3MT, We are the Champion

UPM WINS FIRST PRIZE FOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AT MALAYSIA  3MT 2014

Kuala Lumpur, 27 May 2014: UPM grabbed the first prize for the science and technology category at the first Malaysia 3MT (Three Minute Thesis) Competition 2014. The competition, which requires students to present their research to a non-specialist audience, was held at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur.  35 PhD students from 10 universities competed in three different categories: engineering, science and technology and social science.

The science and technology category was won by Siti Aimi Sarah Zainal Abidin, who wowed the judges with her presentation entitled Halal CSI: Detecting Pork in Meat Products.  Siti Aimi is a student of the Halal Products Research Institute at UPM.

“I am very excited and proud to have won in the first ever Malaysia 3MT Competition,” said Siti Aimi.  “This is all thanks to the guidance, encouragement and support from UPM’s 3MT trainers and committee members,” she added.

Two other representatives from UPM were Izni Zahidi for the engineering category, and Wilson Ow Chee Seong for the social science category.  Izni’s presentation was catchily titled Vegetation and Flood Management: A Love-Hate Relationship, while Wilson presented on Global Migration and Remittance: The Way Forward. 

Champion 3MT 2014

 Siti Aimi Sarah Zainal Abidin

Congratulations Aimi Sarah !

Assalamualaikum



We would like to congratulate Aimi Sarah for winning 3 Minute Thesis Competition at national level! This event was held yesterday 27 May 2014 at UTM KL.

Although we are not there to support you, but still we watched it live from IPPH. We are so proud of you!

Hope with this winning, we all be inspired and work harder  in the future.

Seminar Research Proposal 2013/2014

Assalamualaikum

On 22^nd of May last week, a Seminar Research Proposal was held in Halal Products Research Institute.

For your information, this course is compulsory for first/second semester post-grad student. Students will present about their own research. For HPRI students, of course they will present researches that related to halal issue, or at least research that is ‘toyyiban’ which means something good for people.

Some of the researches that currently work by HPRI students are contamination of lard in ink, extraction of polysaccharides for determination of prebiotic potential, halal capsule, halal in logistic industry, halal in packaging and more.

Sometimes some of the researches are something that we never expect to be conducted but actually it is really important and good especially for muslim. For example is about lard in ink. Ink usually used in our packaging either for food or goods. 

But, what if the ink is mixed together with lard?(Lard is oil extracted from pork’s fat). What will happen to our food? Is it contaminated with pork?

Hmm…that is something that we should concern.

However, the participation of HPRI students was very frustrating. 

Let the pictures talk on behalf of me ;)

I really hope this kind of thing never repeated again in future. Please Halalians, be more supportive! 

Come on people, change your mind set!

By: Nurul Natasha Rosman
Assalamualaikum

Here is my first post in Halal Postgraduate Blog. More will be coming in future maybe? ;) Insya Allah

What is the issue that I want to share here?

Here come the issues. The issue of ignorant, the issue of following the normality, the issue of lack of knowledge.

In Malaysia, we are multi-racial country which means include a few types of religions and of course, there are muslim and non-muslim. Each religion has their own rule. For example, muslim are not allowed to consume anything that derives from pork and not allowed to drink alcohol.

However, since we are living in multi-racial country, there are some problems occur when the non-halal mixed together with the halal.

In order to avoid the halal and non-halal from mixed up together, Jabatan Kemajuan Islam Malaysia (JAKIM) was created under government. This organization will supervise every product (especially food) and will give halal certificate to products or restaurants that qualified for halal status. So this will ease muslim in this country to differentiate between halal and non-halal products.

 However, some of us don’t really mind about the halal issue. Maybe it is due to lack of knowledge or doesn’t want to find the knowledge, perhaps?

For example, we just enter any restaurant in the shopping mall as long as there is muslim eating inside there without checking the halal status of the restaurant. If there is muslim, that’s mean the restaurant is halal. No people, that is totally wrong!

And there’s also lots of delicious food, desert stalls inside the mall that doesn’t have the halal certificate. Even though the food was prepared by muslim, or malay, what if they never check the ingredients that they use? For example, in cheese cake making, some people use gelatin.

But, what if that person itself doesn’t even know that gelatin usually derive from pork?

That is why we have to care and gain knowledge.

That is also why we should not ignore everything around us especially about food that we eat and things that we use.

That is why we should not follow the normality. Doesn’t mean there is muslim inside a restaurant, the restaurant straight away considered as halal.

Come on people, change your mind set!