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Dr Nur Azah Hamzaid is currently Associate Professor at the University of Malaya, Malaysia. She obtained her bachelor in Mechatronics Engineering (1st class Hons) in 2005 and then pursued her PhD in Rehabilitation Engineering at the University of Sydney, Australia. While her background is hard engineering, her interest in applying her Mechatronics Engineering knowledge into the rehabilitation field brought her to undertake clinical and biomechanics courses. As her PhD project, she developed a novel isokinetic FES leg stepping trainer for individuals with Spinal Cord Injury, and investigate the effects of its use by the paraplegics in the Rehabilitation Gym in the University of Sydney Lidcombe campus during their FES training sessions. She is now at Biomedical Engineering Department in UM since 2010, pioneering the Biomechatronics, Neuroprosthetics and Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) research group in Malaysia. Dr Azah, as known by her students in UM, teaches Biomechatronics and Prosthetics & Orthotics courses which include FES in Rehabilitation Robotics. In her second year of service in UM, in 2011, she was appointed as the Coordinator of Bachelor in Biomedical Engineering (Prosthetics & Orthotics), the first degree program aiming to produce Prosthetics & Orthotics Engineers in Malaysia. Her involvement in product development and research in Rehabilitation Engineering got her involved closely with ISPO Education group and the University Malaya Medical Centre, especially the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine. Her work on Prosthetics for Rural areas in particular, got her involved with the Community of Prosthetics Practitioners group which included partners from the Netherlands, South Africa, and Indonesia, which is in line with the WHO GATE initiative and ISPO. Other than that, she works on multiple projects for people with disabilities such as Spinal Cord Injury, amputation, stroke and children's education with industry and community partners. She is currently the Head of Research Training Unit in Academic Enhancement and Leadership Development Centre (ADeC), UM, and is also the Founding President and currently Vice President of International FES Society Malaysia Chapter and Board Member of ISPO Malaysia Chapter. She is also the co-founder of the engineering outreach program "Let's Go To Mummie's Lab". She has published at least 60 ISI-listed scientific publications, a number of conference papers, a couple of book chapters and has filed a few patents and trademarks. Her innovations, which include a novel sensorised transfemoral prosthetics socket for a microprocessor-based actuated prosthesis, a novel muscle-state informed muscle electrical stimulation device for paralysis and an elderly stroke electronic communication board, are in the process of commercialization through University Malaya Centre of Innovation and Commercialization. Her expertise has also brought her to the FES-Cycling Cybathlon championship, a world event for technology-assisted race for people with disabilities, in which their team placed 7th in the world. Dr Azah has so far graduated 3 PhD and 9 MEngSc students while supervising few more PhD and Masters students. She has also won Innovation Awards from ITEX, PECIPTA, Malaysia Technology Expo (MTE), BioMalaysia, i-ENVEX, KNovasi, and her work has been featured in national mass media including BFM radio, Nona TV3, Selamat Pagi Malaysia RTM, Mingguan Wanita, and other local newspapers, apart from UM Award for PhD completion in less than 3 years. She was also nominated for the UNESCO Award for the Popularization of Science in 2019. Her aim is to improve the Rehabilitation Engineering field in Malaysia by uplifting the knowledge and application through quality teaching and curriculum enhancement via industrial involvement, better student experience and participation in and out of class and in research, and bridging the gap between actual society and patient's need and technology provision through sustainable means. 

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4277-2813