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Dr. Mohamad Sabri Sinal, a fellow tutor from the School of Computing (SOC) was awarded two major awards at Japan’s, Shibaura Institute of Technology (SIT) Graduation Ceremony, recently.

He who just completed his doctoral studies (PhD) received the President's Award and the Functional Control System Award.

Dr. Mohamad Sabri said his efforts to graduate within three years while having to complete and publish a total of three journal articles and three conference papers ultimately proved fruitful.

According to him, the President's Award is the university’s highest recognition presented to a student with the best overall academic achievement involved few stringent screenings conducted by the university as means to select the final candidates for the award.

"I am deeply honoured to receive these two major awards symbolic of the success of young Malaysians who are able to compete abroad, thus elevating Malaysia’s name to the highest level.

"Nothing is easy in life and I began from scratch to reach this level. Hopefully it becomes a new aspiration to others to continue to work hard," he said.

The President's Award is presented to a student based on the capacity of his or her academic achievement as a whole, active involvement in local community activities and great contribution to the Shibaura Institute of Technology from the aspect of globalization and human capital development.

Meanwhile, the Functional Control System award is awarded by the university and the Department of Functional Control System to the best overall PhD student in accordance with the merit of academic achievement, best research publication and best thesis.

Reminiscing about his journey to complete his doctoral degree (PhD) Dr. Mohamad Sabri said that it started after he graduated with Masters at the same university.

He also said that he was grateful and fortunate that the university was willing to give him full sponsorship to pursue his doctoral degree (PhD) in three years without being bonded, through the university’s Special Scholarship Programme.

He said that throughout that period, he was given the opportunity to teach, to assist in supervision and conduct research continuously with the support of Japanese Professors and university administration.

"During that period, I successfully published three journal articles and three conference paper proceedings according to field of study focusing on the combination of artificial intelligence, statistics and algorithm programming by generating high-performance computer mechanisms to detect early signs of stroke and uncertain heart activity done continuously through ECG data recorded for a period of up to 12 hours," he said.

He further added that through the study, a 12-hour ECG data was used together with the created mechanisms enabled the detection of early signs of heart disease in under a minute.

"In addition to carrying out main duties as a PhD student, I also embarked on many self-initiatives to facilitate collaboration between Malaysian universities such as Â鶹ֱ²¥ (UUM), Universiti Putra Malaysia and Universiti Malaysia Perlis through collaborative programmes between Malaysian universities and Shibaura Institute of Technology.

"Although the schedule was packed with PhD studies, I managed to balance it to ensure that everything that I planned will go well because I believe, as a Malaysian PhD student sent overseas, I think it is only right that I indirectly shoulder the responsibility to be an ambassador for Malaysia at various stages by embarking on efforts and seeking new opportunities to promote Malaysia's strengths and create new opportunities for other Malaysians,"he said.

Dr. Mohamad Sabri said he was grateful for the endless support and assistance rendered by UUM and the Malaysian Government to him throughout the duration of five years while he pursued his studies starting from Master's degree to PhD.

He was also moved when UUM Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Dr. Ahmad Bashawir Abdul Ghani was present at the historic event. The Vice-Chancellor’s presence was indeed a sign of support for the brilliant achievement.