MARii And UiTM Sign Memorandum of Understanding To Enhance R&D Cooperation For Mobility Solutions

The Malaysia Automotive Robotics and IoT Institute (MARii) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) with the aim of strengthening, promoting and developing academic, cultural and research cooperation.

Signed by MARii Chief Executive Officer, Dato’ Ts. Madani Sahari and UiTM Vice-Chancellor, Emeritus Professor Ir. Dr. Mohd Azraai Kassim, the MoU will see both parties promoting participation in transforming the Malaysian industry into a globally competitive sector, particularly in the case of human capital development and applications of technology to meet industry demands.

“The upcoming review of the National Automotive Policy will look into new technologies in areas of Next Generation Vehicles, Mobility as a Service (Maas) and Industry 4.0 implementation within the industry”, said Dato Madani Sahari.

“Malaysia is aggressively promoting the development of future technologies in the automotive, transportation and overall Mobility sectors. Therefore, UiTM’s capabilities will add a new dimension to MARii’s expert and facilities pool to deliver the needed capacities to drive the Connected Mobility agenda”, he added.

Prof Azraai commented, “This MoU will open more collaboration opportunities that will not only lead towards establishing the first UiTM–MARii Satellite Node, but more importantly, the country’s very first MARii Satellite in a university and it will be located at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering UiTM”.

He added, “These industry connections and partnerships are essential in ensuring that UiTM’s research and innovations remain impactful and are commercially viable to the industry and community. The solutions we produce must be of practical use to resolve relevant concerns”.

In 2015, MARii (previously known as Malaysia Automotive Institute a.k.a. MAI) and UiTM collaborated to enhance the talent of more than 1,000 Bumiputera engineering students through the Industry Led Automotive Graduate Apprenticeship Programme, Automotive Engineering Certificate Engineering (AICE), as well as industry-linked internships and final year projects with automotive companies.

Both parties have also worked together in projects such as the Ecophoton Solar Car, technology displays at the Malaysia Autoshow, and have recently started development of styling and engineering design programmes for the furniture industry as well as the upcoming International Conference on Advances in Mechanical Engineering (ICAME) through MARii’s Satellite in Sabah.

The signing of this new MoU will enable both parties to further collaborate on enhancing the automotive and overall mobility industry, including:

• industrial partnership programmes through consultancy projects in automotive, robotics and Internet of Things
• establishment of teaching-factory partnerships through shared industrial space and the offering of automotive, robotics and Internet of Things as elective subjects to UiTM students
• develop post graduate programmes in line with Industry4WRD through MARii’s centres of excellence such as the MARii Design Center, MARii Academy of Technology and the National Emission Test Center (NETC)