By Nastura Nasir
Pix Shahiddan Saidi

BANGI, July 20 – The National University of Malaysia (UKM) Vice Chancellor, Prof. Datuk Dr. Noor Azlan Ghazali and Dr. Nik & Associates (DNA) Managing Director, Dato’ Ir Dr Nik Mohd Kamel Nik Hassan today signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) paving the way for greater cooperation and knowledge sharing through industrial based research.

Prof Noor Azlan said, this collaboration is a great example of established companies’ confidence in UKM’s researchers and experts.

The agreement also saw DNA sponsoring a post, the Wan Fatimah Environment Professor, through a contribution of RM728,000 for the next two years.

“This position will be held by Prof. Dato’ Dr. Sharifah Mastura Syed Abdullah, UKM’s Director of the Institute of Climate Change, and is aimed at encourage the development of research and teaching and learning in the field of environmental sustainability,” he added.

According to Dato’ Nik, one of the projects in this collaboration is the land reclamation of Tanjung Pelepas Port.

“Through this idea, dredged material from Sg.Pulai will be recycled to be used as fill material for the land reclamation.

“A one acre land area will be used for our pilot study to test the effectiveness of reclamation using the method of ‘spoil material’ or ‘recycle method’,” he said.

He added, this kind of technology is widely practiced in Tianjin, China and so far it has never been done in Malaysia.

Hence, DNA together with research team led by Prof. Dato’ Dr. Sharifah Mastura Syed Abdullah will work on this project in aiming to reduce the overall cost of reclamation. In this project, the excavation will be recycled, instead of being thrown away.