The Sustainable Technological Innovation among SMEs in South East Asia Countries: A Case Study

South East Asia (SEA) region is characterized by economies of vast disparities in natural resources, capabilities and development levels. Key issues for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in globalizing economies in the region continue to financing, marketing, technology, human resource and external environment including policy framework. SMEs are currently going through a transition phase and process of restructuring for competitive growth, in the fast technological changes, among other factors. The increasing influx of transnational corporations (TNCs) and foreign direct investment (FDI) in manufacturing and services in the region have opened up large business opportunities and also threats, needing more advanced technological inputs, and absorptive and innovative capabilities for enhancing and efficiency of SMEs. This paper describes the technological innovation, provide information, and discuss the technological innovation issues in selected SEA countries

Accreditation Engineering Scenario and Future of Engineering Education in Malaysia

Engineering education in Malaysia is a strong and vibrant enterprise. Malaysia government is projecting to produce 222,000 engineering graduates in the next 9 years. This number of engineers is needed to ensure the development industries, infrastructures and general well-being of Malaysia are carried out as planned. However, since Malaysia has engineers in various fields, engineers have provided the driving forces behind high technology services and products to enhance the Malaysia economy growth locally and internationally. It is also cited that there are 33 accredited engineering programmes in Malaysia universities and colleges. Engineering degree is the common degree entry to the engineering profession nowadays, such as civil engineering, electrical engineering, electronics engineering and mechanical engineering. The Malaysia engineering degree requires a completion of four years full time study. For an engineering degree programme to be recognize, all the engineering degrees in Malaysia are governed by Engineering Accreditation Council (EAC). EAC ensure all the engineering degree programmes that are offered by Malaysian universities are subjected to the minimum academic requirements for registration as a graduate engineer with the Board of Engineers Malaysia (BEM). BEM is representing Malaysia in Washington Accord since 2009, engineering education in Malaysia took on a broader international aspect and agreed to achieve equivalent standard with the other 14 signatories’ countries. Due to the upcoming challenges of the future, it is ideated that Malaysia engineers must progress working hard with all the necessary technical competencies in engineering science. This role is very important so that they will be flexible enough to be involved in multidisciplinary engineering tasks in Malaysia and around the world. Globalization is a trend that affects humanities, cultures, traditions and history of a country. Globalisation is defined as “the flow of people, culture, ideas, values, knowledge, technology, and economy across borders facilitating a more interconnected and interdependent world”. Engineering graduates are facing fierce challenges and competition not only locally but also internationally. Due to the global challenges and competition, local engineering graduates need to equip themselves with flexibility, ethics, professionalism, knowledge and skill in facing the global challenges. Government, educational institutions and industry plays an important role to upgrade the quality of local engineering education. The modern engineering profession deals constantly with uncertainty, incomplete data and competing (often conflicting) demands from clients, governments, environmental groups and the public. It requires technical competent and professionalism skill, as well as to be exposed to the global scenarios, current trend and future requirements. Whilst trying to incorporate more “humanity” skill into their knowledge base and professional practice, today’s engineers must also cope with continual technological and organizational changes in the workplace. In addition they must cope with the commercial realities of industrial practice in the modern world, as well as the legal consequences of every professional decision they make. The challenge for engineering education in Malaysia is to improve the current engineering education system so that the Malaysia engineering graduates are recognized internationally. Nevertheless, engineering education in Malaysia is constantly reviewed together with the professional members from the industries and education departmental. This study is expected to provide the current scenario of engineering education which later will foresee effect and the future design of accreditated engineering curriculum in Malaysia. This aim of this paper is to describe the modelled current scenario of accreditated engineering education and the accreditation process on future engineering education in Malaysia

Multi-messenger Observations of a Binary Neutron Star Merger

International audienceOn 2017 August 17 a binary neutron star coalescence candidate (later designated GW170817) with merger time 12:41:04 UTC was observed through gravitational waves by the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. The Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor independently detected a gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) with a time delay of $\sim 1.7\,{\rm{s}}$ with respect to the merger time. From the gravitational-wave signal, the source was initially localized to a sky region of 31 deg(2) at a luminosity distance of ${40}_{-8}^{+8}$ Mpc and with component masses consistent with neutron stars. The component masses were later measured to be in the range 0.86 to 2.26 $\,{M}_{\odot }$. An extensive observing campaign was launched across the electromagnetic spectrum leading to the discovery of a bright optical transient (SSS17a, now with the IAU identification of AT 2017gfo) in NGC 4993 (at $\sim 40\,{\rm{Mpc}}$) less than 11 hours after the merger by the One-Meter, Two Hemisphere (1M2H) team using the 1 m Swope Telescope. The optical transient was independently detected by multiple teams within an hour. Subsequent observations targeted the object and its environment. Early ultraviolet observations revealed a blue transient that faded within 48 hours. Optical and infrared observations showed a redward evolution over ∼10 days. Following early non-detections, X-ray and radio emission were discovered at the transient’s position $\sim 9$ and $\sim 16$ days, respectively, after the merger. Both the X-ray and radio emission likely arise from a physical process that is distinct from the one that generates the UV/optical/near-infrared emission. No ultra-high-energy gamma-rays and no neutrino candidates consistent with the source were found in follow-up searches. These observations support the hypothesis that GW170817 was produced by the merger of two neutron stars in NGC 4993 followed by a short gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) and a kilonova/macronova powered by the radioactive decay of r-process nuclei synthesized in the ejecta