Distinguished Lecturer Tour of Abbas Jamalipour in Malaysia, 2017

By Aduwati Sali - IEEE Malaysia ComSoc/VTS Joint Chapter, Chee Yen (Bruce) Leow - IEEE Malaysia ComSoc/VTS Joint Chapter, Fazirulhisyam Hashim - IEEE Malaysia ComSoc/VTS Joint Chapter, Hafizal Mohamad - IEEE Malaysia ComSoc/VTS Joint Chapter and Nur Idora Abdul Razak - IEEE Malaysia ComSoc/VTS Joint Chapter

In April 2017, the IEEE Malaysia Communications and Vehicular Technology Society (ComSoc/VTS) Joint Chapter hosted Prof. Abbas Jamalipour from the University of Sydney, Australia for his Distinguished Lecturer Tour (DLT) at three different venues. His first lecture was given at the Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Shah Alam (April 11, 2017); the second lecture was at the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) Cyberjaya (April 12, 2017); the third lecture was at the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) Skudai, Johor Bahru (April 13, 2017).

Prof. Jamalipour with some of the audience at UiTM Shah Alam.

Prof. Jamalipour arrived at Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 on April 9, 2017. He was welcomed by Fazirul, the Past Chair of ComSoc/VTS and brought to the Everly Hotel Putrajaya. On April 10, 2017, Prof. Jamalipour had a lunch meeting and spent time with ComSoc/VTS executive committee members led by Aduwati Sali. Various topics were discussed during this meeting, notably on strategies to strengthen the chapter, potential collaboration, how to attract more members to join IEEE and ComSoc/VTS, etc.

On the morning of April 11, 2017, Prof. Jamalipour delivered his first lecture at the Al-Haytham Seminar Room, Engineering Complex, UiTM, Shah Alam. The title of his lecture was “Wireless Communications Techniques for Emergency and Disaster Situations.” There were about 25 attendees, mainly postgraduate students and researchers from various research institutes and industry in Malaysia. In this lecture, Prof. Jamalipour discussed the recent advancements and developments in the field of wireless communications for emergency and disaster situations and highlighted some of his research works in this field. The audience was very interested in the topic, since it is highly relevant to Malaysia, and their field of studies and research. The program ended with a networking tea session while the audience took the opportunity to interact with the speaker. Prof. Jamalipour then travelled to UTM Kuala Lumpur to visit the UTM Ericsson Innovation Centre for 5G (IC5G) in the afternoon.

Visit to UTM Ericsson Innovation Centre for 5G (IC5G).

On the following day, April 12, 2017, Prof. Jamalipour delivered his second lecture at MCMC, Cyberjaya. This lecture was held at the MCMC auditorium and co-organized with the Malaysian Technical Standards Forum Bhd (MTFSB) and MCMC. The lecture received overwhelming response and attracted more than 200 attendees. Prof. Jamalipour started his lecture by introducing IEEE, ComSoc and VTS to the attendees. He then elaborated on two topics, namely “Current and Future Research Challenges in Smart Grid Networks and the Internet of Things” and “Wireless Communications Techniques for Emergency and Disaster Situations.” The lecture concluded with highlights on open research areas that generated a lot of interest among the attendees. The tutorial-style lecture helped attendees understand the content easily. Moreover, there was ample opportunity for question and answer after the lecture. The co-organizers were also generous to sponsor lunch for the speaker and all the attendees, where they took the opportunity for informal discussion and networking. The event ended around 1:45 pm, and Prof. Jamalipour went dirctly to the Kuala Lumpur International Airport for a flight to Johor Bahru (JB). In JB, he was welcomed by Chee Yen Leow, one of the ComSoc/VTS executive committee members, and later brought to The Pulai Springs Resort, Johor Bahru.

Prof. Jamalipour presented his third lecture on April 13, 2017, at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, UTM Skudai, Johor. This event was co-organized with the Wireless Communication Centre (WCC) UTM. Here, Prof. Jamalipour covered the topic of “Current and Future Research Challenges in Smart Grid Networks and the Internet of Things.” The event attracted 35 participants. In this lecture, the topic of Smart Grid networks was explained and the main challenges in such a network, including the security and privacy of grid customers, were highlighted. The lecture also included the new research and development direction toward the Internet of Things where the network connectivity extends its boundary beyond the usual digital devices to basically every device, appliance and “thing” around humans.

DLTs in Malaysia continues to be very successful and they will likely to be well attended in the future by academics, researchers and industry practitioners. Hosting such DLT events in various locations around Malaysia is an excellent way to encourage IEEE members and the technical community at large to participate in IEEE Comsoc/VTS technical dissemination programs. This surely helps improve recognition and generate growth for the IEEE Com- Soc and VTS in Malaysia. The IEEE Malaysia ComSoc/VTS Joint Chapter would like to thank our speaker, Prof. Jamalipour, and our co-organizers and sponsors, UiTM Shah Alam, MTFSB, MCMC, and WCC UTM Skudai, for making this DLT a success. Above all, we would like to extend our special appreciation to IEEE ComSoc and IEEE VTS for arranging such a wonderful program.