Dr Annuar (second right) listens to a briefing on intelligent remote control cars at the centre. Deputy State Secretary Datu Dr Sabariah Putit is at second left, while Wong is at left. — Photo by Chimon Upon

KUCHING: Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus marked a new milestone in its innovation and research works with the opening of its Centre for Digital Future yesterday.

Assistant Minister of Education and Technological Research Dr Annuar Rapaee said the opening of the centre is timely due to the state government’s vision of a digital economy.

“The move to gather researchers under a roof is timely as we can move the initiative, and at the same time focusing on research, especially with the country embracing Industry 4.0, where there are operations focused on robotics and less human operations,” he said when opening the centre.

“Such a move would require creativity. We need to ensure that the state is not left behind in this area.”

Swinburne Sarawak Research, Consultancy and Future Projects director Associate Professor Dr Wallace Wong said digital technologies are constantly changing and Swinburne is addressing several key digital strategies.

“Among it were preserving indigenous heritage via mobile technologies, for example through a virtual museum where it was curated and verified by the people themselves,” he said.

Wong added Swinburne is also looking at the possibility of a fully-automated and intelligent plantation estate, where machines pluck, plant, harvest and transport oil palm fruit branches and such machines are connected via the Internet and managed by artificial intelligence.

On the centre, he said it is for researchers, innovators, industry, and community collaborators to come and develop ideas.

“It is a centre which provides expertise, facilities and resources to translate ideas into reality. At the same time, we work closely with our researchers in Melbourne campus on digital lab innovation, factory of the future, design factory and Swinburne Innovation Precinct,” he added.

Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) and Swinburne also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to research natural bio-fertiliser for forest replantation, and development of new national park management model.

Swinburne also signed an memorandum of understanding with ClickAcademy Asia to translate industry and academic know-how into short professional development training courses.