UNITEN, March 15, 2017 – The College of Computer Science and Information Technology (CSIT), Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN) invited me to their 2017 meeting of the Industrial Advisory Panel (IAP) for the Bachelor of Computer Science (Systems and Networking) (Hons.).

It started with the briefing on BCS (SN) Programme structure and summary of 2016 IAP meeting outcome and action plan by HOD SN, Dr. Asmidar. It was followed by intensive feedback and discussion from various members from the industry and universities such as Western Digital, Microsoft, REDtone IOT, Cybersecurity Malaysia, Ofisgate, Uzma, Intel, UITM, UUM, UniKL and other.

Unlike some Universities who only elected one (1) or three (3) members, UNITEN invited many senior officials from various organizations as their IAP members. This greatly showed the level of commitment by UNITEN and their enthusiasm to get closer with the industry and making their courses more relevant to the current needs.

KUALA LUMPUR March 14, 2017 – MARA (Majlis Amanah Rakyat) invited me to their Academic Advisory Workshop to develop the new curriculum and syllabus for Internet of Things by giving some comments and advise on behalf of the industry.

What’s interesting is that their plan to offer one of the latest topic in the industry for their Diploma intake. It will definitely take sometime to prepare the full contents of their syllabus including the lab facilities, proper teaching materials and equipped their lecturers with the complete knowledge of IoT.

Due to the cross-discipline nature of IoT between Engineering and Computer Science Faculty, it has always become a big debate who will conduct the full IoT course. We approached the discussion based on the 7 Layers of OSI. Since IoT comprised of the first 4 layers (Sensors, actuators and connectivity) and the next upper 3 layers (applications and analytics), new syllabus content need to be developed.

It has always been a challenge by Higher Institutions to justify new and trendy curriculum as a course because they might be preparing the new graduates with competencies for jobs which are not in existence today (but will be big in future).