INTRODUCTION

Computing that surrounds us today is a far cry from its humble beginnings where one personal computer was shared by everybody at home. Nowadays, computers are more than just tools, they are ubiquitous assistants in our day-to-day lives. Over the last decade, the range of Internet-connected devices has grown significantly, fueled in part by the exponential growth of applications and new cloud-based services.

Put together, these trends are leading to a future marked by what some call the Internet of Things (IoT): a world where millions of people, processes, and devices (from fridges and cars to heart rate monitors, energy tools, and traffic monitors) are connected in ways where the sum is greater and smarter than the individual parts. The power and potential of all these connected and smart technologies offers us the freedom and flexibility to do things when, how and where we want.

IoT is regarded as one of the main backbones of Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR4.0).  It has been predicted by McKinsey Global Institute that it will generate up to $11T in value to the global economy by 2025.  The IoT is about much more than just smart refrigerators or lifestyle enhancement. It also includes a corporate side, enabling organizations to collect and analyze data from sensors on manufacturing equipment, pipelines, weather stations, smart meters, delivery trucks and other types of machinery.

There are many players in Malaysia who have started their IoT initiative, either in the academic or industry players.  Majority of them are focusing on the smart gadgets, especially in terms of creating, packaging, optimizing, producing in masses, power saving, long-life battery, better sensor reading and communication, etc.  Although all the initiatives are very important in creating a robust and complete ecosystem in the IoT roadmap, we are still very much lacking in managing and analyzing IoT data in business applications (industrial analytics) and other important areas.  It is imperative for businesses to harness the data, analyze it for data-driven insights, and find the business in their data to achieve these better outcomes.

UUM has possess a very strong record in the field of business data analytics and big data.  We can offer to fill in this gap in bringing Malaysia towards IR4.0.  Getting there involves establishing a data supply chain to properly and quickly mobilizing data for consumption, developing a robust analytical platform - enabling data to flow easily, quickly and usefully through the entire organization – and eventually throughout each company’s ecosystem of partners – companies are on their way to realizing the true value hidden in data.

Next, to reap the full benefits of the IoT, it is important to develop a robust analytical platform that brings together the capabilities around sensor-driven computing, industrial analytics and intelligent machine applications. A myriad of analytics tools can sift through and process data once they have been programmed with the parameters. Whatever the tools used, the ideal goal is to put a system in place that can automate the analytics process of collecting and processing raw data, which can then be used to deliver business insights.

In realizing the importance and need of digital-enabled solutions in today’s world, School of Computing, Universiti Utara Malaysia is proposing the MCMC-UUM MyMaker Laboratory to encourage research and publication in related fields. The vision of the laboratory is to act as the innovation hub in the emerging technology of Internet of Things through democratization of innovation, realization of prototype, and products before deployment of the IoT devices.

OBJECTIVES

• To create innovative applications and domain capability across verticals for country’s needs such as Smart Community, Smart Business, Smart Agriculture, etc.
• To build industry-capable talent, start-up community and entrepreneurial ecosystem for IoT.
• To provide an ecosystem for innovation to thrive and embrace entrepreneurship.
• To energize research mind-set and reduce costs in research and development by providing neutral and interoperable, multi-technology stack laboratory facilities.
• To reduce import dependency on IoT components and promote indigenization.
• To provide environment for product creation, testing and also for validation & incubation.