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Second Educational Seminar Jointly Organized by NextLabs and CCS
Date: 28th February 2018
The two educational seminars held on the 28th of February 2018, titled, “Document Classification using Artificial Intelligence (AI)” and “User Behavior Prediction using an Alternating Least Square based Recommender System”, was jointly organized between Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) and NextLabs. The aim of both the seminars were to transform the audience into a tech-savvy work force in order to support the growth of digital economy as well as to introduce them to document classification and recommender systems.
The first talk, “Document Classification using Artificial Intelligence (AI)”, was presented by Dexter from UTAR. Dexter received his Bachelor degree from Faculty of Information and technology in University of Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia in 2015. He is currently a postgraduate student in the LKC FES, UTAR, working on machine learning research. His research interests include artificial intelligence, big data and parallel programming.
Over the past few decades, Artificial Intelligence (AI) had become more important to our daily activity and one of the main research topic of information technology. With the increase availability of document and text data due to the growth of internet, there rise the urgent need of using artificial intelligence to make use of the data available.
The purpose of this part of the seminar is to provide an in-depth knowledge on document classification using Artificial Intelligence.
The second talk, “User Behavior Prediction using an Alternating Least Square based Recommender System”, was presented by Mr. Low from UTAR. Mr Low received his Bachelor Degree from the Faculty of Engineering and Science of UTAR in 2016. He is currently a postgraduate student in LKC FES, UTAR, researching on machine learning. His research interests are machine learning, big data and recommender systems.
In the current age of information technology, almost everything can be done on the internet, be it reading articles, watching videos, listening to music, making online purchases and sharing files. Naturally, there will be various platforms for these activities and items for the users/consumers to choose from. With the large variety of items available on the platforms, it is important to predict the user behaviours in order to help sort through the available tools to improve the user experience.
The seminar is to provide an insight on the function of a recommender system and its impact on e-commerce and secured cloud storage.
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Visit by Prof. Geog Illies from OTH Regensburg, Germany
Date: 26 – 27 February 2018
Prof. Dr. Geog lllies is a professor for the mathematics at the University of Applied Sciences (OTH) at Regensburg, Germany. The objectives of his visit to UTAR is to provide the knowledge of security level of elliptic curve cryptography; present the idea of typical side-channel attacks and appropriate countermeasures; brief the mathematical tools in generating functions of several variables; demonstrate the cryptanalytic search algorithm for analysis of collision attack; and explore research collaboration with MMU and OTH Regensburg in the area of cryptography.
He received his Ph.D. degree at University of Munster, Germany. After post-doctoral stays at the Universities of Aachen and Siegen (Germany), Exeter (UK) and the IHES (France). His research speciallisation is in cryptography and information security areas. He worked for the German Federal Office for Information Security for several years. The visit was scheduled from the 26 – 27 February 2018.
The talk titled, “Exposure to mathematical tools for the analysis of collision attacks” was aimed to enhance student’s knowledge about cryptanalytic search algorithms like van Oorschot / Wiener’s parallel Pollard-rho collision search and time-memory trade off methods to find collisions of a function. The talk is held on 26 February 2018 from 11.00 am to 12.30pm at KB803, UTAR Sungai Long.
Among the objectives of the talk were to provide the audients with the mathematical tools in generating functions of several variables; provide advanced cryptanalytic search algorithm for analysis of collision attack; and to explore research collaboration with UTAR in cryptography.
“An Overview of Side-Channel Attacks against ECC and Countermeasures” was the title of the second technical talk presented by Prof. Dr. Geog lllies. Among the objectives disseminated by the talk was to provide knowledge of security level of elliptic curve cryptography; to provide the idea of typical side-channel attacks and appropriate countermeasures; as well as to explore any research collaboration between MMU and UTAR in cryptography. The talk was held on 27th February 2018 from 11.00 am to 12.30 pm at KB 803, UTAR Sungai Long Campus.
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Visit by Prof. Chuan-Kai Yang and Prof. Nai-Wei Lo from Taiwan
Date: 16 March 2018
On 16 March 2018, Prof. Chuan-Kai Yang and Prof. Nai-Wei Lo gave a talk on security related research and introduced National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (NTUST) to our students. Prof. Chuan-Kai Yang is currently a professor in the department of Information Management at National Taiwan University of Science and Technology. His research interests include Computer Graphics, Multimedia Systems, Scientific Visualization, Algorithms and Computational Geometry. His personal website can be found from this link https://www.cs.ntust.edu.tw/ckyang/. Meanwhile, Prof. Nai-Wei Lo is currently the director of Integrated Digital Service Laboratory of NTUST. His personal website is https://idsl.cs.ntust.edu.tw/director.
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First LKCFES Postgraduate Programme
Date: 17 May 2018
Time: 1.30 pm to 5pm.
First LKCFES Postgraduate Colloquium was held on 17 May 2018 from 1.30pm to 5pm. The postgraduate colloquium aims to:
- Provide an opportunity to postgraduate students for sharing their research projects or any information that is beneficial to other postgraduate students.
- Provide a platform for the interaction among postgraduate students and faculty staffs.
- Encourage/build the research culture in Lee Kong Chian Faculty of Engineering and Science.
There are more than 80 presentations being selected from postgraduate students parked under 11 different research centres. These 11 research centres are listed as follows:
- Centre of Cyber Security
- Centre of Computing and Intelligent System
- Centre of Communication System and Networks
- Centre of Mathematical Science
- Centre of Photonics and Advanced Materials Research
- Centre of Vehicular Technology
- Centre of Power Systems and Electricity
- Centre of Healthcare Science and Technology
- Centre of Railway Infrastructure and Engineering
- Centre of Disaster Risk Reduction
- Centre of Sustainable Architecture
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MoU Signing UTAR and CHAINTOPE
Date: 18 September 2018
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between UTAR and Chaintope Sdn Bhd Malaysia, with the aim of exploring areas of potential collaboration. The signatories for the MoU were UTAR President Ir Prof Academician Dato’ Dr Chuah Hean Teik and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Chaintope Sdn Bhd Malaysia Hideki Shoda, while the witnesses were UTAR Vice President for R&D and Commercialisation Prof Ts Dr Faidz bin Abd Rahman and Junya. Through the MoU, both Chaintope Malaysia Sdn Bhd and UTAR will work closely to develop collaborations in the blockchain technology and related activities while enhancing the mutual understanding and learning experience in exchange of knowledge and ideas.
Besides, the discussion between both parties was made on 18 September 2018, with the presence of Chaintope Malaysia Sdn Bhd CEO Hideki, COO Junya, Software Engineer Jimmy Tee, UTAR Institute of Postgraduate Studies and Research of Sungai Long Campus Deputy Director Assoc Prof Ts Dr Ezra Morris Abraham Gnanamuthu, LKC FES Deputy Dean for R&D and Postgraduate Programmes-cum-Centre for Cyber Security Chairperson Ts Dr Yap Wun She.
The long-term plans and activities included, curriculum review, attachment for lecturers, Internship and Final Year Project, Guest speaker for events and Blockchain society. For the curriculum review, Chaintope will organize crash courses on the following topics and also give some constructive feedbacks on UTAR existing academic subjects such as iOS app development and Web app so that students/lecturers could explore/understand on how to build a blockchain applications from sketch, such as Front-end mobile app development (Android & iOS); Web app (Javascript, Html & CSS) and Decentralised app (DApp)
For the attachment for lecturers, Chaintope will invite lecturers from UTAR to conduct joint research with Chaintope Malaysia Sdn Bhd on blockchain area. Focusing on fintech sector and non-fintech sector in which blockchain technology is applicable.
With the Internship and Final Year Project, Chaintope will involve students with good technical background to participate into part of the company research project as their final year project. In addition, students could apply to Chaintope Malaysia Sdn Bhd for their internship program.
From time to time, Chaintope will invite guest speakers for events, share their experience as a blockchain company to the university to induce students and/or lecturers to explore on the new emerging technology like blockchain.
Chaintope will also build a blockchain society among students to organise more events and activities in UTAR in a more effective manner. At the same time, this would encourage students to be more active in co-curriculum activities and give them more opportunities in organising grand events such as hackathon and international conferences hosted by UTAR.
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Talk by Mr Junya Yoshizaki
Introduction to Blockchain Technology and application of Blockchain
Speaker: Mr. Junya Yoshizaki, the COO of Chaintope Sdn Bhd Malaysia
Date: 3 October 2018
Time: 11 am to 12 pm
Venue: Room 309, KB block, Sg Long Campus, UTAR.
Chaintope is a company specializing blockchain technology development, IT consulting and system development. Services and platform offer by Chaintope are based on blockchain technology. The talk is presented by Mr. Junya Yoshizaki, the COO of Chaintope Sdn Bhd Malaysia on 3rd of October 2018 from 11 am to 12 pm at Room 309, KB block, UTAR. Mr Junya presented a comprehensive talk that covered a range of topics, including:
- Introduction to blockchain which covered the blockchain features, the underlying technology used in blockchain and the benefits of using blockchain.
- Blockchain/ICO which covered public vs private blockchain, the introduction to Blockchain 2.0 - Smart Contract and ICO, and finally on cryptocurrencies.
- The future of blockchain: Applications Beyond Currencies, Economics and Markets
- Sharing economy
- Logistics
- Payment/Micro-payment
- Financial
- Medical data & Insurance
- Dao
- Energy sector
- The connected world and blockchain: The fifth disruptive computing paradigm (secure IoT, M2M economy)
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