UTM wins award for system to keep track of students’ achievements

Dr Wan Rosli (third from left) and his team members with their awards.

JOHOR BARU: Researchers from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) have created an online system that enables lecturers to record their students’ achievements and performances.

The Integrated Academic Advisory System (IAAS) functions as a facilitator to manage data and student records, thus upgrading the delivery system and efficiency of public service at the university.

The innovative project was developed by its staff, including lecturers and administrators and it won the best team category in the Vice Chancellor Award during UTM’s excellence award ceremony held at its Skudai campus here.

The group of six from UTM Chemical Engineering and Energy Engineering faculty also walked away with RM10,000 and a trophy for their work on IAAS.

The group’s chief, Dr Wan Rosli Wan Sulaiman, who is a senior lecturer from the faculty, said the system operates as a replacement for the old way of manually recording basic data.

He said this would keep students academic achievements throughout the four years of study at UTM.

He added that the system was developed since early 2015 and had received approval to be used at the faculty to look into the process of standardisation and monitoring of projects.

“For every intake of new students, lecturers appointed as academic advisers will need a system to monitor the students growth throughout their time here, including choosing subjects for their academic and curriculum achievement.

“The students information must be updated each semester and could easily be overlooked or even misplaced as the manual system uses files and papers,” he added.

Dr Wan Rosli said this after he and his team received the award for creating the IAAS from UTM pro-chancellor Tan Sri Siti Sa’diah Sheikh Bakir during the ceremony.

A total of 414 staff from various faculties and departments also received recognition for their hard work and contribution to UTM throughout 2016.

Dr Wan Rosli said the system would be updated from time to time based on the needs and hopes it would be used at all public universities in Malaysia.

“In a way, the IAAS system can benefit and generate income for the university,” he added.