Dr. Mohd Faizal Omar Is UUM’s Sole Recipient Of PRGS Phase 1/2019

A fellow lecturer from the School of Quantitative Science (SQS), Dr. Mohd Faizal Omar is the sole researcher from UUM whose application successfully secured a research grant for the Prototype Development Research Grant (PRGS) Phase 1/2019 worth MYR51,000.

According to him, the grant was for the development of social media analytical prototypes that will be used to gain insights and analyse consumer sentiments and views.

He said the web-based prototype would use data from social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to obtain useful information that can improve product marketing strategies or improve government governance.

"The new research project starting this month is also expected to help industry stakeholders understand the online trend of a brand, service or policy.

"They need to use the latest technology to monitor, evaluate and optimize their marketing strategies and improve the quality of decision-making," he said.

He who is the Deputy Director (Special Tasks) at the Research and Innovation Management Centre (RIMC) produced a project called, 'Prototype Development of Real-Time Social Media Analytics with Malay-English Sentiment Analysis in Assessing and Monitoring Product, Service and Policy'.

PRGS is a research grant from the Ministry of Education Malaysia which emphasizes on the aspect of prototype development at institution of higher education in Malaysia.

The scope of the grant covers aspects of conceptualization, evaluation, up-scaling, pre-clinical testing and field testing.

Meanwhile, the Director of RIMC, Prof Dr Nor Aziah Abd Manaf expressed her gratitude that one of the two short-listed studies had successfully obtained the PRGS this year.

According to her, obtaining such a grant was not an easy task and it can be very competitive under strict conditions.  Not only that, the applicant had to have previous research results.

She also expressed hope that the achievement would inspire other researchers to think ahead of the initiative to ensure that their research could be commercialized.

"RIMC is also working on seed funding to facilitate researchers at the university to present potential paperwork to financiers.

"I hope that this effort will stimulate and inculcate innovation and pre-commercialization activities especially in UUM," she said.