UNIMAS praised for involvement in high-technology

Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) was praised by Chief Minister Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib Mahmud for being at the heart of the state’s high-tech activities.

In his speech read out by Datuk Sri Wong Soon Koh, Second Minister of Finance, he also said: “Looking at the incubation facilities for high tech startups and in addressing the state’s human resource development needs especially in the ICT and Engineering sectors, Unimas’ involvement will be of great benefit to the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE) which targets a total of 1.6 million jobs to be created and 10 social and commercial sectors to be opened the benefit of the people.” “With globalisation, and even with the economy slowdown, there is essential need to turn to the ICT industry to spur the economy.

The country and the state are still short of competent skilled IT and Engineering professionals.

UNIMAS was encouraged to play a role in the state to contribute to producing skilled and knowledgeable workers to ‘lead the people’.

Wong was officiating the opening of the 7th International Conference on IT in Asia (CITA) organised by UNIMAS held at the Hilton Hotel Kuching yesterday.

Numerous keynote speakers representing local and foreign professionals shared and exchanged ideas and information relating to the expanding roles of ICT as well as obstacles faced in the region.

Co-sponsored by the IEEE Computer Society, the theme of CITA 2011 is ‘Emerging Convergences and Singularity of Forms’.It will see keynote speakers such as Prof Bebo White of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Centre (SLAC) a division of Stanford University USA, Prof.Dr.Leon Sterling of Swinburne University, Australia, Prof.Dr Yoshiyori Urano of Waseda University, Japan, presenting various working papers during the 3-day conference from the 12th to 14th July 2011.

Held simultaneously with the IT conference is the International Workshop on Internalisation of Products and Systems (IWIPS 2011).

According to an IWIPS press release, Dr.Patrick Larvie of Google USA will be presenting on, “What trade history reveals about the internet and how ketchup can teach us to do our jobs better”.

Over 75 participants from around the world coming from developing and developed countries such as Cameroon, Ghana, Nepal, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Uzbekistan, Brazil, UK, Saudi Arabia, Japan and Brunei attended the conference.