Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL) launched its inaugural award appreciation night, designed to recognise and celebrate the exceptional achievements of its academic community.
The Academic, Research, and Innovation Excellence Night (ARIEN) 2024 showcased the outstanding contributions of individuals who may represent the university in prestigious local and international academic competitions.
A total of eight awards were presented, highlighting the best among UniKL’s researchers. The award categories included Highly Cited Paper, Top Research Publication, High Impact Publication, Rising Researcher, Best Product Innovation & Commercialization, Best Selling Book, Best Postgraduate Research Supervision, and Top 2% Scientist in the World 2023.
In his opening speech, Prof. Ir. Dr. Azman Senin, President/Chief Executive Officer of UniKL, announced an increase in publication rewards, offering up to RM2,500.00 for articles published in SCOPUS Q1 journals to encourage submissions to top-tier publications.
“We will continue to reward our top-performing researchers and external grant holders through events like ARIEN, where we celebrate their achievements. We will be introducing cash incentives and offering travel grants to help them undertake short-term research visits at foreign universities, expanding their global reach,” he said.
To further assist researchers in recruiting Graduate Research Assistants for their projects, UniKL is developing attractive scholarship packages aimed at drawing more local and international students to its postgraduate programs.
Additionally, the university’s Intellectual Property (IP) policy, pending Senate approval, will enable researchers to establish startup companies.
“We are prepared to offer a compelling profit-sharing scheme to assist researchers in commercialising their innovations. I strongly encourage our researchers to collaborate with CoRI on commercialization plans,” he added.
The Centre for Research and Innovation (CoRI) organised the event, which was supported by the Institute for Postgraduate Studies (IPS) and the Tengku Azizah Knowledge Centre (TAKC).
In recognition of external grants awarded, notable recipients included Assoc. Prof. Ts. Dr. Sairul Izwan Safie, Prof. Dr. Megat Farez Azril Zuhairi, Ts. Dr. Muhamad Yusuf Hasan, and Dr. Raja Fazliza Raja Suleiman, among others.
Among the awardees, Assoc. Prof. ChM. Ts. Dr. Norzahir Sapawe from UniKL Institute of Chemical & Bioengineering Technology (UniKL MICET) received the Highly Cited Paper Award for his research paper, “A Review on the Water Problem Associated with Organic Pollutants Derived from Phenol, Methyl Orange, and Remazol Brilliant Blue Dyes,” which garnered 81 citations in 2023.
The Top Research Publication Award went to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nor Aida Abdul Rahman from UniKL Malaysian Institute of Aviation Technology (UniKL MIAT), achieved an impressive 26 SCOPUS publications in 2023—the highest among UniKL researchers.
The High Impact Publication Award was awarded to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tong Woei Yenn from UniKL Institute of Medical Science Technology (UniKL MESTECH) for publishing six research articles in Q1 SCOPUS indexed journals in 2023.
Dr. Charles Gnanaraj A/L John Sandanaraj from UniKL Royal College of Medicine Perak (UniKL RCMP) received the Rising Researcher Award for achieving a SCOPUS H-index of 13 with 573 citations.
Assoc. Prof. Ts. Dr. Muhammad Husaini Abu Bakar from UniKL Malaysian Spanish Institute (UniKL MSI) was honoured with the Best Product Innovation and Commercialization Award for developing the Energy Monitoring System, which generated RM 2.1 million in revenue in 2023.
The Best Selling Book Award was presented to Assoc. Prof. Ts. Dr. Munaisyah Abdullah, Dr. Jawahir Che Mustapha@Yusuf, and Dr. Suriana Ismail from UniKL Malaysian Institute of Information Technology (UniKL MIIT) for their book, “Object-oriented Programming Using JAVA Cappa Java Module,” published by UniKL Press.
The Best Postgraduate Research Supervision Award went to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mohd Farid Shamsudin from UniKL Business School, successfully supervised three PhD students to graduate on time in 2023.
Additionally, two UniKL researchers were recognised in Stanford’s Top 2% Scientists in the World 2023 ranking: Assoc. Prof. ChM. Ts. Dr. Norzahir Sapawe from UniKL MICET and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Lee Wing Hin from UniKL RCMP.
