Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and Universitas Hasanuddin (UNHAS) in Makassar, Indonesia, continue to engage in various joint activities as a means of further strengthening the collaboration between the two institutions, particularly in the research field.

Recently, UNHAS, through its Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences (FMIPA), successfully hosted a visit from three UTM lecturers under the visiting academic scheme.

During the five-day visit, from February 19-23, 2024, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zainul Akmar Zakaria and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Muhammad Abbas Ahmad Zaini, both from the Faculty of Chemical and Energy Engineering, and Dr. Mohd. Firdaus Abdul Wahab, from the Faculty of Science, were given the opportunity to deliver three separate sharing sessions with the staff and students of FMIPA, which includes the Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, and Biology departments.

On February 19-20, 2024, Dr. Zainul and Dr. Abbas jointly delivered a short workshop on “International Journal Writing” to young staff and postgraduate students (mostly) of FMIPA. The session was well received by the audience, with 34 registered participants.

The following day, Dr. Firdaus held a session titled “Responsible Conduct in Research” for a similarly large number of student and staff participants. The lively session, conducted in an interactive environment, was highly successful in inculcating a responsible and ethical culture in carrying out research work.

On Thursday, February 22, 2024, all three UTM lecturers were honored to deliver a public lecture to students and staff of FMIPA. In the half-day session, Dr. Zainul presented on “Harnessing Chemicals and Useful Processes from Liquid and Solid Agricultural Wastes”, Dr. Abbas discussed “Activated Carbon Research – Biomass Materials, Synthesis Strategies, and Future Directions”, and Dr. Firdaus spoke about “Microbiomes of Biological Waste Conversion into Bioenergy.”

There were also meeting sessions between UTM’s delegation and the management committee of FMIPA, core members of different departments, as well as visits to laboratories and facilities available at the faculty. From the meeting, Dr. Amiruddin, Dean of FMIPA, expressed his delight at the ongoing collaboration between UTM and UNHAS, particularly with FMIPA, and is already looking forward to more collaborations in the future.

For the record, this academic visit trip is part of the activities made possible from the signing of an MoU between UTM and UNHAS in 2021, with Prof. Dr. Muhammad Zaly Shah from the Faculty of Built Environment and Surveying (FABU) as UTM’s Resource Person for the MoU.