UNIVERSITIES IN THE REGION COLLABORATE TO MANAGE DISASTER

NIBONG TEBAL, 18th March 2016 – Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and several other foreign universities launched a regional collaboration through the School of Civil Engineering in the “Disaster Resilience Education Capacity Building in South-East Asia” programme here today.

Assistant Vice-Chancellor, Engineering Campus, Professor Dr. Ahmad Farhan Mohd Sadullah said the aim of the project is to establish a regional synergy between renowned higher education institutions as well as to build the ASEAN countries capacity in proactively handling disaster risk and building resilience through education.

“I gather with the project we would be able to build a regional capacity and share the knowledge in the disaster resilience and reducing risks”, said Ahmad Farhan who is also the Dean, School of Civil Engineering.

He added, the programme is hoped to form a solid regional network with collective capacity and is an initiative to spearhead and protect the community from shocks of physical, socio-culture, politics, economics and nature.

The project enables the participants to form long term collaboration in various disciplines as well as recognise and celebrate the variety of knowledge.

Other than the solid relationship and to forge researches in the field of disaster resilience as well as cultural exchange that will occur throughout the collaboration, it is viewed to create a long term involvement opportunities not only for the education institutions but to other government bodies as well as privates.

The universities involved in the project are The University of Newcastle (Australia) as the programme leader and joined by Asian Institute of Technology (AIT, Thailand), University of Philippines (UP) and National University of Civil Engineering (NUCE, Vietnam).

The seven academicians involved in the discussion and presentation were, Dr. Jason Von Meding (UON), Dr. Jamie Mackee (UON), Dr. Thayaparan Gajendran (UON), Dr. Indrajit Pal (AIT), Dr. Mario R. Delos Reyes (UP), Dr. Pham Hung Cuong (NICE) and Dr. Sharifah Akmam Syed Zakaria (USM).

Each institution provides a unique discipline and expertise in their own fields with USM in civil engineering and environment, NUCE and AIT in territory and town planning while UON in architecture and construction management.

Also present at the launching ceremony was the Second Secretary, Australian High Commission, Katelyn Hornby, Deputy Director of Engineeering, Seberang Perai Municipal Council, Hj. Baderul Amin Abdul Hamid and several lecturers and students from the School of Civil Engineering.

Translation: Siti Sara Zainal Abidin
Text: Mohd Kamil Ashar / Photos: Bani Faidzzainami Baniyamin