Tuesday, April 17, 2012

International Conference in Engineering Education 2012

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim,

Details of the conference are mentioned below:
1. Conference: ICTLHE 2012 in Conjunction with RCEE & RHED 2012
2. Date: 10-12 April 2012
3. Venue: Klana Resort, Seremban
4. Organizer: UTM, RCEE

Saya lebih tertarik dengan sesi forum yang dianjurkan pada hari pertama yang mana menghimpunkan idea2 bernas para cendekiawan dari industri dan juga dari pihak akademik. 
- Tajuk: Role of Academia & Industry in the Development of Innovative Graduates
- Isi dan sedikit komentar: 
·        Ade berlaku 'mismatched between academia requirements and students achievements.
·        Industry: Attitude is so weak among fresh graduates. Oversea students performed better in comparison with locals, as they are more outspoken, very good communication skills (oral n writing), better survival skills, more enthusiastic, very good problem solving skill.
·        Academic institutions do not produced the right type of graduates, as required by the industry.
·        High income company, how to achieve this?: - Collaborative action between industry and academia, with continuous assessment.
·        Industry: problems with the current graduates: spoon feeded, not able to think critically, not as expected, engineers should be job creators, not only job hunters. 
·        Academia: University is trying our best to tackle this issue, what we need is time and collaborative actions. Don't expect we provide readymade engineers as this is almost impossible due to different industry/company has different expectations.
·        Academia: Spoonfeeding is an outdated issue. Final year project has been integrated with problem given by the industry (is this true in our faculty?)
·        Industry:
o   They did come to the university and asked for any collaboration/ also inform the university on their requirements.
o   Basic knowledge among students are not strong
o   Industrial experience not only for students, but also for staff. Make it regularly to ensure that they are all updated.
o   Don’t let students pass when they are not ready.
·        Industrial Training:
o   Not so effective, due to very short period given, the company could not expose them with the real environment.
o   In this case, they prefer UTP graduates, as they are giving longer period for internship.
o   Both lecturers and students need industrial training, brief exposure is not enough
·        Outcome Based Education (OBE)
o   Should be ability oriented, not graduates oriented.
o   Focus more on the outcome, content put at the second place.
·        US education:
o   Final Year Project, collaborate with industry. Students can use their facilities.  There are classes conduct by industry at night. Industrial players spend time to teach students, as part of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
·        Academia: UTM is heading towards that stage. (12 weeks LI + 2 Semesters FYP, work with industry)
·        Academia: An audience (lecturer) has mentioned that all the issues discussed are outdated. He prefers evidence based following comments and complaints.
·        Two main roles as an academician: Teaching (education) and Creating New Knowledge (Research). Try to balance these two roles.

Conclusions:
·        Keep on improving students’ ability and marketability.
·        Industry and academic institute are sharing the same goal. Try to collaborate as many as possible.
·        Leadership by example. Lecturers should show their students that their skills and knowledge are updated and still relevant.
·        Suggestion for our faculty. Let us make the same dialog like this, call representatives from industry and academic institute. Students should not involve at this stage.

Other Remarks:
·        Education is a professional field, indeed.
·        Many experts in this field are giving their best to find effective ways/methods to deliver message and to achieve targets. For example, PBL (Problem Based Learning). They are still discussing this method, looking for any spaces for improvements (there was a lecturer spent her 10 years to do research on PBL).  For our case, my humble opinion is that; please pass the project according to the lecturer experts on the topic given. For example, project related to signal should be given to lecturer experts in this field. Pengalaman saya, banyak kes yang main pas je. Hehe, saya rasa kurang adil kepada student sebab yang akan menilai dorang adalah lecturer yg nominal, bukan yg aktif.
·        Pengalaman sendiri juga. Saya lebih appreciate ilmu apabila saya terlibat dengan research (problem and terus ke application). Saya rasa sedikit berlainan ketika menyertai kelas degree sekarang (persediaan untuk phd) dengan sewaktu saya degree. Sekarang lebih kepada mengapa dan bagaimana. Dulu lebih kepada how to score in exams.huhu.
·        Cadangan: Permulaan kelas yang baik adalah dengan memberitahu pelajar apakah applikasi ilmu yang bakal dipelajari (in brief/videos etc). Mulakan kelas dengan memberi satu masalah general, kemudian sambung dengan teori-teori yang diperlukan to tackle that problem. Dan cuba terus ke applikasi. Sekadar berpendapat. Wallahu’alam.. =)

Sekian dari saya, terima kasih atas peluang yang diberikan. Semoga kita terus menjadi ilmuan yg menepati ciri2 khalifah serta hamba kepada ALLAH swt. Ameen ya Rabb…^^,


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