Innovation Report: What makes up the DNA of University Teknologi MARA and what are your priorities for the university’s future development?

Dr. Hajah Roziah Mohd Janor: UITM is the largest public university in Malaysia with 187,000 students. We have students from the pre-university level all the way to the Ph.D. level. 70 percent of our students are undergraduate to Ph.D. level students. We have grown in leaps over the decades because we became a university in 1999. Our research work, therefore, began in 1999 before which, we were purely a teaching institution. We have been updating our mission statement since then and at the moment we have a clear mission and vision for the institution. 

Our vision is to establish UITM as a globally renowned University of Science, Technology Humanities, and Entrepreneurship. We also have a clearly defined mission, which is to lead the development of agile professional bumiputras through state-of-the-art curricula and impactful research. In a nutshell, we want to produce financially independent students through research and innovation. 

Innovation Report: What does innovation mean within the Malaysian context and what does it mean to Universiti Teknoloji Mara?

Dr. Hajah Roziah Mohd Janor: We must build capacity as a nation through innovation and research. At UITM, we have made it our mission to spearhead this agenda. We are pursuing this agenda with our values front and center. Our values are visible across this country that only has a population of 32 million people. UITM has two campuses in each of Malaysia’s 14 states. This has made our presence and our values very apparent. 

Our three core values are excellence, synergy, and integrity. Excellence and integrity are a must for any institution that hopes to remain relevant for the foreseeable future. Synergy is a core value that we look to build on both internally and externally. We built synergies externally by sending 257 faculty members to visit several international institutions. Our people have been to the United States, Canada, the UK, and some other European countries, to see if there are opportunities to build partnerships. It’s been an expensive outreach strategy that has cost us over 3 million Ringgit. We are glad we did though, because we are now beginning to earn dividends from that move. 

Just this week, we received a delegation from the US-based MIT University. The delegation was happy to visit our campuses and our research station in Tavangngara. This visit will lead to a lot of ideas and developments in our artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning initiatives. This will help us stay ahead of the curve in emerging technologies. 

Innovation Report: What role do university-industry partnerships play in shaping Malaysia’s future and what do you consider key to a successful partnership?

Dr. Hajah Roziah Mohd Janor: We are not only working on partnership deals with international institutions. Working with local industries is also part of our agenda and long-term plan. Our approach is different from the norm. We don’t go out looking for industrial players, we bring them into the university instead. This approach helps students learn directly from the industry so that they are always updated on what the market wants. 

This approach informed the creation of our Micro-industry hub. The hub exists to enable both industry players and students to build strength in people, knowledge, skills, and experiences. That development would foster a better understanding of technology and the market situation. Our hub is focused on not just innovation and new ideas, but structuring them in the right way. It’s all about solving problems in a systematic way.

Our system involves a 9-point strategic focus that also involves industrial partners. Following the creation of the idea, the nine points of focus are; 

• Basic research 
• Technology formulation 
• Needs validation 
• Large scale prototype 
• Small scale prototype 
• Prototype system 
• Full commercial application 
• First-of-a-kind commercial system
• Demonstration system. 

These nine points are supported by our industry partners, especially in the ideation, prototyping, validation, and production stages. We are also heavily into research on the academic side. We have 523 research programs in environmental and societal challenges. Our research nexus here includes disciplines such as cyber technology, energy & environment, health & wellness, industrial technology, social creativity and innovation, and logistics and transportation. 

Our logistics research has attracted the attention of the Rotterdam Institute, and we had a delegation visit our centre a couple of weeks ago. We have also moved further along in our cyber technology agenda by launching our nanosatellite, which is a significant milestone. Another significant milestone is in the field of energy and environment, where our solar farm was recognised as the largest in the country. 

We don’t pursue our research agenda in a silo. UITM is cognizant of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) defined by the United Nations, and we are tethering our developments to those. I openly talk about them in talk shows and podcasts such as “Coffee with Rosy.” Making it interactive and relaxed like that resonates even more with students. 

Our pursuit of SDG goals will be determined by our success in involving all stakeholders, mainly the industry. We have a five-point guide on how to get this done; involving agencies and members of society, establishing the right ecosystem, giving value and impact to citizens, and achieving balanced goals of sustainability.

Involving agencies is not just about getting their money but also their trust. Establishing the right ecosystem will involve the government. The government must give incentives so that we can pursue all the agendas that matter in a conducive environment. 

Innovation Report: You mentioned that you have one of the largest solar farms in the country. What is the level of awareness and engagement with the private sector when it comes to progressing sustainable goals, switching towards renewable energy and regenerative agriculture practices?

Dr. Hajah Roziah Mohd Janor: Yesterday I attended a seminar related to energy and sustainability. My takeaway from that session is that stakeholders in our country are very serious about sustainability and meeting SDG goals. Many commitments have been made to complete our green projects such as the establishment of Shalam the “low carbon city.” UITM is ranked fourth in terms of green project development and our aim is to improve that ranking. 

We are also contributing to policy formulation so that the sustainability agenda is supported not just by rhetoric but by law. The next step is to make a contribution in terms of research to the signing of international pacts. It would be nice for research from this part of the world to inform how the world moves on this sustainability topic.

Innovation Report: What do you think Malaysia has to offer to make it stand out in terms of building useful international ties?

Dr. Hajah Roziah Mohd Janor: We can contribute immensely by providing capacity. We also have a wealth of tropical resources, including one of the oldest tropical forests in the world. So we are not short in terms of resources to offer in terms of research and the right environment. 

Innovation Report: How confident are you in the future of the institution?

Dr. Hajah Roziah Mohd Janor: I am confident that we will achieve even more milestones with a focused strategy. We feel that we have done a lot of good work, it’s just about letting the world know what we have and inviting the right partnerships. With the right support, funding, and strategy, we can become a notable institution side by side with the other top research universities in the world.