| Fizah HAB |
UNIVERSITI Teknologi Brunei (UTB) held a prize presentation ceremony for the winners of Science and Technology Week 2017 and a signing ceremony for the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between UTB and Petrokon Utama Sdn Bhd (PUSB) yesterday at UTB’s Lecture Theatre 2.
Attending as guest of honour was Pehin Orang Kaya Indera Pahlawan Dato Seri Setia Awang Haji Suyoi bin Haji Osman, the Minister of Education, as well as STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) participants from 12 secondary schools, participants of the Cyber Battle Competition, and invited guests.
The ceremony began with the recitations of Surah Al-Fatihah and Doa Selamat led by Ustaz Haji Abdul Malik bin Haji Jumat from the Religious Affairs Office, followed by a welcoming speech by Haji Ady Syarmin bin Haji Mohd Taib, the Assistant Vice-Chancellor (Industry and Services) of UTB, who highlighted the importance of promoting interest in STEM subjects to students.
“There is a global shortage of STEM workers, efforts to overcome this have gained momentum around the world and Brunei is no exception. In this regard, UTB is proud to be able to join the national effort to promote STEM interest amongst secondary students since this will further strengthen the STEM workforce pipeline for Brunei Darussalam,” said Haji Ady Syarmin.
The ceremony continued with a briefing on the Cyber Battle Competition by Shamsul Bahri bin Haji Kamis, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the ITPSS Sdn Bhd.
The computer hacking tournament, whose objective is to highlight the importance of cybersecurity and the need for information security specialists in Brunei Darussalam, will be the third such event to be organised by ITPSS Sdn Bhd, a local IT security firm.
Following the briefing was a prize presentation to winners of Science and Technology Week 2017, with team Alert(1) emerging as champions and awarded the top prize of $3,500 in addition to cybersecurity training by the SANS Institute.
Coming in second and third place were teams NZN and huroom, winning $2,500 and $1,500 respectively.
The event continued with the signing of the MoU between UTB and Petrokon Utama Sdn Bhd, which saw the renewing of cooperation between the two institutions.
This encompasses the sponsoring of research and development projects, joint supervision of student projects, the obtaining of perspectives in the development of engineering programmes structure in UTB’s efforts to align with industry needs and the accreditation requirements of relevant professional bodies, and the arrangement of industrial internships for UTB students in the engineering field.
Signing on behalf of UTB was Professor Dr Hajah Zohrah binti Haji Sulaiman, the Vice-Chancellor of UTB, and witnessed by Jennifer Hiew-Lim, the Registrar and Secretary of UTB, while PUSB was represented by Dato Paduka Haji Nordin bin Md Yussof, the Chairman and Managing Director of PUSB, and witnessed by Md Saney bin Haji Abdul Halim, the General Manager and Director of PUSB.
The guest of honour toured the Science and Technology Week 2017 exhibition at the library.
The Science and Technology Week 2017 is sponsored by Bank Islam Brunei Darussalam (BIBD) and Bits N Bytes Company.
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