School with seaweed dodol wins four gold awards

KOTA KINABALU: The newly concluded fifth Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) Annual Research and Innovation Competition (PEREKA) has received a total of 337 entries, a significant increase from of 17 per cent as compared to the previous edition.

The competing entries comprised 215 research and 122 innovations submitted by various schools, out of which about 30 were good enough to be given the Gold Award.

The School of Food Science and Nutrition was the star of the show, having won four gold awards under the innovation category for their high potential and inventive products which include seaweed dodol and multi-purpose seaweed sauce.

Deputy vice-chancellor (P&I) Professor Dr Mohd Harun Abdullah said the increase in participation reflected positively on the university’s continuous effort to make research and innovation a culture among lecturers and students, in line with its target to achieve research university status in the near future.

“PEREKA is an annual event here at UMS that provides a platform for the university’s research community to showcase their work. Through this event, high impact researches and innovations can be identified and recognized,” he said at the closing of PEREKA 2012 yesterday.

Introduced by the university’s Centre for Research and Innovation in 2008, PEREKA also serves as a venue for identifying the best research and inventions to represent UMS at various competitions locally and abroad.

To ensure high standard evaluation, experts from outside UMS, both from academic and government institutions as well as from industries are invited as judges.

Among the main objectives of the event is to foster and nurture culture of research, development and commercialisation.

Source : Borneo Post