Universiti Malaya’s Smart Engineering and Sustainable Urban Farm was officially launched last week (Jan 15) in the presence of the university’s top academicians, weighing in on long-term goals and expanding it beyond the initial scope.
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00:00University Malaya's smart engineering and sustainable urban farm
00:06has been officially launched in the presence of the university's top academicians,
00:11weighing in on long-term goals and expanding it beyond the initial scope.
00:16Located on the rooftop of the chemical engineering department,
00:20the urban farm is the brainchild of senior lecturer Dr. Fathia Mohamedzuki.
00:25She set the wheels in motion by applying for the UM Living Labs grant
00:29under the purview of the UM Sustainability and Development Centre, UMSDC.
00:34Her proposal resulted in her being shortlisted and winning a RM30,000 grant.
00:40As far as she knows, Fathia said no other public university in the country
00:45has this sort of sustainable rooftop garden.
00:48So what we have here, we can produce fish, different kinds of fish as well,
00:53not only one, but we started with tilapia, and we have, you know, barb also,
00:58and coming soon is catfish.
01:01And then if you look at this, different kinds of vegetables,
01:05and also we're going to have fruits, different kinds of fruits as well,
01:09and other vegetables.
01:12So these are the things that we should introduce to our community.
01:18If possible, every single house, they have their own portable aquaponics system,
01:26so they can actually produce their own food, not only vegetables but also fish,
01:33just like what you have seen from our students' product.
01:37UMSDC founding director, associate professor Dr. Zida Fatima Mohamed
01:43said they will look into how to transform UM into a sustainable campus.
01:48We want to walk the talk, and I guess this Living Lab embodies that
01:53in the sense that it addresses a number of SDGs.
01:56SDG 2 on zero hunger, looking into SDG 11, sustainable cities and communities,
02:04SDG 12, sustainable consumption.
02:07So it addresses multiple areas of sustainability,
02:11and we see that it also offers a lot of areas for research, education and engagement.
02:18UM deputy vice-chancellor for research and innovation,
02:22Professor Dr. Kaharuddin Dimyati,
02:24said the urban farm can be expanded beyond the Faculty of Engineering.
02:28I think what we need to do now,
02:31so we are now at the Faculty of Engineering,
02:33we need to expand over.
02:36I think the one that was mentioned now, it is under the SULAM project,
02:41SULAM programme.
02:42So SULAM is basically throughout the university.
02:45So once we are able to make these things happen,
02:48good prototype I would say,
02:51so then we can showcase to the university community.
02:54Besides providing areas for research, education and engagement,
02:58the urban farm has also become a communal space
03:02for students and faculty members to gather to de-stress.
03:05But the students themselves come and say,
03:08thank you doctor, you have developed this area,
03:11I came here every day because I was so stressed with my study,
03:16and then when I came here with those sounds of water and so on,
03:21we feel like de-stressed and we have our healing section here,
03:25something like that.
03:26So I don't have to ask everybody,
03:29but you can ask my students as well.
03:32They feel comfort and they feel like this conducive area
03:38really helps them in their study.