Humans.and.Robots.

The National Autism Society of Malaysia (NASOM) has been the most valuable research partner for my research at HuRoBs since 2011. As I have mentioned before, I will always do my best to support and give help to NASOM as much as I can. So when Puan Rose (the Vice Principal of NASOM) called me two weeks ago asking for volunteers to help with The NASOM National Sports Day 2014 on 10th June 2014, I immediately asked for help from my colleagues at HuRoBs to help out at the event. The full program for the sports day are: The on-site preparations at Stadium JKR Seksyen 17 began a day earlier where all the teachers and committee members set-up the place for the 50 M run and also Sukaneka (Tele-match). The day for the Sports Day dawned bright, sunny and hot when I arrived at the stadium on the 10th June. Most of the participants with their respective parents and families were already there having breakfast before the event officially starts at 7:45 am. All the volunteers ...

Hello everyone. Sorry as I am a bit delayed in reporting this. Photo from Aldebaran/Softbank Meet Pepper, the new robot! At a first glance, its head rather look like NAO, don't you think? And he zips around on wheels. What's so special about Pepper? First of all, it will be sold in the mass market soon for an affordable price of about USD 2,000 or ¥198,000. Aldebaran built the robot for SoftBank, the Japanese telecom giant. SoftBank Corporation will release Pepper in Japan early next year. Most importantly, Pepper is a robot that can recognize human emotions and react accordingly. According to a press statement by Aldebaran: "Pepper is a humanoid robot that takes his surroundings into consideration to react pro-actively using proprietary algorithms. Pepper also comes equipped with capabilities and an interface that enables communication with people, including the latest voice recognition technology, superior joint technology to realize graceful gestur...

Assalamualaikum and hi :) Do you know that "My PhD” in Dutch is "Mijn Doctoraat"? Just so you know. Anyway, this will be just a short post. My mind has been entertaining the idea of publishing my thesis, insya Allah once I've finished writing it. I came across this notion for the first time many years ago when I met a senior colleague who just got back from his PhD study in TU Leuven. He said that his thesis was published as book, complete with ISBN number.  You and I know that in most universities (especially Malaysia), thesis are published as hardcover manuscripts which are then archived in the library, accumulating dust over the years and not accessible to be referred or cited by academia. What a huge waste! Then recently I met another young lady who had just completed her PhD at TU Delft. Also, same story. She had printed over 100 copies of her thesis-book. Amazing. So this is my dream. Publishing my own thesis as a book.  Also, ther...

IEEE WIE Affinity Group collaboration with UiTM Shah Alam had successfully organized a Special Lecture: The process for Measurement, Assessments and Evaluations of Programme Educational Objectives by Prof. Dr. Muhammad H. Rashid from the University of West Florida.  The details are as follows; Lecture Title: THE PROCESS FOR MEASUREMENT, ASSESSMENTS AND EVALUATIONS OF PROGRAMME EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES Date: 21st May 2014 Time: 8.30 am – 12.00 noon Venue: Al-Hidayah Seminar Room, Level 9, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, UiTM, Shah Alam Speaker: Prof. Dr. Muhammad H. Rashid, University of West Florida Lecture Synopsis: The Malaysian Engineering Accreditation Council requires that the programme objectives must describe the expected achievements of graduates in their career and professional life a few years after graduation and these must be consistent with the mission and vision of the institution. There must also be a process of on-going assessment and...