Centre for ICT Innovations and Creativity (CICTIC)

RC Lead: Ts. Ong Jia Hui

Location: FOCS Laboratories, Block B, TAR UMT Main Campus

i. Objectives

The objectives of the Centre are to:

ii. Vision Statement

To become an outstanding ICT Innovations and Creativity Centre by:

iii. Rationale and Research Plan

The use of digital technologies has become a norm nowadays. There is a need to do more research and development to create more innovative and creative digital technologies solutions to enhance the quality of every individual’s life, increase business productivity and promote economic growth for every nation. There is also a need to produce more ICT and Computer Science talents as well as more technopreneurs to head towards digital nation and support the ICT ecosystems.

Research plan for Centre of ICT Innovations and Creativity is mainly to work with collaborative partners (IHLs or industry) to conduct further research and development in the area of computer science and ICT as listed below (not an exhaustive list):

To produce innovative, creative and commercial-viable products/technologies and to promote technopreneurship.

iv. Research Group

There are 4 research groups and 1 entrepreneurial support centre within CICTIC:

Digital Innovations and Platform Development Group

Workgroup Leader: Dr. See Kwee Teck

This research group aims to develop commercial viable or innovative product/platform by tapping on the synergy of academia-industry collaboration; and to provide the base or foundation for possible research work under relevant research groups/centres.

Aims:

Focus Areas (Applications Development):

Immersive Design and Interactive Software Development Group


Workgroup leader: Mr. Andrew Tan Khin Huat

This working group aims to provide a platform for research and development in the area of multimedia, immersive design, mixed reality, interactive software and games to develop commercial-viable products with close collaboration with the industry and academia.

Aims:

Focus Areas (Applications Development):


Smart and Entrepreneurship Education Research Group

Workgroup leader: Dr Glaret Shirley a/p Sinnappan

Project topics include adaptive learning system that enables learning environment for programming class with adapted materials to learners’ pace and performance, educational revision quiz games, intelligent classroom system that develop an interactive classroom using Internet of Things technology, Robot Tutor and Mobile. Examples of applications include IELTS Listening Test to allow english listening test to be conducted using a mobile phone, stress detection during e-learning using non-invasive devices. As IBM Technologies Research Group-IBM Centre of Excellence (for Software),awarded to the Faculty of Computing and Information Technology since 2011, this research group also aims to nurture specialized human resources to meet the demands of the industries, and to add value to students and lecturers’ skill-sets via professional development workshops, training and research work.

Aims:

Focus Area (Research and Development):

Entrepreneurial and Commercialization Support Group

Workgroup leader: Voo Nyuk Mee 

With close collaboration with DIPD, IDIS, SEER, and other Research Centres in the Faculty of Computing and Information Technology (FOCS), this support group aims to work together with TAR UMT Centre For Business Incubation And Entrepreneurial Ventures (CBIEV)  to commercialize innovative product/platform by tapping on the synergy of academia-industry collaboration; and to provide a base or foundation for possible research work related to viable academic research commercialisation and student entrepreneurship. The working group conducts research on guidelines, best practice, policy, intellectual property protection, industrial funding and licensing, start ups, and any other relevant problems. As IBM-FASC Entrepreneurial Support Centre, awarded to FOCS since 2014,this group also aims to incubate innovative ideas using IBM technologies by TAR UMT students, staff, alumni or SME/SMIs and to carry out entrepreneur and incubator programs incorporating IBM Technologies (where appropriate) with the objective of producing technopreneurs.

Aims:

Focus Area (Research and Development):

v. Achievement in the past 10 years

• IBM-FASC Entrepreneurial Support Centre by IBM in 2014
• Industry Center of Excellence (ICoE) in ICT cluster in 2013 by MOHE
• The Most Engaged IHL Industry Academia Collaboration 2012 by MDeC
• IBM Center of Excellence Status for software by IBM in 2011
• TAR UMT as STEM CS Evaluator appointed by Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy (CMRA) in 2017

vi. Industry-Academic Collaboration

Collaboration with companies to provide real life projects for Final Year Project from time to time.

• MoU between Innotech 360 Sdn Bhd in 2011 for the collaboration in the area of Virtual Reality project via course assignment
• MOA signed between TAR UMT and Easyjoy Entertainment Sdn Bhd in 2015 to develop Bus Tracking System. Beta Launch of TARC EzRide App in 2017
• MOA signed among TAR UMT and UMCH Technology Sdn Bhd, SAS Alumni acting through FASC in 2015 to develop Fitness App
• A consultancy agreement to be signed between TAR UMT and PageJoint to develop online commissioning system in 2019
• A consultancy agreement to be signed between TAR UMT and Cardzone to develop chatbot for online banking system in 2019
• MoU to be signed between TAR UMT and Kian Joo Can Factory Berhad to digitise business operations for manufacturing in 2019

vii. Industry-Academic Activities

• Organized FOCS Symposium 2018 to promote innovation and entrepreneurship among students, get students to pitch to the industry. Invited MDEC and Professor Woon-Seng GAN from NTU to conduct a sharing session on smart city
• Organized FOCS Symposium 2019 to conduct forum, showcase digital innovations of students and to provide a platform for students to embark on entrepreneurship. Invited MDEC and Huawei to conduct a sharing session on how technology driving innovation
• Co-organized International Conference on Digital Transformation and Applications (ICDXA2020) that includes public workshops, digital innovations showcase, industrial conference and academic conference

viii. Start-ups Launching

Boxify

On 20 August 2018, staff, students and representatives from the industry witnessed a milestone event at TAR UMT, the launch of Boxify, the very first iSpark entrepreneurial start-up at TAR UMT. Boxify is a project by students of FOCS that attempts to solve problems of goods delivery issues between TAR UMT and business vendors (reference: https://www.tarc.edu.my/news.jsp?cat_id=56EBCDAD-D3D4-4D3B-8AC4-44CAF115AE1E&fmenuid=63470210-0077-4156-8326-47DE252878A7&news_id=99BADF84-C9EA-470F-AB4C-9EBDFA69681A ) 

Cashierbook

The app is the latest entrepreneurial idea under CBIEV’s iSpark programme and it was launched on 29 August 2018. Cashierbook is a platform which utilises Social Media Analytics and Blockchain technology to enable super-fast and highly secured intelligent e-commerce transactions. The target users for this app are the end consumers as well as retailers who can confidently utilise the Cashierbook platform for genuine and authentic online transactions with added intelligent technologies for a targeted and effective e-commerce experience.

 Tapfood

TapFood, which was developed by the Faculty of Computing and Information Technology (‘FOCS’) students Ang Ying Xing, Khor Jun Xian, Goh Yi Xun and Johnson Lim Wei Jun, aims  to provide a secure and efficient online platform for ordering food and beverages that will significantly reduce waiting time and simplify the ordering process. Its e-wallet feature allows for a convenient payment system and also provides a seamless transaction tracking system for business vendors.