FOUR members of Malaysia’s academia recently kept Malaysia’s flag flying high with their participation in the Transformers Summit, held in Senegal from Dec 9 to 10.
The four - Dr Azman Senin of Universiti Kuala Lumpur, Dr Muhamad Shirwan Abdullah Sani and Dr Nabilah Ramli (International Islamic University Malaysia) and Dr Mohamad Faizal Ahmad Fauzi (Multimedia University) - were among the international participants chosen by the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) for their innovative research.
Innovators at the summit had a booth each at the Centre International de Conferences Abdou Diouf, the site of many international conferences and meetings hosted by Senegal. The convention centre was also where the International Conference on Emerging Africa was held, which Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad attended in January.
The innovators were asked to prepare a two-minute pitch, to explain their ideas to guests who visited their booths. Ideas ranged from a thermal jacket for premature babies to an artificial intelligence-driven electrosurgical generator, and from a handheld device for cholera detection to the introduction of biodegradable shopping bags.
The Malaysian innovators brought with them ideas for the development of an automaton for rail-integrity inspection, prognostic reporting system for breast cancer patients, and an integrated design project for Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) innovation.
Competition among the innovators was fierce, and at least one of the Malaysians admitted that he did not think he would be chosen because of the pool of talent available. Because there were so many good innovations to choose from, the selection board made an exception and choose 34 individuals instead of the 30 it had originally planned.
The participants this year were drawn from 20 different countries, making Malaysia’s participation at the summit the largest delegation to be represented.
All 34 innovators flew into Dakar a week before the summit, and were given a week-long workshop on how to pitch, market and patent their ideas, as well as discuss potential collaboration.
Chief Scientific Adviser to the President of the IsDB Dr Hayat Sindi of Saudi Arabia - the mastermind behind the Transformers Summit - was with the innovators throughout the week-long session which brought in marketing, legal, and publicity experts from around the globe.
The summit was a gathering of the best minds from IsDB member countries. A total of 5,055 innovations were considered by the Transform Fund of the IsDB, and 1,417 applications were shortlisted before the finalists were decided upon.
An interesting piece of information divulged by the secretariat was that of this massive number, 58 per cent of the applications were from women innovators.
The idea behind the IsDB’s Transform Fund is to provide seed money for innovations that would have a direct impact on the livelihood and wellbeing of people, in particular those in the developing and least developed countries.
This year’s summit ran on the theme of Goal 11 of the SDGs - Sustainable Cities and Communities. This was an apt choice for IsDB, given that 21 of its 57 member countries are in the least-developed country status, and that Africa is the one continent in danger of not achieving most of the development goals.
Senegal President Macky Sall officiated the opening, keeping his promise of hosting the summit after its inaugural ceremony in Cambridge, United Kingdom, last year.
The summit is also part and parcel of Senegal’s drive to position itself as the centre for conventions, summits and conferences in West Africa.
Present were IsDB president Dr Bandar Hajjar, Senegalese ministers and ambassadors from IsDB member countries, as well as United Nations Children’s Fund Goodwill Ambassador and Whitaker Peace & Development Initiative founder and actor Forest Whitaker.
The writer is a foreign service officer who writes on international affairs with a particular emphasis on Africa
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times
