SKM2300 2nd Assignment (Animation) Presentation

23 April 2017 - SKM2300 students presented their second assignment to the class today. Their assignment was to produce an animated Public Service Announcement (PSA), .e.g. Dengue, Diabetes, Drugs, Smoking, etc. In addition to presenting their finished animation to the class, they were required to submit a CD containing the rendered animated video and a document file with a list of references. Some of the topics that were chosen by students include Preserving Ocean Life, Suicide, Mental Health, Sexual Abuse of Children, Sexual Harrassment at Workplace, and Cyber Bullying. Students used tools such as Animaker, GoAnimate, Powtoon and Renderforest to create their work.

Note: SKM2300 is an introductory class to Multimedia, offered to non-computing students. This semester's students are from the Biotechnology students.

FSKTM's Putra Future Classroom

26 April 2017 - Expanding another chapter of Putra Future Classroom had been discussed recently, and FSKTM was selected to carry the project through. Several keypersons who are currently researching in the education, e-learning, virtual classroom, smart classroom, and other related fields were grouped together in a PFC committee.

Last Thursday, a second meeting was held. In short, a 36-months road map was drafted to set the goals of FSKTM's PFC. It is hoped that the first phase will be completed by December 2018.

Monthly Group Supervision - April 2018

20 April 2018 - The monthly group meeting was held today at 11 a.m., at Bilik Seminar C. Agendas covered include

1. Welcoming Kogila to the group
2. Congratulating Teo's and Ong's successes on their respective vivas (3 April and 17 April)
3. Brief progress update from everyone
4. Post-viva sharing session from Teo and Ong
5. Future plans - activities, publications, grants, etc

Meeting ended around 1 p.m. A lunch of Nasi Arab was included.

NYAWA '18 Second Meet Up

20 April 2018 - Attended the 2nd NYAWA'18 upon chance this afternoon, as prompted by Dr. Haniff Bahrin of UKM, who had worked together with me on a NYAWA '16 project. This year, we are entering again, proposing something related to motion on the land and sensors in the sky, to match this year's title 'From Earth to Sky'. Around twenty people presented their ideas that afternoon, and all being considered thoroughly by Mr. Nasir, the curator. Proud to mention that there were a very number of turn up from FSKTM this year, particularly from the CGV2 group. Hopefully all the projects get the greenlight from the curator.

Such exciting projects lie ahead. Will keep this space posted as the project progresses.

Hard At Work Understanding Hard Concepts

Here are some photos that could make any lecturer's heart melt. SKM4212 (Audio Video Digitization) is not known to be an easy subject. The concepts of digital audio, in particular, is challenging to digest, at best.Students typically struggle as they could not for the life of them visualize what is going on with these sound signals. Last lesson was particularly tough, when the concepts of Waveform, Spectrum and Spectrogram were discussed. However, towards the end of the lesson, this was spotted.

Yup,  a student helping a fellow student on this matter. Digitally, no less.

This made me smile all the way back to my office.

SKM2300 Assignment 1 (Video) Presentation

16 April 2018 - SKM2300 students presented their 1st assignment to the class. The students were asked to produce movie parody of 2 - 3 minutes of the movie teaser or a certain scene of the movie. All group members must appear in the short movie. If it is a parody of non-English movie, they must add subtitles.In the end they had to submit a CD per group containing the recorded raw clips and all other materials used for the final video, the final edited video and the original video (to be compared with the parody produced). The parodies included scenes from well-known films such as Frozen, Harry Potter, Munafik, The Conjuring, Goblin and Zootopia.

Note: SKM2300 is an introductory class to Multimedia, offered to non-computing students. This semester's students are from the Biotechnology students.

Congratulations to Ong Beng Liang on Successfully Passing His Viva Voce

17 April 2018 - Congratulations to Ong Beng Liang, who passed his Master viva last Tuesday with minor correction. His thesis is entitled "Using Continuous Line Bezel Correction with Rotatable Orientation In Collaborative Activities on the Multi-mobile System". The viva was held at Bilik Viva 3, School of Graduate Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia. Ong's examiners were Prof. Dr. Rahmita Wirza (Internal - UPM) and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Murni Mahmud (External - IIUM) with Assoc. Prof. Dr. Fatimah Khalid as the Chairperson.

Deep Learning Technology Talk

This is a throwback.

9 February 2018 - Several faculty members went on the Deep Learning Technology Short Course held at MaGIC Cyberjaya (Malaysian Global and Innovation Centre). Tarun Sukhani was invivted as the speaker, and the materials lightly covered for the day included a preview to Artificial Neural Networks, Convolutional Neural Networks, Recurrent Neural Networks, and Self-Organizing Maps.

Putra Future Clasroom Project

Our GridMode project was selected to be one of the collaborating researchers for the Putra Future Classroom project. Putra Future Classroom is  a centre of reference for best technology integrators in teaching and learning for all parties, both locally and internationally. Putra Future Classroom uses the latest teaching and learning approaches which are interactive and blended and use virtual realities, internet of things, data analytics and artificial intelligence. It will serve as a launching and test pad of a 21st century classroom or lecture room sample that will always adapt changes in line with its goals. On the 18 February 2018, UPM's Vice Chancellor, Prof. Dr. Aini Ideris held a Soft Launch of PFC, while on the 22 February 2018, a live broadcast from PFC to UPM’s Dewan Besar was held during Vice Chancellor Yearly Address 2018.

It is such an honour to be part of this massive project. Many thanks to Prof. Dr. Rahmita Wirza for opening up the channel to collaborate with Assoc. Prof. Dr Samsilah Roslan (Putra Sains Park) and also Dr. Mas Nida Md. Khamberi on this PFC project. Thanks also to my two Master students, Ong Beng Liang and Teo Rhun Ming who were the core researchers on this project.

Here are some pics of the discussions and shootings and rehearsals leading up to the day.

Here is the official video of the launched PFC. My group's project (GridMode), can be viewed at 0:19 to 0:32.

Monthly Group Supervision - March 2018

Supervision is now conducted at two levels: (1) weekly, personal meetings and (2) monthly, group meeting. In the group meeting, everyone is expected to attend and it opens up opportunities for everyone to re-cap their milestones as well as a chance to socialize with the group mates.

Last 16 March 2018, the second group meeting of the semester was had where Master student Ong Beng Liang presented his work. The presentation was two fold, to act as a pre-viva practice session for Ong who had just submitted his thesis in February, and also as an introduction to his work for the newer students who joined my supervision. In general, Ong needs to improve on his presentation skills and amendment is advised for slides (the content seemed too light and general to pass off as a viva slide. Fortunately, he has no viva date set yet, so he has time to fix it.

 After a light presentation and some Q&A, the group meeting ended with some potluck food. Next meeting is scheduled for mid April 2018, where Teo is due to present his slides.

Congratulations to Teo Rhun Ming on Successfully Passing His Viva Voce

3 April 2018 (Tuesday)

Teo Rhun Ming successfully defended his thesis this morning in a viva. His thesis title is "A Collocated Multi-mobile Collaborative System with Hover Connectivity Initiation and Seamless Multi-touch Interactivity". Examiners were: Dr. Novia Indriaty Admodisastro (Internal) and Dr. Masitah Ghazali (External), and the session was chaired by Dr. Fatimah Khalid. Prof. Dr. Rahmita Wirza O.K. Rahmat (co-supervisor) was also present for added support and encouragement. Massive congratulations, Teo!!!

Sorry for the Long Hiatus

Sorry for the lack of update. The main reason is due to this lovely bundle of joy:

Due to heavy morning sickness, this blog had to be abandoned to channel what left of my energy to focus on work. Now life seems to have adapted with an additional member, so hopefully, this blog can now be resumed. 

So many things have happened in the span of a year. Achievements, awards, projects completed, courses attended, grants approved, papers published, students recruited, etc. Slowly, in the form of throwbacks, they will receive a mention in the blog, as they deserve it.

In the meantime, this entry ends with a current pic of the highest achievement of last year - now already 6 months. The pregnancy was certainly a blessing and a catalyst that got many, many things done. 

I seldom write about personal stuff here, but this is an exception. Her name is Ayna, born on 29 September 2017, weighing 3.3 kg at birth, 3rd child, in case anyone is wondering. Love her to bits! <3 <3 <3