RESEARCH ENHANCED WORKSHOP SERIES (REWS)
Title: Developing and Research on Games for Civic Participations and Social Causes
Date of Event: 24th May 2022 (2.00 PM – 3.30 PM).
Location: CS Auditorium, Level 2, School of Computer Sciences, USM and Online via Webex.
Number of Persons Attending: 65

Talk Session Summary
On the 24th of May 2022, 2.00 pm-3.30 pm, the School of Computer Sciences, USM, had the privileged to listen to a 1-hour sharing session from Professor Grace. Professor Grace is Knight Chair in Interactive Media and an associate professor at the University of Miami, School of Communication. Prof Grace gives a sharing on topics related to developing games for civic participation and social causes. The talk session gives an eye opener and different perspective on the game in research and motivation that enable fun elements in related research work.

From the talk, Prof Grace shared a different view of games to be used as entertainment and as part of the engagement tools and research field. By incorporating the heuristic, human-computer interaction elements with the right research problem or goal, games produced will give valuable insight and knowledge to the user. The sessions help the listener understand the video game industry better. During the session, Prof Grace also shared some applications developed by him. He portrayed how data gathering and behaviours changing can be utilized through games. Examples are “FACTitious” and automated News Recovery. They culled all stories from the internet and tested the player to see if they could differentiate between fake news and real news. This kind of game eventually educates users on differentiating news received and gives exposure and awareness to the public.
The session is closed with Q&A sessions from the participants (face-to-face and Webex) and a photo session. We hope the sessions benefited listeners directly or indirectly.

Prepared by: Haziqah Shamsudin June 4, 2022.

Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) has embarked on the journey with Huawei back in 2018 when a memorandum of understanding has been signed on 1st July 2018 to establish a collaboration for USM- Huawei ICT Academy.

The USM-Huawei relationship has helped students from University Sains Malaysia in many ways. In 2019, the graduate employability in University Sains Malaysia is over 90%. Huawei ICT Academy Programme is leading the ICT world into the whole new level. The collaboration with Huawei has set USM’s student apart from other job seekers as the Huawei ICT Academy Programme had prepare the graduates with highly in-demand skills. The USM Vice-Chancellor had provided his valuable thoughts on how the USM-Huawei ICT Academy successfully cultivate ICT talents with the industry-based skills so students who graduated are employment ready.

Besides that, the collaboration with Huawei has provided many benefits to USM. Students were often invited to join Huawei Online Webinar that is free. Students get a chance to understand more about the latest technology updates. To date, several USM students have successfully obtained the Huawei Certified ICT Associate (HCIA) and Huawei Certified ICT Professional (HCIP) certificates.

The MSc in Digital Transformation programme is now open for the inaugural intake in October 2022. Visit admission.usm.my to apply.

Congratulations to the winners of the 2 Minute Poster (2MP) Competition as part of CSMInD S211.

The Computer Science Masters Innovation and Demo, CSMInD has always been a platform for coursework postgraduate students of the School of Computer Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, to share their ideas and projects.

CSMInD is organized every semester (2 times a year) and the 2 Minute Poster (2MP) competition consists of 3 categories:

C1 (Data Science & Analytics),

C2 (Master of Informatics ), and

C3 (Computer Sciences- Mixed-Mode)

Congratulations to Assoc. Prof.  Dr. Umi Kalsom Yusof, the 1st recipient of Micron Malaysia University Funding for USM as well as in Malaysia. Well done!  We're proud of your achievement in securing this funding.