• Our Research
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    SUTS Seed Grant Scheme
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• Postgraduate Research
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  • 2010
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Masters Research Projects

Biotechnology

Jennifer Ho Chin Chin BSc(Resource Biotechnol)(Hons) UNIMAS Lipid production by Chlorella protothecoides Microalgae such as Chlorella spp. produce lipids which can used as precursors for the production of biodiesel. Understanding the kinetics of cell growth and lipid biosynthesis allows firmer evaluation of the various options for biodiesel production via microalgae. In this study the productivities and yield coefficients of biomass and total lipids is being examined in the heterotrophic culture of Chlorella protothecoides under various conditions <more>.

Information Technology

Yakub Sebastian BBus(Info Sys) (Hons) SUT Functional novelty for evaluation of association rule interestingness In data mining, interestingness is a key criterion for evaluating the usefulness of association rules. Traditionally, it has been generally assumed that an interesting association rule must consist of novel combinations of rule antecedent and consequent. This is known as the pairwise approach. Such approach has suffered from the rare item problem as well as low user acceptance of the rules. This study aims to address these limitations by investigating a new non-pairwise approach known as functional novelty in the context of medical knowledge discovery task. --- Jack Lau Sing Ik BEng(Electronics)(Hons) MMU Multi-level Semantics based Authentication for Biomedical Media The research aims to investigate a relaxed criterion for authenticating biomedical media based on the semantics of the media being authenticated. We will explore the mechanics of authenticating the media using features that encapsulate important properties of biomedical media. A set of semantic and syntactic features are to be designed for authentication. One of the ideas for improving the robustness of the framework is to build a second level feature profile from the syntactic features extracted. --- Brian Loh Chung Shiong BSc(Comp Sci & Software Eng); BBus(Hons) SUT Privacy Preserving in Data Mining The data mining outsourcing scenario is where a data owner publishes data to an application service provider who returns mining results. To ensure data privacy against an un-trusted party, protection techniques are required. Anonymization, a widely used technique provides the benefit of preserving true attribute values as well as the capability of supporting various data mining algorithms. This study aims to utilize anonymization techniques for protecting data while discovering its effects on data mining utility. --- Lai Chee Ping BSc(CSSE) SUT Evidence-Based Medicine Model with Literature-calibrated Decision Tree Traditional classification algorithm which aims to achieve higher accuracy always assumes users are able to interpret the classification rules. However, most of users report that there is difficulty in converting classification outcome to their business advantage. Actionability is a new and important measure promoted by domain driven data mining (DDDM) and is used to support users in the decision-making process. Here, we use generated rules to query relevant articles in biomedical database (MEDLINE) and assign a score to each article based on the PICO framework. These articles are then sorted based on score, the content summarized, and returned to users. --- Lesley Lu Tze Chia BBus(Info Sys) SUT Methodology of costing treatment of STEMI for general hospital in Malaysia Heart attack (also known as ST Elevation Myocardial Infarction or STEMI) is the number one killer in the world including Malaysia, evolves quickly and needs accurate decision for treatment. Medical fees and consultation fees in the Malaysian government hospitals are almost funded in full by the Government where patients only have to pay very nominal fees. The traditional accounting system has become incapable for handling hospital resources in determining its costs .The proposed research aims is to develop a methodology for costing treatment for STEMI patients. --- Antionette Goh Wei Ting BEng(Electronics & Comp Sys)(Hons) SUT Discrete Pascal Transform-based Authentication Schemes for DICOM Images The authentication of DICOM digital biomedical images is a concern as these images carry potentially sensitive data. With widely available powerful digital image editing software, these images may fall vulnerable to untraceable modification leading to undesirable implications such as insurance and forensic fraud. Recently, digital watermarking methods have been proposed to overcome the inadequacies of currently employed security methods (e.g. encryption) in this situation. This research seeks to study the watermarking capability of the Discrete Pascal Transform domain and to gauge the efficiency of watermarking-based authentication methods in this particular domain. --- Vivi Mandasari BMm (Multimedia Software Development) SUT 2D Animated Social Story for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders Research The main deficit in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) is in the area of social skills. There have been many attempts in helping children with ASD to learn social skills; one of them is Social Story. Social Story’s researchers have also been trying to combine the traditional Social Story itself with other types of intervention. In this research, we propose a novel way of presenting Social Story, which is in the form of 2D animation. Children with ASD are visual learners; therefore we anticipate that this method of presentation would be effective and appealing for children with ASD to learn social skills. --- Wendy Japutra Jap BSc(Comp Sci & Software Eng) SUT Actionability in Time Series Forecasting for Better User Acceptance Model-based techniques including statistical methods have achieved increasingly acceptable accuracy in time series forecasting. Despite their sufficient performance, in practice, decision makers often underestimate results obtained from model-based approaches, and intuitively override them with their own forecast. Unfortunately, their actions do not always result in better forecasting results. Our research aims to improve the actionability of model-based forecasting approaches, i.e. to elevate decision maker acceptance towards model-based forecasting outputs by providing sufficient explanation of forecasting results. --- Nia Valeria BMm (Multimedia Software Development) SUT Collaborative Virtual Learning for assisting teaching and learning of children with Cerebral Palsy Communication through speech is important in conveying thoughts, needs and it is a foundation of literacy. However, some people find it a challenge particularly children with Cerebral Palsy (CP). Due to the complexities that they have, their milestones in learning are slower than a typical child. In order to assist the learning ability of the targeted children, development of a Collaborative Virtual Learning tool is been proposed with the aims to assist the learning ability of the targeted children through a responsive avatar. The outcome of the learning will be evaluated in order to know the effectiveness of the tool. --- Ong Chin Ann BMm (Multimedia Software Development), SUT Enhanced Behaviour Monitoring System for the Physical and Communication Disabled Communication is one of the common difficulties faced by people with Cerebral Palsy. Hence, an enhanced communication tool for interpersonal-human interaction and communication is needed for these people  to tackle the problem. We propose a real-time behaviour monitoring system by employing real-time facial expression recognition in our system and use it to monitor the CP afflicted people. The proposed system can be trained to recognize each critical expression of disabled people individually. The system can be installed in a laptop mounted on the disabled wheelchair for real time continuous monitoring. The parents, caretakers or teachers of the disabled can be notified if any critical expressions expressed by the disabled occur. --- Lau Tiu Chung BBusiness (Info Sys) SUT Search Optimization Technique in Lifetime Health Plan Generally, if a person has a particular health problem, many online healthcare knowledgebase can be searched to identify information correlates with it. There are a few renowned healthcare knowledgebase like Wolfram Alpha or DBpedia. The structuring of information from various sources into a knowledgebase involves complex data query and mining. This research proposes a knowledgebase search engine for healthcare information sources in Malaysia.  --- Serena Sim Shing Yin BMultimedia (Bus Marketing) SUT; BBus (Hons) SUT Social Software for Collaborative Adaptive Learning in E-learning Over the last decade, e-learning has been delivered by a technology-enhanced learning (TEL) model which puts heavy emphasis on content delivery and technology without focusing on the social aspects of learning. The characteristics of the current web trends and technologies (social software and Web 2.0) are able to highlight the social perspective of learning and the architectures that support interaction, collaboration, lifelong and real-world learning to the learners. The major purpose of this research is to develop a collaboration adaptive learning platform (CALP) that meets the changes in current learning characteristics in a social networking framework.

Mechanical Engineering

Chong Chee Jiun BSc(Hons) UM Mathematical Modeling and Experimental Investigation of drying of Piper Nigrum L. Piper Nigrum L. is a perennial climbing vine. The berries of this crop are used to produce the world famous spice, pepper. In this work, only the drying process for black pepper will be studied. Experiments to study the drying characteristics of berries are being conducted to determine the optimum conditions to produce quality black pepper. A mathematical model to describe the drying process will be developed. --- Luk Tien Boh BEng(Robotics & Mechatronics) SUT Analytical Study and Fabrication of a Solar-based Dryer for Pepper Drying Peppercorn production in Malaysia is very much dependent on small-scale farming located in the rural area. Solar dryer is believed to be the best solution for farmers with limited access to modern drying facilities but at the same time needing to dry (preserving) pepper berries under the unpredictable tropical rain-forest weather. The research aims to study and to develop a simple, low cost, and portable natural convective solar dryer that will optimize the throughput and product quality in all-weather condition. This environmentally-friendly research is funded by Malaysian Pepper Board. --- Wong Sze Yie BEng(Robotics & Mechatronics)(Hons) SUT Swinburne Investigation of the sustainability of a stand-alone solar system in a rural village in Sarawak The Malaysian Government aims to provide electricity to homes, villages and indigenous communities, beyond the operational areas of local authorities. Rural electrification in Sarawak is initiated in the Ninth Malaysia Plan (2006-2010), comprising grid-extension as well as stand-alone generators and use of alternative energy such as solar installations or hybrid systems. The proposed research aims to investigate the sustainability of a stand-alone Solar System for the use of a Penan remote village in Sarawak.

Robotic & Mechatronic Engineering

Frederick Chieng Teck Ann BEng(Robotics & Mechatronics)(Hons) SUTS Conceptual design and optimal power control strategy for an eco-friendly hybrid vehicle This study presents a new concept for a hybrid vehicle using a torque and speed splitting technique for the vehicle power use rationalization. This approach enables optimization of the power sharing between the less powerful electrical motor and more powerful engine while driving a car load. Carefully selected power split system transmission ratios enables the vehicle to be drived by the electric motor when torque demand is low, such as at high cruising speed on even surface, and by the internal combustion engine when the torque demand is gradually increased, such as driving up the hill with lower speed. This system has a huge potential as it is possible to integrate all the features of hybrid vehicle known to-date such as the regenerative braking system, series hybrid, parallel hybrid, series/parallel hybrid in one complex hybrid system . By using the new power split system it is possible to further reduce fuel consumption.