Ningxia Vocational and Technical University for Cutting-Edge Vision and AI Workshop

KUALA LUMPUR, 23 May 2026 – In a significant step toward fostering international academic collaboration and advancing technological expertise, Tunku Abdul Rahman University of Management and Technology (TAR UMT) recently hosted a delegation from Ningxia Vocational and Technical University for an intensive two-day workshop on "Vision and Artificial Intelligence Processing Application."

Held from 22 to 23 May 2026, the event took place at the WorldSkills Training Centre within TAR UMT’s Integrated Innovation Hub (I2Hub). Organized by Advance Retro Solution Sdn Bhd (ARS), the workshop brought together a delegation of 12 participants, comprising 10 students and 2 teachers with an equal gender split of six males and six females, for a deep dive into practical AI and computer vision applications.

The visitation commenced on Friday morning with a warm welcoming ceremony led by Prof. Ts Dr Tew Yiqi, followed by a guided tour of the historical TAR UMT Gallery. The technical training, spearheaded by TAR UMT lecturers Ms Joan Hau and Mr Wong Wai Zhong, kicked off immediately after. Utilizing Raspberry Pi hardware and USB cameras, the morning session introduced the visiting students to computer vision fundamentals, color recognition spaces (RGB vs. BGR), and real-time facial recognition using Haar Cascades.

Following a lunch break at the FM Cafe, the afternoon session shifted toward the Internet of Things (IoT). Students explored the Node-RED visual programming environment and learned to interface hardware components like LEDs and LCD 1602 screens using the Thonny IDE. The day culminated in a hands-on capstone project where students successfully programmed a system where real-time facial detection automatically triggered an LED light and displayed custom messages on an LCD screen.

The second day shifted focus from local edge devices to cloud-based artificial intelligence. The morning session saw participants utilizing Google Colab to dive into Tabular Machine Learning. Using a Heart Disease Prediction dataset, students conducted Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) and evaluated model performance using Random Forest algorithms and F1 scores. The session concluded with students validating their models through a 10-point Graphical User Interface (GUI) test case.

The final leg of the workshop ventured into cutting-edge deep learning. Participants learned the intricate process of mapping local USB cameras to cloud-based Google Colab environments. They utilized Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) via Google's MediaPipe for sophisticated real-time hand pose estimation and full human skeleton tracking. To make AI more accessible, the trainers also introduced Google's Teachable Machine, enabling the students to build and train custom vision models without writing code. For their final task, students exported these custom models back into Google Colab to execute real-time, personalized detections.

The successful two-day event concluded with a closing ceremony presided over by Prof Dr Tew, where the delegates from Ningxia Vocational and Technical University were presented with certificates of achievement and official TAR UMT memorabilia. "This workshop not only provided high-value technical skills in AI and computer vision but also strengthened international ties between our institutions," noted the organizing team.