industrial visit

31 Multimedia, VFX and Computer Games Development students together with 2 lecturers from School of Media, Arts and Design (SoMAD) and School of Computing & Technology participated in an industrial visit cum demonstration to GameFounders Asia Sdn Bhd, Bangsar South recently. This visit was arranged by Mr. Md Baharul Islam, Dr. Chen Tet Khuan,  Mr. Naresh Kumar Appadurai, Mr. Jacob Sow, and Mr. Aylmer Lee from SoMAD.
 
During the visit, representatives from the company ushered their latest developed games from different game genres and the challenges of the game level, which allowed the students to experience a better apprehension of the concept of professional game development. GameFounders is a business incubator that provides gaming startups with seed capital.
 
Later in a presentation and interactive session, students went to a game playtest session, where 10 new games were shown. Students played the new games and provided their constructive feedback,  to the corresponding game developers. This was a great learning experience for all students who participated, in which they recognized the opportunities and challenges from current Games industry. 

In summary, the highlight of this visit was that students had the opportunity and privilege to play the game before they enter the game marketplace. It was indeed a useful and interesting demonstration, which exposed students to know the challenges of detailed game characters, levels and mechanics. Both students and lecturers who participated in the visit agreed that hands-on learning experiences are essential towards enhancing the effectiveness of mastering the subjects.

Under the guidance of Dr. Kalai Anand Ratnam from Faculty of Computing, Engineering & Technology (FCET) and Mr. Hari from APIIT Corporate Training, a total of 80 students from the APU Schools of Computing & Technology participated in an engagement session with Microsoft Malaysia recently, on the 22nd of February 2017. We are pleased to share that this visit has given them an insight of the working culture within the tech giant company, which was located at the Petronas Twin Towers, Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC). 
 
Despite being amazed by the view and the well-decorated offices of Microsoft Malaysia during the office tour conducted by a staff from Microsoft, students were also given a short workshop on building their first “cross-platform” application. Upon completion, the students also walked away with some goodies from Microsoft, together with photos that documented their memories of visiting the Malaysian office of one of the world’s largest IT corporation.

 
 
The 1-day visit aspired many of our students to undertake their career path in software development. What’s more? Some of them even set a goal for themselves, as they wish to be a member of Microsoft in the future! 

“It is better to travel ten thousand miles than to read ten thousand books.”

Apart from learning academic knowledge in classrooms, our Tourism Management students also conducted an industrial visit to Royal Selangor, in order to gain practical experience and knowledge in the real-world tourism industry, under the coordination of Mr. Pathmanaban and Ms. Fiona from the APU School of Marketing & Media (SOMM).

The students learnt about the history of Royal Selangor - Begun as a little wooden working with an "attap" rooftop more than 132 years ago, Royal Selangor was later renovated as a building with Tudor-style architecture. The Main Club house, affectionately known as "The Spotted Dog", was situated at the "Padang", now known as Dataran Merdeka in Kuala Lumpur, where cricket matches and different games occasions were once held. As a prestigious Club with 6.500 members, Royal Selangor has a sports annexe at Bukit Kiara. 

Upon their visit, the students enhanced their understanding on managing and operating a clubhouse, as well as an overview of the clubhouse’s exceptional sports, entertainment and business facilities, formal and informal restaurants, lounges, landscaped garden views as they underwent a complimentary tour. It was an enjoyable yet beneficial experience for all students who participated, and they truly enjoyed the unique out-of-classroom experience.

As part of their initiatives to expand the students’ knowledge in the practices of the tourism industry, the School of Marketing and Media (SOMM) recently organised a trip to attend the 4th Edition of the prestigious UN World Tourism Conference, held in Eastern & Oriental Hotel in Georgetown, Penang from Monday, 17 October to Wednesday, 19 October 2016.

The theme of the event was “Tourism Delights: Delivering the Unexpected”, in which it focused on ideas and strategies implemented by leading tourism policy makers to enhance the current tourism industry. The conference brought pioneering tourism leaders, policy – makers and experts from various sectors of the tourism industry to convey their knowledge and experiences with 750 participants who represented many countries around the globe.  The conference was graced by  Minister of Tourism & Culture, Dato' Seri Mohamed Nazri bin Abdul Aziz and a total of 12 of the industry’s top leaders attended including PEMANDU CEO Datuk Seri Idris Jala and Secretary General of MOTAC, YBhg. Tan Sri Dr. Ong Hong Peng.

12 students and 6 lecturers from the school were also delighted to attend the welcome dinner hosted by Dato' Seri Mohamed Nazri bin Abdul Aziz, Minister of Tourism & Culture, Malaysia.  The conference ended with a heritage tour that showcased Georgetown’s intricate heritage, in which the students had the opportunities to have the first-hand experience in tour groups at Penang.

It was an enriching experience for the staff & students who attended, these industrial trips will certainly enhance our students’ knowledge, and will prepare them for the underlying challenges ahead, as they graduate as a Tourism Professional. Below are some student testimonials after attending the programme:

“I truly thank Mr. Naban for giving me the amazing opportunity of letting me know about this conference. It was very motivating and I have learnt so many things, obtained so many memories and received a lot of educational knowledge I would have otherwise never received.” – Lay Shar Hlaing, BA (Hons) Tourism Management student from Myanmar

“I really appreciate all the lecturers for their encouragement in letting us attend this event. One of the most memorable and educational trips I have ever taken. I loved every second of it and cannot wait for another conference like this!” -   Nor Syazyiana Rosli, BA (Hons) Tourism Management student from Malaysia

As part of their effort to expose students to “first-hand” learning experiences that focus on the robust tourism and services industry, 48 students and 8 lecturers from the School of Marketing and Media participated in an educational study trip to the Ministry of Tourism & Culture in Putrajaya recently.
 

The highlight of the trip was an informative briefing by YBhg Dato Haji Azizan Noordin, Deputy Director-General (promotion), Tourism Malaysia on marketing and promotions, advertising creatives and updates on the current tourism scenario in Malaysia. After that, the group of lecturers and students were brought on a tour to the Ministry of Tourism’s Resource Centre, in which they had the opportunity to browse through archived documents and collections to further understand the operations of the ministry.

14 Multimedia and Internet Technology students together with 2 lecturers from the School of Computing participated in an industrial visit to the Bank Negara Museum & Art Gallery and Knowledge Management Center on Wednesday 16th  March, 2016.  This visit was arranged by Mrs Gaayaatri Nambiyaar and Mr. Leo Gertrude David. 

The visit was an introduction to actual applications of multimedia technologies at the museum, which allowed the students to understand the need for Information Technology in the banking industry.  The highlight of the visit was when students were able to question the usage technologies applied and the needs for the museum to further enhance the current system of demonstrating visual arts to the tourists.

Students were given the task to select an area of interest within the museum and prepare a proposal for improving the current technologies applied at the museum, as part of their learning process. They learnt to analyse and provide constructive feedback, in which their ideas were listened by Ms Juliana Abdul Rahman, the Curator from Bank Negara Museum. This was a great learning experience for all students who participated, in which they know what it takes while facing challenges from the current IT and Multimedia industry.

We are pleased to share that our Tourism Management students gained another hands-on industry experience in the field of retail travel operations, as they participated at the Malaysian Association of Tour & Travel Agents (MATTA) Fair, which was organised in the second week of March at Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC), Kuala Lumpur.

Our students were attached to MP Travel and Tour Sdn Bhd and Sipadan Dive Centre Sdn Bhd as they enhance their communication skills while addressing the available tour packages to visitors at the booths. This 3-day industrial attachment encouraged the students to take advantages of opportunities available for them, in order to serve the tourism industry to their best. 

We believe that by participating in industrial attachments like this, students will be able to gain more real-world knowledge as a tourism industry professional; in which such experiences will prepare them for upcoming challenges in the industry by expanding their perspectives on the importance of knowledge, skills and attitude outside classrooms.

13 Multimedia and Computer Games students together with 5 lecturers from School of Computing & Technology participated in an industrial visit cum demonstration to Integrasi Erat Sdn Bhd Petaling Jaya on Tuesday, 1st March 2016. This visit was arranged by Mr. Naresh Kumar Appadurai, Mr Kamalanathan Shanmugam and Mr. Mohd Najib Bin Ismail from the School of Computing & Technology, FCET, APU.

During the visit, representatives from the company introduced their Virtalis software range and solutions to staff and students in actual applications and case studies, which allowed them to have a better understanding of the concept of 3D virtualization in various sectors from business to education. Virtalis is a world-leading Virtual Reality (VR) and advanced visualization solutions provider.

A wide range of software were showcased; such as the ActiveMove, a transportable VR system that is part of the ActiveWorks suite, which allowed visualization in stereoscopic 3D with full immersion and interaction through Virtalis’ integrated head and hand tracking solution. Another solution showcased was the GeoVisionary, which was developed by Virtalis in collaboration with the British Geological Survey as a specialist software for high-resolution visualization of spatial data.  Furthermore there was the Visionary Render, a software that allows users to access and experience a real-time, interactive and immersive Virtual Reality (VR) environment created from huge 3D datasets.

The highlight of the visit was when the students had the opportunity to experience firsthand immersive 3D virtualization on various applications created using the Virtalis software by using special visors with sensors. It was indeed a useful and interesting demonstration, which exposed students to various application and areas of 3D virtualization. We look forward to more out-of-classroom learning experiences for our students in the future! 

Staff attended: Muhammad Ehsan Rana, Naresh Kumar Appadurai, Kamalanathan Shanmugam, Zierasmayu Bte Abd Rahman, Md Baharul Islam
Students attended: Ahmed Nabeeh Abdul Sattar, Sheikh Ahmed Sheikh Al-Kaf, Sharma A/L Rajasekaran, Nicholas Inggih, Kenny Kwee King, Lew Tin Wah, Bestly Edyson, Mohammed Saleh Mohammed Alzawbari, Lai Jia Lok, Muhammad Zohaib Malik, Pidial Yvan Hans, Nida Shaugi Seff

39 Diploma in Information & Communications Technology (ICT) students participated in an industrial visit to MAS Operation Office on Monday, 18th of January 2016. This visit was arranged by Ms Tham Hoong Ching from School of Technology. During the visit, MAS had introduced their Crew Management System to the students, in which allowed them to have a better understanding of the integrations of five (5) components of Information Systems (IS), and the importance of IT in supporting business processes.
 
MAS also introduced their future plans such as advancement of system towards higher mobility and the usage of Information Technology hardware/software to achieve competitive advantages. After completion of the briefing, MAS arranged a visit to their operation and crew reporting offices. In the operation office, students observed the working environment of the Crew Management teams and were able to understand the role of the operations staff including preparation of weather reports for the pilots of different airline companies. In the crew reporting office, the students managed to witness the reporting and briefing processes. Every day, the crew reports to work through a web-based system. 

On 4^th January 2016, 8 tourism students from APU were given the opportunity to render their services with Intercruises Shoreside & Port Services, the 2^nd largest cruise company in the world. Students were assigned to handle the company’s turnaround cruises at West Port. Their duties included check in of passengers, luggage tagging, directing passengers to various points for 3,700 pax.

This opportunity helped participating students gain valuable experience and provided them with a greater outlook for their future. Intercruises Shoreside & Port Services was immensely satisfied with the quality of service rendered by APU’s students. Below are some of the feedback gained from both parties:-

Cruise Operator

“ Immensely thanking all of you for the great job and support rendered to Intercruises ( Ground handler ). I will prepare the appreciation letter.” - Ms Sujeithra Nair ( Intercruises )

Participating Students

“ This is the greatest moment in APU ” by Zarina Arifova ( Khazakztan )

“ Great experience “ by Surrayo Akhmedova ( Uzbekistan )

“ Thank you for providing us such a great opportunity ” by Sonam Zangmo ( Bhutan )

“ Great opportunity to work in the cruise industry ” by Alaa Alnafouri ( Syria )

“ Wonderful journey to be experienced ” by Zaid Ammar Housni ( Syria )

“ No words to describe how I feel throughout this job, a golden opportunity for us ‘’ by Lay Shar Hlaing ( Myanmar )