SBM ONLINE : On the 21st of May 2018, SBM-UUM made another landmark by organizing Research Innovation Commercialization Exhibition (RICE-2018) with the theme ‘’Understanding and Embracing IR 4.0 for Business Sustainability’’. RICE 2018 is the second exhibition in its series as the first RICE was organized in 2017.
The exhibition which had 91 participants from both UUM and other Institutions was a platform that assisted all the exhibitors to showcase their projects. In this exhibition, a total of six project categories were contested i.e. Business Management, Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Human Resource Management, ICT and Multimedia and the Open categories.
In his opening speech, the Dean, School of Business Management and AVC COB, Prof Dr Haim Hilman Abdullah stated that the theme of this exhibition was carefully chosen as one of the objectives of SBM as an institution is to create an avenue through which product and service innovation can be incubated as SBM places priority on research and creativity that will match with the IR 4.0 and beyond. He also urged the participants to consider the exhibition as a continuous platform that will help them to showcase their skills while considering the possibility of commercialization of many of the projects presented during the program.
In this year exhibition, six champions emerged in each category while overall champion of all the categories was also recognized. In business management, a project titled, UUM Food Delivery App anchored by its team leader, Nur Afiqah binti Mohamed Ismail and supervised by Dr Shahmir Sivaraj bin Abdullah won the championship. In Entrepreneurship category, Product Innovation: Ola Hiking Stick project headed by Eric Tay Seng and supervised by Dr Armanurah binti Mustapha won the contest. The marketing category champion was given to J.CO Coffee and Donuts Service Blue Print as led by Carely Xian A/P Boon Suk and under the supervision of Dr Maria binti Rahman. Crack Your Character (CYC), a project led by Ruhaida Baharudin and supervised by Assoc. Prof Madya Dr Ziti Zubaidah Othman in the category of Human Resource Management (HRM) was recognized as the best. In ICT and Multimedia category, Auto S.O.S. project led by Norsaleha binti Idris as supervised Prof Madya Dr. Thi Lip Sam was the champion. In the open category, Automatic Fish Feeder presented by Kolej Vokasional Alor Setar became champion while the overall champion of all the projects was given to Auto S.O.S. project.
In recognizing the novelty of each project, Prof Dr Haim Hilman Abdullah presented certificates and a sum of RM 300.00 (Three hundred ringgit) to the champion in each category while the overall champion was equally presented with a trophy. Prof Dr Haim Hilman Abdullah also presented certificates of recognitions to all the internal and external jurists who added value to the occasion.
In his closing remark, Prof Dr Haim Hilman Abdullah urged all the participants, especially the students, to develop and enhance their soft skills, have good and positive attitude while having audacity to face challenges in their sojourn in the new IR 4.0 competitive market.