chapter Professional Development. At the end of the briefing, students were moved to a laboratory where they were paired into groups and given opportunity to learn, explore and use the Chumbaka kit. Students are requested to use their own creativity and the skills which they have just learnt and built a tech art project. Materials such as paper plates, paper cups, sticks and marker pens were provided for this activity. It was interesting to see how the students work together to build some rotary project making use of a servo motor provided. The teachers selected top 3 teams to receive prizes. After the activity, students were brought to the Digital Home Lab for a short visit to showcase the latest digital home technology and lifestyle using broadband internet access.The school teachers praised the organizers for such an enriching session for the students and the students were delighted that they can actually code with real application. To IEEE CAS Malaysia, the school would like to participate in such program again in the future.

Train-the-Trainer Workshop Using Micro-Bit at Faculty of Engineering, MMU

IEEE CASS Malaysia had the opportunity to sponsor a Train-the-Trainer workshop for Year 2 and Year 3 Engineering students on using Micro-Bit. Together with Faculty of Engineering (FOE) Multimedia University (MMU), the workshop aimed at exposing students to the new embedded device, to design and develop hands-on practical skills as well as programming skills, which can be used to solve simple daily-like problem using the device. The workshop had been divided into 3 sessions with the first session on Getting Started with Micro-Bit, followed by a Project Demonstration using Micro-Bit and the final session on Project ideas with Micro-Bit. At end of the 3-day workshop, the students completed the workshop as the mentor and will conduct a similar workshop to the foundation students. This will provide early opportunity to foundation students on the engineering skills of programming a microcontroller.

IEEE CAS sponsored 2018 FYP awards in IIUM, UTHM, UTEM and UMP.

IEEE CAS Malaysia has sponsored Final Year Project awards (cash and certificate) for undergraduate students in few local universities. The purpose is to promote awareness on IEEE circuits and systems among students and academician in local universities. During the exhibition and presentation, IEEE CAS Malaysia representatives are invited to become panel of judges for the FYP evaluation. During the evaluation, each candidates presented their posters, demonstrated their projects and answered all the questions from the panels before panel finalized the winner. Details of recipients and title of FYP projects are listed as follows: