Soft Launch of World Engineering, Science and Technology Congress 2014 (ESTCON 2014) (4 March 2014)
R&D experts from around the world together with government and industry players looking to determine a more sustainable future will converge at World Engineering, Science and Technology Congress 2014 (ESTCON 2014) from 3 to 5 June 2014.
ESTCON 2014 themed “Engineering, Science, Technology and Humanities: Convergence for a Sustainable Future” is expecting more than 1,400 participants from over 50 countries with an expected turnout of 3,000 crowd from universities, corporations and public during the congress. UTP is organising this congress, deemed as one of the largest world congresses Malaysia has ever hosted, at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre.
The 3-day congress will present and share ideas through 9 simultaneously held conferences, exhibitions, innovation pitching and networking activities with an objective of bridging ideas to the market.
ESTCON 2014 is one of the premier R&D conferences in the Asian region and to date has more than 1,000 confirmed registered delegates. Organised since 2010, this biennial event has emphasised the importance of innovation, creativity and commercialisation and continuing in this tradition, ESTCON 2014 has introduced a new section on Innovation Pitching to facilitate commercialisation opportunities. It is a platform that creates opportunities to bridge the gap between R&D and commercialisation to further drive the push towards developing an innovation-led economy. It is dedicated to providing collaborative opportunities between private sector, government and researchers to leverage their combined expertise to realise higher quality research, industry desired solutions and strategic national objectives.
According to Datuk Ir (Dr) Abdul Rahim Hashim, Vice Chancellor of UTP, the Innovation Pitching sessions allows inventors to pitch their new technologies to potential investors. This will take ESTCON 2014 to the next level as it connects researchers and inventors to the right investors and business partners, at the same time creating opportunities to increase university revenues and create new job opportunities in an innovation driven economy through commercialisation of R&D.
The congress is not just for academician, but a collaboration with industry and government agencies that deliver ideas to the market. With such collaborations, participants can earn up to 20 CCD hours and 18 CPD hours from Construction Industry Development Board Malaysia and Board for Engineers Malaysia respectively for a continuous professionalism development.
This congress is timely, especially in light of the Malaysian government’s efforts to make Malaysia an education hub in the region. It also supports the cause of Yayasan UTP (UTP Foundation) that was established in 2007 to promote and further the cause of education in Malaysia. ESTCON 2014 is also supported by Ministry of Education (MOE), Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI), Agensi Inovasi Malaysia (AIM), Yayasan UTP and KPerak.
Speaking at a press conference after the Soft Launch, Mr Mark Rozario, CEO of Agensi Inovasi Malaysia (AIM), also announced that AIM has set-up of an office in UTP campus. This is the first of its kind in the region and the first step in achieving AIMs objective of expanding its footprint in major regions and States in Malaysia to drive its vision of creating an innovation-led economy.
As UTP places strong emphasis on R&D, the collaboration will stimulate and enhance the innovation sector in the region. This partnership will enable AIM’s Innovation Business Opportunities (IBO) team to consult and assist UTP researchers to commercialise their inventions, at the same time allowing them the use of a dedicated space to conduct meetings with companies and entrepreneurs based in Perak. This allows AIM’s staff to bridge the industry-academia gap and underpin AIM’s presence within the university and in the region.
