The innovation of freshwater crayfish food entitled ‘Cray-X’ won the Best Agriculture and Forestry Cluster Award at the 2022 Design Competition organized by Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS).

The innovation was founded by Prof Dr Rossita Shapawi (project leader), Ahmad Shahroom Mohd Shah, Saleem Mustafa, Abentin Estim and Nur Fatihah Abd Halid from the Borneo Marine Research Institute (IPMB) UMS.

It also won the Best Overall PEREKA 2022 Award.

Meanwhile, 79 other innovation projects also received gold recognition at PEREKA 2022 which also witnessed the memorandum of agreement exchange ceremony for the commercialization licensing of two UMS products with Biosain Technologies Sdn Bhd and DrillTech Engineering Sdn Bhd.

The 2022 Design Competition is a platform for researchers and academics to showcase their research and innovation results.

According to the Vice Chancellor, Professor Datuk Dr. Kasim Mansor, a total of 196 innovations were contested this year and this was a 55 percent increase from the participation last year.

He said the increase gave a good impression of UMS’ efforts to cultivate innovation among its staff, especially the lecturers.

“The organization of PEREKA 2022 is in line with the role of UMS in leading the community to innovate so that it can be recognised at the global level.

“It also provides a network of relationships between industry parties whether from within or outside the country, and it is one of UMS’ strategies to improve the quality and relevance of research,” he said in a statement on Tuesday.

Kasim added that PEREKA 2022, which was organised consistently, is an indication that UMS strongly emphasises the culture of excellence in research and innovation as one of the main areas of success in line with the UMS Transformation Plan 2050 and the UMS Strategic Plan 2023-2027 which will be launched early next year.

The closing ceremony of PEREKA 2022 was officiated by the chairman of the UMS Board of Directors, Datuk Seri Panglima Abdul Rahman Dahlan.

According to Abdul Rahman, the research carried out needs to take into account significant factors that can solve the problems of society and the country.

He said praise should be given to UMS for continuing to highlight its strengths in the fields of science and technology, without forgetting the fields of social sciences and humanities.

“The combination and balance of scientific disciplines, between modernization and tradition, allows the process of continuity in the change of the nation to be decisive for the construction of a modern nation’s civilization, from the desired perspective.

“Now, universities become one of the components of the community ecosystem, strengthening the community in the environment, the country and the global world.

“The existence of a university should be felt by its presence and the loss of its function will be felt by the community and the country,” he said.

He added that in addition to having intellectuals who are capable of educating high quality people, universities must also be able to develop ideas and meaningful ideas to lead the country to solve various current problems.

“In addition to carrying out research to explore knowledge, build expertise and guide intellectual leadership, there is still a lot of space in research that can be developed for the benefit of the community. Academics need to change their thinking from ‘knowledge for knowledge’ to ‘knowledge for society and country’.

“The direction of research needs to be in line with current issues and problems, which is capable of being a solution to the problems faced by society and the country in general.

“Research should not only look great or stop on the pages of scientific articles or in the laboratory, but instead be able to provide universal benefits,” he added.

Abdul Rahman also called for researchers to be able to conduct research that combines various fields, establishing cooperation with the local community and the industry.

Source:
courtesy of THE BORNEO POST

by THE BORNEO POST

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