ASSOCIATE PROF. DR. CECILIA CHEONG YIN MEI

Cecilia Cheong Yin Mei (PhD) is an Associate Professor in the English Language Department, Faculty of Languages and Linguistics, Universiti Malaya. She is currently the Deputy Dean of Undergraduate Studies, overseeing 9 undergraduate programmes. She was formerly the Faculty's Head of Multimedia Planning Unit, where she headed a few committees.  Her research interests include (Critical) Genre Analysis, Multimodal Discourse Analysis, English for Specific Purposes, and Communication and Professional Discourse.   She has been a Principal Investigator of various research projects, particularly involving the study of various professional genres and multimodal texts and discourses.  She was a Co-Investigator of the University’s Research Grant sub-programme on Health Tourism in Malaysia; the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education’s Strategic Plan for the Development of English Language at Public Higher Education Institutions; and West Chester University, USA’s Research and Creative Activities (RACA) project on the meaning of ‘quality’ in online courses at a Malaysian university.  She is currently the Principal Investigator (UM) and Consultant of Universitas Medan Indonesia's International Grant project on the analysis of communicative competence of air navigation students of Medan Aviation Polytechnic based on the Indonesian Aviation Curriculum.  Cecilia has supervised postgraduate students' research to completion, and currently supervises several PhD and Masters students’ research on Critical Genre Analysis, English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and Multimodality.  She has taught ESL and EFL for thirty years at various levels, from secondary school to university and adult learners.  Courses and workshops she conducts include genre and discourse analysis, applied linguistics and Language for Specific Purposes.  She is also the faculty Coordinator of Epigeum UK's English for Academic Studies programme.  Cecilia used to sit on the University's e-Learning Committee where she conducted various workshops on the use of ICT and the use of Moodle’s Spectrum platform for teaching and learning purposes, and e-learning courses at her faculty; and was the faculty Coordinator of Online Distance Learning (ODL).  In recognition of her excellent work service, she was awarded the Excellence Service Award in 2000, 2005, 2015 and 2021; Certificate of Excellence Service in 2014 and 2016; Certificate of Faculty Excellent Services in 2020; and Best Postgraduate Supervisor Award in 2021 respectively. Currently, she is the Deputy Head of the University's Student Holistic Empowerment (Cluster 4) courses, and the Open and Distance Learning Programmes Coordinator of her Faculty, responsible for setting up and overseeing the implementation of ODL academic programmes.  Cecilia is also an Associate Fellow of UM's Quality Management & Enhancement Centre (QMEC) as a UM Quality Excellence Index (UMQEI) Assessor and Program Quality Assurance Expert (ProQAE) since 2018, where she is actively involved in the implementation of Outcome Based Education, conducting workshops on the creation of new academic programmes based on OBE, and headed panels of assessors for the (re-)accreditation of academic programmes at the University. At the national level, Cecilia is the Vice President and Secretary (overseeing) of the Malaysian Association of Applied Linguistics (MAAL) which is affiliated with the International Association of Applied Linguistics (Association Internationale de Linguistique, AILA). She is Co-Chairperson of the Steering Committee that organised the very successful international 21st AILA World Congress 2024 (11-16 August 2024 at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), which also celebrated the 60th Anniversary of AILA that was attended by over 1,800 scholars and researchers in Applied Linguistics from around the world. Cecilia is also the Editor-in-Chief of the Malaysian English Language Teaching Association (MELTA)'s The English Teacher journal, and also sits on the editorial board of the ASEAN Journal of Applied Linguistics (ASJAL) journal, and an external reviewer for WOS/ISI-indexed journals, the Language Teaching Research, Sage Open, Journal of Marketing for Higher Education and Journal of Psycholinguistic Research; and Scopus-indexed journals, Pertanika’s Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities (JSSH) and GEMA Journal of Language Studies; and many other MyCite and peer-reviewed journals. She is also a certified trainer of the Human Resource Development Corporation Malaysia (HRD Corp).

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PROF. SR TS. DR. SYAHRUL NIZAM BIN KAMARUZZAMAN

Professor Sr Ts. Dr. Syahrul Nizam was born in Klang, Selangor and married to a wonderful wife blessed with three children. Syahrul starts his built environment career when completing a Certificate in Building Services Engineering from Polytechnic Jitra, Kedah (POLIMAS) in 1994. Upon completing his course, he has been a practical technician at the Holiday Inn Shah Alam for 6 months. During his training, Syahrul has been exposed to hands on and management works on maintenance aspects. After completing his studies at POLIMAS, Syahrul have been employed by a Civil & Structure Consultant which company was based in Petaling Jaya. Syahrul have been in the company for 11/2 years as an Autocad-Operator (Draught Person). Due to high enthusiasm and encouragement for continuing studies, Syahrul have been offered a place at University Science of Malaysia entering BSc. (Hons) Housing, Building & Planning course majoring in Building Technology in 1997. Looking at opportunities and support given by the university, Syahrul have continued his studies to the Masters level on Building Technology soon after graduating his first degree in 2000. Upon completing his degree course, Syahrul carried out a practical training as a civil engineer at Majlis Perbandaran Klang. During his training, he has been exposed with building design, procurement and government procedures that leads him to successfully completed the process of designing and tendering for the construction of 20 Units Food Complex in Klang, Selangor.  On leaving the University Science of Malaysia in 2001, Syahrul joined Corak Petikan Sdn. Bhd, a construction company based in Kedah as a Building Coordinator. From this company, Syahrul moved to join a public listed company Negara Properties (M) Berhad in 2002 as the Management Trainee. During this period, he has applied his extensive knowledge in building design, construction materials, construction management and procurements procedures in managing and supervising a construction project located at Nilai, Negeri Sembilan. Due to Syahrul great emphasize and interest on research field, Syahrul left his working environment and sailed for United Kingdom to undergo a research on buildings. Syahrul Nizam enrol as a PhD student at UMIST which is now University of Manchester in 2003 and later graduated in 2006 in the field of Facilities & Building Performances. During his studies, he has been actively involved in sports, social activities as well as research arena serving as Housing Bureau, Vice President of Malaysian Research Group, UK to name a few. Pursuing his career as academia, Syahrul Nizam joint University of Malaya on the 27th December 2007 and currently attached to the Building Surveying Department, Faculty of Built Environment. His expertise is in the field of Facilities & Building Performance. Prof. Syahrul currently holds over 150 publications in several ISI (WoS)/Scopus indexed journal as well as in reputable international and national journal. Prof. Syahrul is also the executive editor of the Journal of Surveying, Construction and Property, regional editorial for Journal of Facilities Management, UK (Emerald) and member of the editorial board for several international and local journals. Prof. Syahrul is also a Registered Building Surveyor, RISM; Professional Technologist, MBoT; Certified Facilities Management Manager, CIDB and Qualified Professional MyCrest, CIDB. Prof. Syahrul has made his present with the industry through his appointment as expert panel, technical advisors and committee members for JKR, CIDB, ISO as well several other government agencies and private organizations. Prof. Syahrul has received several awards including Outstanding Paper Award 2011 by Emerald UK, ISM Excellence Award: Best Article 2011and 2016 and Top Building Surveying Author in The Malaysian Surveyor 2013 and 2016 to name a few. Recently, Prof. Syahrul was awarded the Order of Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah, S.I.S (Darjah Kebesaran Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah) by his Royal Sultan Selangor marking him as one of the high-ranking individuals who have contributed excellence to the Sultan of Selangor and His Majesty's Government. Professor Sr Ts. Dr. Syahrul Nizam has always being up to date with the current development and actively conducting research in the field of built environment nationally as well as internationally. Apart from numerous internal/local/ministry research grants, Prof. Syahrul has been given the trust to conduct a national level research by Construction Research Institute of Malaysia (CREAM) research arm under Construction Industry Development Board of Malaysia (CIDB) in developing Facilities Management Strategies in Malaysia. Under partnership with University of Manchester, UK, Prof. Syahrul was awarded a research grant under Newton Ungku Omar Fund by the British Council to look into Sustainability through Building Information Modeling (BIM) leading to the creation of the future cities for the UK and Malaysia. Moving on, Prof. Syahrul has led a team in developing Building Information Modelling Facilities Management training modules for CIDB. Currently, Prof. Syahrul is leading a research team in developing Electronic Energy Benchmarking System (EeBS) funded by JKR Malaysia.  

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DR. TEH BOR TSONG

Teh Bor Tsong is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Faculty of Built Environment, Universiti Malaya. He obtained his Ph.D. in Regional Environment Systems from the Shibaura Institute of Technology, Japan. He has more than 10 years of experience in the research relating to the evidence-based urban planning to support the green growth and climate change agenda of Malaysian cities. He specialised in the sustainable urban and regional planning, environmental studies and transportation planning.

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