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Swee-Huay Heng, Prof., Dr.
Vice President, Research and Development,
Multimedia University, Malaysia
Member, IEICE |
It is my great pleasure to have an opportunity of introducing Multimedia University (MMU), one of the private universities in Malaysia which plays the pivotal role in leading international higher education and research, to all IEICE members, scholars and exchange researchers. I hope you will learn more about MMU through this article. MMU looks forward to collaborate and work with your esteemed institution.
The Next Generation University MMU is the first and premier private university in Malaysia which was set up by Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) in 1996 through its wholly owned subsidiary Universiti Telekom Sdn Bhd (UTSB). MMU was created to fulfill the noblest of corporate social responsibilities activities ? taking up the challenge of educating the next generation of the nation’s leaders and knowledge workers. As the first private university in Malaysia, MMU pioneered the model for the successful establishment of private universities in Malaysia, paving the way for the growth of the private tertiary education sector. As the university located at the heart of the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) area, MMU serves as the premier university for ICT and Creative Multimedia, as well as its related industries in Malaysia, supporting the government’s aspiration of developing the country into a knowledge economy.
MMU has achieved much in a relatively short period of time over the past seventeen years after its inception. The university now operates two campuses, namely its original campus in the historical city of Melaka, and the campus in Cyberjaya that was launched by the then Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad. Further, it will have the third campus in EduCity Iskandar, Nusajaya, Johor in Malaysia, soon. MMU has fostered and produced 34,378 graduates to date, and a recent survey highlights the fact that about 90% of these graduates secure employment within 6 months of completing their studies. It has around 20,000 students in total, 3,800 of them are international students who were enrolled from 77 countries.
Currently, according to a survey by Quacquarelli Symonds’ Asian University Rankings (QS, http://www.topuniversities.com), MMU is ranked amongst the Top 200 universities in all of Asian region. MMU was also recognized by the Malaysian Government, through its 2011 SETARA rating, as an Excellent Tier-5 university.
Fig.1 Cyberjaya Campus of Multimedia University
Overview of Research Activities in MMU
MMU has established itself as a major player in research and development, and maintains excellent ties with the industry through collaborations and research partnerships. The university currently hosts 7 University Centers of Excellence (U-CoEs) and 13 Research Centers.
The goal of research in MMU is to explore new knowledge and commercialization of next generation infra- and info-structures, content, core competencies, services and products. With focus in providing seamless multimedia communication access for all, MMU hopes to provide users with state-of-the-art tools to manage knowledge effectively at work and at home. In addition, the focus is also given to gearing industry towards managing innovations in the new ICT centric digital economy. The research goal mentioned above is delivered through the following clusters:
(1) Engineering Cluster (infrastructure, ranging from materials to devices, signal processing to systems and supporting technologies like efficient energy generation)
(2) Computing and Informatics Cluster (infostructure ranging from high performance computing to information security and raw signal processing to ontology)
(3) Content and Knowledge Management (developing next generation info-structures to provide users with state-of-the-art tools to manage knowledge effectively) and
(4) Business Management (managing finances, human resources, business best practice and innovations in the digital economy)
Underlying the goal statement, and what puts these seemingly disparate domains together, is the aspiration to provide the proper environment to boost the country’s economic activities within the digital economy. One way to achieve this is to develop converging infrastructures or utilities, which will enable to transcend multiple and diverse multimedia platforms, communication protocols and human interfaces. We will also provide info-structures, in particular via tools, technologies and methodologies to support knowledge management (ranging from acquisition, through organization to application), finally, we will provide the framework for the management of all innovation towards the commercialization of all products and services resulting from the above.
Current International Collaborations
MMU has established an excellent climate for academic research collaboration as we believe that a university can grow better by having linkages with other top universities and institutions around the world. These collaborations include joint R&D, publication, consultancy, sponsorship, scholarship, exchange programs, franchise of programs and many other areas of co-operation.
The U-CoEs and Research Centers have formed research collaborations with many leading institutions in the world. For example, the Center for Photonics and Electronic Devices has a joint R&D collaboration with City University London and University of Southampton in the area of fiber optic sensors and optical sensor networks.
The i-Knowmedia Center has a specific goal to be a center of excellence for innovation in the areas of creative content, multimedia, knowledge management and lifelong learning with global recognition. The center has recently formed a partnership with Hong Kong Polytechnic University. In this collaboration, the Chairman of the center becomes an affiliate member of Knowledge Management Expert. In addition to this, this partnership also involves research visits, exchange student and joint R&D projects.
The Center for Remote Sensing and Surveillance Technologies aims to promote the growth of research and development in the areas of advanced remote sensing and surveillance technologies. The underlying technologies are dominated by advanced countries and are mostly classified. Hence, the engagement of external experts from Chiba University and JICA for consultancy has helped the center tremendously in enhancing researchers’ capabilities.
As part of our effort to promote internationalizations as well as to increase social networking between MMU and foreign partner institutions, MMU has established student exchange programs for both undergraduate and postgraduate students. The undergraduate exchange program is coordinated by the Institutional and International Collaboration Unit. The postgraduate exchange program, on the other hand, is coordinated by the Research & Collaboration Office. To date, over 1000 students have participated in undergraduate and postgraduate inbound/outbound exchange/internship programs or short courses. A successful example is the ongoing international internship program with the University of Electro-Communications (UEC).
MMU has also established the dual PhD program recently, in collaboration with two foreign universities, namely, TELECOM Ecole de Management, France, and University of Palermo, Italy. Under this dual PhD program, the candidate shall register in both MMU and the partner university where the main supervisor shall be from MMU and the co-supervisor shall be from the partner university. The candidate will be awarded one PhD degree parchment from MMU, and second PhD degree parchment from the partner university stating that the PhD degree is in association with MMU.
In order to promote research in the selected areas and to provide a platform for researchers, scholars and practitioners to exchange new ideas, MMU regularly hosts international conferences. Amongst those organized recently are:
- The 4th International Conference on Provable Security (ProvSec 2010) held on October 13-15, 2010. Please visit
http://fist.mmu.edu.my/provsec2010/.
- The 9th International Conference on Cryptology and Network Security (CANS 2010) held on December 12-14, 2010. Please visit
http://fist.mmu.edu.my/cans2010/.
- The 16th Pacific-Asia Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (PAKDD 2012) held on May 29-June 1, 2012. Please visit
http://pakdd2012.pakdd.org/.
MMU will organize the International Conference on Informatics and Creative Multimedia 2013 (ICICM 2013) on September 3-6, 2013 as well. Please visit
http://icicm.mmu.edu.my/.
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| Fig.2 CANS2010 participants at the opening session |
Fig.3 PAKDD2012 participants listening to the Keynote Speech |
Call for Collaboration
In order to move the research base onto a sustainable long-term footing, MMU will continue its pursuit of international network and collaboration. MMU looks forward to strengthen its regional and global linkages through research and academic collaborations. To learn more about Multimedia University, please visit
http://www.mmu.edu.my
Note by IEICE-TFIPP (Kenzo Takahashi, Prof.)
The author received her Doctor of Engineering degree from Tokyo Institute of Technology in 2004. She serves MMU as Vice President (R&D) now. Her research interests include Cryptography and Information Security. She was the Program Chair of ProvSec 2010 and CANS 2010. Her article based on her excellent academic activities will surely encourage younger generation for their prosperous future and collaborations. (cf. IEICE Special Issue, Vol.92, No.5, pp.336-342, 2009 for the background of MMU)
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