Award Ceremony 2022

Tzy Hwan is the founder of the UNM Consulting Club, which provides UNM students insights into the consulting profession. He also formed and led his team to victory in a number of regional and international business case competitions such as the AixImpact by McKinsey & Company, L'Oréal Brandstorm Competition 2022 and the iCUBE Innovation Challenge by Maybank. In addition, Tzy Hwan served as a course representative for more than two years and chaired the Learning Community Forum in an effort to provide feedback, drive change and be the voice of his fellow coursemates. He also founded Laptop4All in 2020, which is a national student-led social enterprise to help raise funds for underprivileged students impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Since its inception, Laptop4All has raised more than RM20,000, with more than 20 underprivileged students receiving new laptops and gadgets needed for their studies. Tzy Hwan currently serves as the Managing Director of Rakan Tutor, a free online one-to-one tutoring initiative to support more than 250 underprivileged students.  

Pak-Yen co-founded Project Study Buddy, a non-profit organisation that provides accessible educational materials and tutoring for more than 35,000 SPM and IGCSE students across the world. She also co-founded Kabo Kite, an impact journalism project that is funded and endorsed by the European Union and supported by the local government in a bid to raise awareness of the social and environmental effects of tourism development projects in Terengganu. In addition, she coordinated an aid relief initiative that provided psychological first aid to the Hulu Langat flood victims under the Malaysian Counselling Association. Pak-Yen also spearheads the prestigious Malaysian Psychology Student Assembly 2022 as the publicity director, ensuring that the event runs smoothly while also promoting UNM’s academic laurels. Currently, Pak-Yen is drafting policies on pressing social concerns such as sexual harassment and custodial deaths while co-authoring a psychology student guide and an opinion editorial to discuss anti-discriminatory political campaigning policies for Malaysian Insight. Pak-Yen is also an Under-Secretary-General for the United Nations Association Malaysia, where she spearheaded the association’s speaker series that discusses health equity towards marginalised communities. She’s the owner of Skilldefyne, a startup that connects undergraduates to international and local projects.

Ramanath initiated the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering’s maiden tri-campus event - Intercampus Hangouts, which allowed UNM’s chemical engineering students to network and learn about campus life in different countries. He’s also the President of the IChemE Student Chapter and has strived to provide a fresh and global outlook to the engineering community of UNM during his tenure. In addition, Ramanath executed Pitch It Right!, Malaysia’s first student-led pitching competition that is based on real-time waste management issues. He also led the TEDxUoNMalaysia 2020 in over 37 internal and external events for UNM since 2020. Ramanath has received the Dean’s List Award for two consecutive years. He has developed a partnership with the YTL Foundation and refugee centres to conduct virtual English-speaking workshops for more than 100 refugee and local children in Sentul. Ramnath has also developed the curriculum with his team, and together with 60 other volunteer tutors, he carried out the programme for 2 months. Currently, Ramanath is attached to Rakan Tutor, a free online one-to-one tutoring initiative, as its Operations Director, where he works closely with Malaysian students across the world to execute mathematics tutoring projects for underprivileged SPM students. 

Professor Ali initiated the Centre of Excellence for Postharvest Biotechnology (CEPB) a cross-disciplinary research centre that focuses on the entire value chain of the fresh food produce. Professor Ali is a key figure in the international postharvest community. He is currently a world authority in the field of technologies related to edible coatings of fresh and semi-processed fresh fruits and vegetables. He is recognised as the Top 2% scientist by the Stanford list for his world-leading research in the area of food security. Professor Ali won several awards at local and international levels including the Rajesh Pilot memorial awards for an outstanding scientist in his field from India. He was one of the experts in the Rockefeller Foundation USD 120 million initiatives to reduce food waste and food losses in Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania and Ghana. He has published extensively in the area of Horticulture and Food Science, particularly rice physiology, production of fruit and vegetables, postharvest quality, some being ranked within the “Top 25 Hottest Articles by Science Direct” and the impact of research has been publicly disseminated through popular media outlets such as National Geographic and EarthSky Net, from Hungary and USA respectively, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and FarmingUK. Professor Ali and his team successfully developed gum arabic based edible coatings, an integrated solution that enhances the storage and shelf-life of tropical fruits and vegetables in a sustainable way. This invention was recently recognised as Eight Innovations Ending Food Loss in the Global South by the Foodtank, USA. 

Dr Marina Ng is the champion of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) where she has provided countless efforts in numerous STEM outreach activities to engage university, school, and community level. She is very passionate to enhance student learning opportunities and experiences through project-based/constructivist learning. Since 2014, she has developed and organised more than 100+ STEM events from school-level to international-level, trained staff and students to organise and run STEM events and conducted knowledge exchange activities for the best pedagogical practices and innovation used in STEM education. Through her collaboration with PetroSains, Yayasan IOI, Focus on the Family Malaysia, and Children’s Library Puchong, she has led an initiative to develop Community STEM Events using Mixed Reality Education which aimed to address the limited range of kids-centre computation tools and activities in computing. She is also very keen to help students with special needs and to nurture their interests in STEM. Through her STEM projects, she developed coloured object tracking to improve literacy for dyslexia students and also developed mobile and tangible systems for spastic children. Overall, her initiatives have benefited more than 1,000 students.

Belle initiated ‘Students’ Continuing Personal Development (s-CPD)’ scheme to encourage lifelong learning of transferable skills through extra-curricular activities. Being the main founder of the s-CPD scheme, she continuously gets input from stakeholders and liaises with university’s careers advisory service, student societies as well as the industries to develop activities for students. A holistic system which includes policies and information technology infrastructure have been developed for better monitoring of this scheme. The scheme was rolled out to all 1500 engineering students in Academic Year 2016/17 and later to another four schools in Faculty of Science and Engineering. The impact of the scheme is now felt over nine Schools/Departments in the Faculty. It went from school-organized activities to student-organized activities, from a few professional-run workshops to many student-run hands-on workshops (seniors to juniors). Students are involved not only by participating but also organizing events. Through these, students have diversified experiences that enhance their employability. Based on the last statistics in s-CPD portal, about 30% of graduates were awarded s-CPD prizes and more than 50% of first year students are actively engaged in s-CPD activities. An NAA module ‘Lifelong Learning for Engineers’ has also been developed for students to formally record their reflection on their learning through participation in s-CPD scheme.

Hui Ling has continually excelled as she progressed from Foundation studies at UNM to the current final year of her PhD. Her exceptional achievements in research and knowledge exchange related to microplastic pollution as a PGR form the basis for this nomination. Hui Ling has also enhanced the reputation of the University, and had a positive impact on students, staff and our local community. These achievements have been sustained over the course of the past years – demonstrating in her supervisors words “perseverance, initiative, and never give up attitude” – and have thus supported our response to the pandemic. She has given webinars and talks for the Institution of Engineers Malaysia, as well as UNM’s Sustainable Environmental Education Network. Hui Ling has also collaborated with The Habitat Foundation, a Malaysian non-for-profit organisation, aiming to educate primary and secondary school students about plastics and microplastics, as well as the importance of science and research. In conjunction with World Children’s Day, Hui Ling was invited to be a youth panellist for a panel discussion on issues related to plastic pollution. This was organised by the British High Commission (BHC) in Kuala Lumpur as part of their ‘Green is Great’ plastics campaign. Hui Ling was later featured by the BHC in conjunction with International Women’s Day, where she also shared her thoughts on women’s contributions to science. In the area of academic engagement, supporting both impact and reputation, Hui Ling contributed to the Conference of the Parties (COP26) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. She took part in discussions with academics from other countries through a series of international academic workshops. A Call-to-Action document was produced to support the goals of COP26 in Glasgow 2021. Further, together with colleagues, Hui Ling has written an opinion piece for The Vibes, one of Malaysia’s fastest-growing online news portals.

In efforts to mitigate learning loss due to school closure during the pandemic, Jessilyn worked with Teach For Malaysia’s (TFM) in 2021 to accelerate education recovery. They hosted talks to raise awareness about educational inequity and recruited volunteers for the Tutoring Programme to provide remedial classes for students in underserved communities to reduce the learning gap. She joined MYReaders as a volunteer to improve the literacy proficiency of a high-need student, and took on the role of a reading diagnostic assessor to identify underprivileged children who required support from MYReaders’ intervention programmes. Jessilyn was a panelist in a 5-part documentary series titled `Saving Asia’ by Climate Tracker as one of two UNM representatives. The documentary series provides a holistic view of climate actions for the public and equips others with knowledge to champion for environmental causes. During 2019, she volunteered with BruWILD’s eco-education programmes to teach students about biodiversity conservation.

A hero sometimes is not someone with a cape showing up at perfect moment to perform some miraculous stunt. A hero is someone selfless, kind and thoughtful, who always be there in spite of difficult times e.g. COVID-19 outbreak and this person is no other than, Sharoen Lim, Langkawi Hall Tutor. She was appointed as the hall tutor right before the COVID-19 outbreak started. During the COVID-19 outbreak in early 2020, Sharoen joined Wardens for frequent temperature checks on students, distributing RTK test kits, food coupons, daily food/groceries purchase and delivery to the doorstep of quarantined students. Sharoen’s willingness to accompany a student to clinic off-campus at 3 AM sacrificing her time despite her busy laboratory research schedule was praise-worthy. Recently, Sharoen offered help to accompany the on-call nurse from MyCyberMD to carry out a test on a COVID-19 positive student as it was inconvenient for the student to travel off-campus for PCR test and escorted the student to the designated quarantine hostel.  Sharoen is talented, publishing her artworks in newspapers and magazines, singer for talent awards, Youtuber, definitely not a boring scientist. Moreover, in the midst of COVID-19 outbreak and uncertainties, she was juggling between PhD, hall duties and exchange with Universidad del Desarrollo, Chile channelling efforts to study another module. Sharoen has won numerous awards from the Faculty and Colenso Travel Fund to present her work in overseas conferences. Sharoen was recently appointed as Teaching Assistant associated to Bangladesh - College Education Development Project UNM to train Bangladesh future leaders. She volunteered as helper in a local zoo as well as old folks’ home and orphanage. 

Khadijah works to provide accessible healthcare in her roles of Head Secretary and on-the-ground caseworker at Doctors on the Ground (DnG) Malaysia. She has coordinated medical missions alongside notable doctors and community leaders for post-flood relief in Pahang district, and organized COVID aid for refugees in Selayang. Khadijah was selected to participate in Giving Tuesday’s Starling Collective, via which she secured seed funding of $2,000 USD to kickstart her project: Women’s First, tackling health literacy and sexual reproductive health in the refugee community in Selayang. She also co-founded a youth-led movement entitled “NeuroMY” aimed at demystifying the behavioural sciences through digital advocacy and engagements. NeuroMY writes articles on neuroscience, psychology, and public health, relating it to current news and events. Finally, Khadijah has published various articles on public health, health equity and migrant policies – all to raise awareness of her work and the relevant issues.

Wen Yi is currently a postgraduate research assistant in the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Science and Engineering. She has made significant accomplishments in her field of research consistently by publishing 25 quality journal papers in the span of 3 years. Besides contributing to book chapters and presenting her work in conferences and showcases, she has also contributed to the student community by assisting in mentoring fellow group members, and volunteering to organise multiple conferences, showcases and research visits. She has actively represented UNM in several international competitions and successfully won several awards. She has served as a hall tutor to on-campus residential hall, Sipadan Hall in organizing hall event as well as aiding hall wardens in taking care of the residents’ welfare. Her contribution has enhanced the research reputation of the campus and supported many new opportunities for students throughout the campus.

Muhamad Hishamudin showed various contributions and achievements for UNM and students’ life experience during his tenure as a leader and as a student. He managed to handle various issues regarding welfare, may it be on accommodation, transport, F&B, health and safety, and security in his term as Home Students’ Officer and as a Hall Tutor for Rawa Hall. Besides, with his friendliness and approachable personality, he has also established a very good relationship with the students and the staffs. Muhamad Hishamudin is well deserved to receive this recognition, based on his contributions, attitude and skills that he has developed since the day he showed up to be part in student’s body, clubs and society, and Faculty of Science and Engineering.

In the space of three years, Vartika has contributed a lot not only to the school of psychology (staff and students) but also to the student body as a whole.  It is commendable that in her final year, she created a Nottingham Advantage Award module on public speaking.  She is a very able students who is capable of balancing her academic studies and her extra-curricular activities.  She is a Dean’s excellence award winner, she achieved this in first and second year.  She is on track to receive a first degree classification.  She played a big part in organizing social media posts for the online graduation celebrations we have been having due to the pandemic, she helped make UNM graduates feel proud of all they achieved in such difficult circumstances.

Iffa has contributed in many ways to UNM, especially as the Students’ Association (SA) Education Officer and has striven to achieve a better learning environment for students. Iffa worked closely with the Senior Tutor to improve Education network procedures by re-structuring the Student Representatives training programme and improved the Learning Community Forum (LCF) system. Iffa proposed a new initiative for SA to fund ‘School events’ organised by the Student Representatives for their respective Schools and has successfully funded 7 events from different Schools. Iffa successfully bridged the gap between Faculty Management and UNM students by conducting Town Halls for FASS and FOSE. Iffa led the network to organise 3 major events to provide more opportunities for students’ career prospects and post-graduation knowledge. Iffa represented UNM in the National Students’ Leadership Conference under Higher Education Youth Association (HEYA) and was awarded as the champion team with a RM2,000 cash prize.

As SA President for year 2021/2022, Sukh Sajjad excelled in leadership where she had been leading a team of Student Executive as the voice for all students in the University. She is highly dedicated and determining in assisting students in the University to have the best student experience throughout their study. During the pandemic times, it is not easy to ensure all students are able to experience an actual campus life and safety at the same time, but she managed to lead the team in to having Back To Campus Event to welcome all the students to campus after everything was going through virtually. The event enabled students to gain information about the campus and having experience on campus life. She is also one of the committees for COVID-19 Response Team by making sure the safety of all students in university during pandemic times. She has also been involved in meetings and discussions with the Management Board.

1. Dr Wong Ee Phin
2. Dr Lau Phei Li
3. Dr Chin Chiew Foan
4. Dr Matthew Ashfold

1. Fong Wuei Shuen
2. Tan Zhixian
3. Aina Aina Amyrah Binti Ahmad Husam
4. Damia Munira Binti Mohd Bakhthiar
5. Mirza Ahsan Baig
6. Ng Ting Yong
7. Chin Ka Ker Coco
8. Khrisyhniven Ganakumaran

1. Harini Manikandan
2. Ayesha Ashraf Khan 
3. Rachael Goh Chaeh Wen 
4. Teh Shelley 
5. Patricia Chin Ling Choo
6. Lee Yen Qin
7. Dhurgesh Rama Murthy
8. Samira Somoebwana
9. Seow Han Quan
10. Aiman Hazim bin Abdul Halim
11. Levinia Sri Thangaraj
12. Aishath Ameera Azeez 
13. Eva Aju Mathew 
14. Nur Zahira binti Zulkarnain 
15. Sean Yeo Sze Cherng 
16. Heng Yee Sheng 
17. Chin Zhiyi 
18. Haw Jie Wen 
19. Chong Mun Ngah 
20. Wong Syn Hui 
21. Nurina Alya Binti Meor Abdul Aziz 
22. Shrahan Chin Shih Jie 
23. Choo Wen Ni
24. Ammiel Ilhan Yeap
25. Ahmad Al-Hakeem Bin Lokman Shazly

1. Leanne Frances Yee
2. Nabihah Raidah binti Mohamad Ruslan
3. Teo Jing Yuan
4. Tan Xin Ni
5. Maazia Asim
6. Won Ruo Lin
7. Crystal Yan Yi Goh
8. Nur Izati Hanani Mohd Saim
9. Chan Yuin Shau
10. Crystal Ng Kah Yan
11. Chan Jia Jing
12. Rishita Srivastava

School of Politics, History and International Relations | Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

Reason for nomination: Support provided to students is excellent | Teaching, Academic, Research

Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering | Faculty of Science and Engineering

Reason for nomination: High levels of commitment to teaching and learning | Teaching, Academic, Research

Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering | Faculty of Science and Engineering

Reason for nomination: High levels of commitment to teaching and learning | Teaching, Academic, Research

School of Biosciences | Faculty of Science and Engineering

Reason for nomination: High levels of commitment to teaching and learning | Teaching, Academic, Research

Nottingham University Business School | Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

Reason for nomination: Support provided to students is excellent | Teaching, Academic, Research

School of Media, Languages and Cultures | Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

Reason for nomination: Support provided to students is excellent | Teaching, Academic, Research

School of Education | Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

Reason for nomination: High levels of commitment to teaching and learning | Teaching, Academic, Research

Team Lead: Fernandez-Chung, Rozilini Mary

Team members:

• Amin, Sabariah;
• Hj Mohamad Hanefar, Hjh Shamsiah Banu;
• Jarvis, Adrian;
• Judge, Simranjeet Kaur;
• Md Arif, Tasnim;
• Mishra, Pradip Kumar;
• Ping, How Wei;
• Ramalingam, R Moganadass;
• Ramlan, Suria, Selasih Angit Asra;
• Ramnath, Rajeevnath;
• Sivaprakhash, Sharlin;
• Tambi, Fatimah

Reason for nomination: Support provided to students is excellent | Teaching, Academic, Research

Team Lead: Hii, Ching Lik

Team members:

• Chiang, Choon Lai;
• Lim, Siew Shee;
• Ong, Sze Pheng;
• Tiong, Timm Joyce

Reason for nomination: Lectures are engaging | Teaching, Academic, Research

Department of Civil Engineering | Faculty of Science and Engineering

Reason for nomination: High levels of commitment to teaching and learning | Technicians and Professional Services

Graduate School | Professional Services

Reason for nomination: Lectures are engaging | Technicians and Professional Services

Provost Office | Professional Services

Reason for nomination: High levels of commitment to teaching and learning | Technicians and Professional Services

Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering | Faculty of Science and Engineering

Reason for nomination: High levels of commitment to teaching and learning | Teaching, Academic, Research

School of Education | Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

Reason for nomination: High levels of commitment to teaching and learning | Teaching, Academic, Research

Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering | Faculty of Science and Engineering

Reason for nomination: High levels of commitment to teaching and learning | Teaching, Academic, Research

School of Education | Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

Reason for nomination: High levels of commitment to teaching and learning | Teaching, Academic, Research

Foundation in Science | Faculty of Science and Engineering

Reason for nomination: High levels of commitment to teaching and learning | Teaching, Academic, Research

Foundation in Engineering | Faculty of Science and Engineering

Reason for nomination: High levels of commitment to teaching and learning | Teaching, Academic, Research