CIPTA 2017 Discusses Innovation for Sustainable Economy
In conjunction with the Crown Prince CIPTA Award Competition 2017, a seminar themed 'Innovation for Sustainable Economy' was held today at Lecture Theatre 2, Universiti Teknologi Brunei (UTB).
At the start of the Seminar, Dr Tan Soon Jiann, Director of Centre for Transport (CfTR), as Co-Head of the Seminar Committee delivered the welcoming remarks. Professor Lars Ingvar Bergkvist, Professor of Marketing from the UTB School of Business moderated the Seminar.
The first presentation entitled ‘Green Innovations in Product Design and Research’ was presented by Associate Professor Dr. Chong Wen Tong from the University of Malaya, Malaysia. He has filed 12 intellectual property rights, and won the First Prize at the National Intellectual Property Award 2016 (Patent Category). He was awarded ‘Energy Invention Order of Merit’ at the World Inventor Award Festival 2012.
In his presentation, Associate Professor Dr. Wen Tong introduced green innovation design as a new design method widely-accepted in the western developed countries. The design makes full use of resources including renewable energy sources and make the designed products consume the least energy sources in their whole life-cycle. It also considers how to eliminate or minimize pollution, and consider the economic benefits created by the product from the point of view of sustainable development. He also shared a few green innovations that he has developed, which include the Cross-Axis-Wind TurbineTM, that wonFirst Prize at the National Intellectual Property Award, AHIN 2016 in the Patent Category, Eco-GreeneryTM Outdoor Lighting System, Eco Living Green Wall System, and Solar-Powered Turbine Ventilator.
The second presentation was delivered by Professor Stephen Tyson, Chair Professor of Petroleum Engineering at UTB with the title ‘30 Years of Innovation in the Petroleum Industry – Where Are We Heading?’. Professor Stephen Tyson was previously the Chair of Subsurface Modelling in the School of Earth Sciences, Chair of Geosciences at the Centre for Coal Seam Gas and Director of the Centre for Geoscience Computing at the University of Queensland. He has more than 30 years of industry experience working in reservoir characterization and modelling in the oil and gas industry. His current research interests are in model validation, verification and acceptance criteria for both static and dynamic models, and the variability of petro-physical properties at different scales, uncertainty modelling, spatio-temporal data analytics and non-linear geo-statistics. Professor Tyson is a Chartered Mathematician and a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), and the European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers (EAGE).
In his presentation, Professor Stephen Tyson spoke about some of the changes in the petroleum industry over the last 30 years and their implications for engineering students. He also talked about the future of innovation in the industry, and suggested on the anticipated skills gaps, and career opportunities. He also explained on the impact of falling or volatile energy prices on the industry and in particular, innovation and recruitment, as the petroleum industry does not behave quite as expected in such situations.
Professor Mahmoud Moghavvemi from the University of Malaya, delivered a presentation entitled ‘Our Humble Journey Towards Innovation’. He is the founder and current director of the Centre for Research in Applied Electronics (CRAE) at the University of Malaya. He currently teaches in the Department of Electrical Engineering and published more than 250 articles in scholarly journals and conferences. Professor Mahmoud has earned 53 medals from national and international exhibitions, and more than 40 patents to his credit in the area of invention and innovation. His latest project is on the usage of brain signals to form commands, helping the paralyzed individuals to communicate with electronic items around them.
In his presentation, he made a distinction between invention and innovation, where invention is the first occurrence of an idea for a new product, and innovation is the creative solution to carry it out into practice – a process of transforming the new ideas, into new products and services in order to enhance people’s life. He also shared with the audience, his research experience, past inventions and his current ongoing projects at the Centre of Research in Applied Electronics (CRAE), University of Malaya.
The three speakers were also members of the judging panel during the ‘Participant’s Presentation and Judges Evaluation Stage’ of the Crown Prince CIPTA Award 2017 competition that took place on 28 & 29 March 2017 at Universiti Teknologi Brunei.
