Mohamad Kadim (third left) and Abdul Aziz show the MoU as Djumic (right), Al-Khalid (left) and Wan Hashim look on.
KUCHING: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) and Geo Crete Specialist have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to explore collaborative opportunities.
“The collaboration is specifically aimed at exploring studies pertaining to construction on peat soils in Sarawak,” said Unimas vice chancellor Prof Dato Dr Mohamad Kadim Suaidi after the MoU signing ceremony at Unimas campus in Kota Samarahan yesterday.
Other areas of collaborations are to promote industrial postgraduate programme, joint supervision of industrial postgraduate students, joint organisation of consultancy and seminar, research grant application and several other activities to strengthen research, teaching and learning, he added.
“We are looking at several areas of collaboration. There will be joint supervision of postgraduates students at Masters and Phd levels. The area they want to collaborate is a rather important area in Sarawak, especially about construction on peat soil.
“A lot of research activities have been carried out by the faculty of engineering and the university. We need partners to look into this area,” said Mohamad Kadim.
Geo Crete works with Unimas on several postgraduate students to do research on Masters and Phd levels.
“We plan to jointly organise training and upskilling programmes. This is a very important area for Sarawak. People need to be trained and re-trained with new technology on construction on peat soil.
“Other areas that Geo Crete works with is to set up industrial laboratory. It’s good to have industrial-based laboratory in the university so that we will know what are the requirements of the industry in this area,” he said.
He said the establishment of industrial laboratory in the university would prepare the human capital for the industry.
“If we have industry partners collaborating very early on in the training and development of the students, we are meeting their requirements,” said Mohamad Kadim.
He also said Unimas’ industry partners support university programmes through industrial scholarships.
“We welcome that. We are working closely with industry partners in providing industrial scholarships to our postgraduate students and final-year undergraduate students,” he said.
Geo Crete has two Masters students enrolled in Unimas’ Masters programme. They will be studying road construction on peat soil.
Unimas deputy vice chancellor (Academic and International) Prof Dr Wan Hashim Wan Ibrahim, dean of the Faculty of Engineering Prof Ir Dr Al-Khalid Ohtman, Geo Crete Specialist chief executive officer Zoran Djumic and Geo Crete Specialist executive chairman Dato Sri Abdul Aziz Hassah were also present at the function.