Mala Rajo Sathian is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Southeast Asian Studies and the founding coordinator of the Thai studies programme, both at Universiti Malaya, Malaysia. She previously held visiting research affiliations at Prince of Songkla University, Pattani campus, Thailand, and as a Fulbright Scholar at the Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, US. Her areas of research include Thailand, south Thailand and north Malaysia, relating to ethnicity and marginalisation, diasporas, conflict, governance and histories of nation building. Her publications include: Siamese in Malaysia: Beyond sixty years of heritage (2018) and various articles and chapters on ethnic minorities, identity, conflict and methodology in area studies.  She hopes to advance a message of peace and tolerance towards minority communities living in multicultural Southeast Asia through her research and writing.

Dr. Asmak Ab Rahman is a Professor at the Department of Shariah and Economics, Academy of Islamic Studies, Universiti Malaya (UM). She holds a PhD in Islamic Economics, as well as a Master’s and Bachelor’s degree in Shariah from UM. As an expert in Islamic economics and finance, Dr. Asmak’s research covers various areas, with particular emphasis on Islamic insurance, Islamic finance, Islamic banking, Islamic social finance, and Shariah.Throughout her career, Dr. Asmak has held several prestigious positions. She has served as the Head of the Department of Shariah and Economics at the Academy of Islamic Studies, Universiti Malaya. She currently serves as the Deputy Dean of Research and Innovation, Academy of Islamic Studies, Universiti Malaya, and is also a Committee Member of the Universiti Malaya Zakah Fund. In addition, she contributes her expertise to academic publishing as a Managing Editor and is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the faculty journal, Jurnal Syariah.Her expertise is widely recognised within the Islamic finance industry. She currently serves as a Shariah Committee Member for Affin Islamic Bank Berhad, FWD Takaful, and Permodalan Usahawan Nasional Berhad. Previously, she served on the Shariah Committees of Tabung Haji (1 May 2016 – 30 April 2025), Ambank Islamic (1 July 2011 – 30 June 2022), SME Bank (1 April 2011 – 30 June 2022), Hong Leong MSIG Takaful (1 March 2014 – 31 March 2023), BIMB Investment (1 November 2008 – 31 March 2022), and AIA AFG Takaful (1 November 2011 – 1 November 2013).Dr. Asmak is a prolific scholar with numerous publications in books, book chapters, and academic journals. Her most recent book, Higher Education Finance and Islamic Endowments, was published by Routledge. She has a Scopus H-Index of 14 and a Web of Science (WOS) H-Index of 11. She has secured multiple research grants from government and industry sources. Under her supervision, 38 PhD students have successfully completed their studies and are now serving in various institutions locally and internationally.She is a member of the Association of Shariah Advisors in Islamic Finance (ASAS) and the International Council of Islamic Finance Educators (ICIFE). Additionally, she is a registered Shariah Advisor with the Securities Commission Malaysia.

Dr. Mohammed Abdo Hashem is currently working as Senior Lecturer (Assistant Professor) with the department of Mechanical Engineering at Faculty of Engineering in University of Malaya starting from April 2021-Onwards.  He has a quite long experience in teaching courses in the fields of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering for more than 8 years. Besides that, he was working as engineer in several industrial companies for more 3 years. In 2015, He was appointed as a senior lecturer and leader of control, software and automation teaching & research groups, in the Faculty of Manufacturing Engineering- Universiti Malaysia Pahang, where he led many research and teaching activities during the period of appointment between 2015 and 2021.  In the research, a total of four patents have been granted to his novel research and products, namely; laser simulator approach for path planning, intelligent spanner and the autonomous road marks painting system version 1&2; with furthermore publishing more than 60 papers in high indexed ISI journals, Scopus, chapters and conferences. He recieved more than 12 grants as leader from MOHE (1FRGS and 1 PRGS) and Universiti Malaysia Pahang (8 RDU grants).  His research interests include, but are not limited to the following areas: Autonomous Mobile Robot Navigation, Artificial Intelligence, Robot Path Planning, SLAM, Industrial Robotics, Mobile Manipulators, Sensors Fusion, Mechatronics Systems, Automation and IR.4, Intelligent Active Force Control, Signal and Image Processing. He is currently working, in his research group, on developing a novel AI algorithm, called laser simulator logic, that helps to avoid the drawbacks of current fuzzy logic type 1 and 2, especially in the noisy environments of industrial systems.