By: Dr. Siti Fatimah Mohamad
PHILIPPINES, July 24– A total of 66 faculty members from eight ‘Southeast Asian University Consortium for Graduate Education in Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC)’ universities gathered at the SEARCA headquarters for the first UC Faculty Forum, here.
Researchers from eight universities including Bogor Agricultural Institute, Gadjah Mada University, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), University of the Philippines Los Baños, Kasetsart University, Tokyo University of Agriculture, National Taiwan University and University of Brawijaya Indonesia gathered and exchanged research ideas and developed sharing strategy for future collaboration.
The forum was co-hosted by SEARCA and the University of the Philippines Los Baños.
The conference, entitled ‘Facing the Challenges of the Fourth Industrial Revolution’, showcased four plenary speakers while 43 papers were presented in parallel sessions under four sub-themes.
UPM researchers who presented were Dr. Juwaidah Sharifuddin (Faculty of Agriculture), Dr. Siti Izera Ismail (Faculty of Agriculture), Dr. Ahmad Suhaizi Mat Su (Faculty of Agriculture), Dr. Muhammad Heikal Ismail (Faculty of Engineering), Dr. Siti Fatimah Mohamad (Faculty of Food Science and Technology) and Dr. Noris Mohd. Norowi (Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology).
Dr. Juwaidah and Dr. Muhammad Heikal were invited to a roundtable session to discuss important strategic cooperation among UC members.
Among proposals presented were cross-visits, research supervisions, joint research, research on cross-border topics such as studies involving the Mekong River or the South China Sea and the extension of the current UC projects i.e. the Master of Science in Food Safety and Climate Change (MSFSCC), and the Doctoral programme of Science in Food Safety and Climate Change (DSFSCC). – UPM
