As Prof Chuah Hean Teik retires from UTAR, both staff and students, received the news with a tinge of sadness but a feeling of much pride for the former president of UTAR, whose accomplishments and contributions to the university are multi-fold, spanning a period of more than 11 years. As explained in his email to the staff, it is time for him to retire and for him to pass the baton to the next president.
Words are not enough to express the contributions and accomplishments of an engineer who has provided leadership to universities and professional bodies; has served and held significant decision-making and mentoring positions in 30 professional bodies and national committees; has obtained fellowships in 11 professional bodies locally and internationally; and most of all, has garnered a total of 40 titles, awards and professional recognition. Prof Chuah is truly a rare gem and a true-blue educator, researcher and technical leader whose leadership has led to many initiatives and influenced the lives of those around him, both locally and internationally.
Prof Chuah is considered a Who’s Who in the engineering profession in Malaysia, ASEAN, Asia and the Pacific. He has been in academia since 1986, and has held the post of a full Professor for the last 22 years. He was the founding Professor and Dean of the Engineering Faculty in Multimedia University. In recognition of his vast experience, his visionary leadership and his contributions towards the success of Multimedia University, Prof Chuah was appointed to the post of President and Chief Executive Officer of Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) from April 2008 until his retirement in September 2019. He is now an Emeritus Professor of UTAR.
Within a period of 3 years upon his appointment as UTAR President, Prof Chuah managed to link UTAR with universities and organisations world-wide. As a result of this initiative and his commitment towards internationalisation over the years, UTAR now has more than 360 local and international MoU partners from 24 countries and international students from more than 40 countries. He has been instrumental in the setting up of many student and staff exchange programmes leading to students from countries such as Japan, Korea, China, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Germany, Chinese Taipei and France, studying and visiting UTAR on exchange programmes, and UTAR students going there on exchange and study tours. This year alone, about 2000 UTAR and overseas students have participated in such exchanges.
In addition to the exchanges, R&D collaborations between UTAR and Japan, Korea, China, Chinese Taipei and Germany have been mooted with many UTAR academics collaborating on projects and obtaining research grants to fund their projects. In 2016, the Chinese Taipei Ministry of Education conferred upon him the prestigious Professional Education and Culture Medal for his significant contributions in education and cultural exchanges between Taiwan and Malaysia.
Prof Chuah is not one who is just contented with previous achievements. He insists that the university must progress with the times and anticipate future trends and demands. He initiated more than 50 new academic programmes for UTAR which include degrees in international shipping and logistics, international economics, internet engineering, environmental engineering, traditional Chinese medicine, games design and early childhood education. It was also during his tenure as President that the Tun Tan Cheng Lock Centre, the Guangxi University of Chinese Medicine TCM Centre and the Mary Kuok Library in UTAR Sungai Long Campus, and the Mencius Institute, Jobstreet Corner and UTAR Gallery in UTAR Kampar Campus, were set up within the campus itself.
During his tenure as the President of UTAR, Prof Chuah led the university with much conviction and introduced several remarkable educational initiatives which enhanced the educational experience of students in the university. Among his many academic contributions to UTAR, the most significant was when he designed a structured Soft-Skill Development Certification programme (USSDC) for all UTAR undergraduates so that they can be better trained as wholesome graduates in addition to academic studies. This certification programme covers 10 key components for overall character building and they are; Communication & Language Skills, Cognitive Skills, Complex Problem Solving Skills, Critical Thinking, Emotional Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence and Team Work, Moral & Professional Ethics, Leadership Skills, Lifelong Learning & Information Management, Entrepreneurship Skills and Digital Literacy. This certification programme introduced soft skills training that enhanced the education of UTAR students and contributed towards UTAR graduates enjoying an overall employability rate of 97% within the first 6 months after graduation.
With the same mission of enhancing the educational experience of UTAR students, Prof Chuah initiated the New Village Community Projects in UTAR in 2009. The project aims to bring undergraduate students to the new villages for community work, and to help the local cottage industry set up a website to promote economic activities and sales of the products unique to each new village. To-date more than 500 new village projects across the country have been completed and more than a million people, including staff, students and the community, have participated in various community projects over the years. For UTAR’s consistent efforts in conducting community work, the university won the CSR Excellence Award at the Sin Chew Business Excellence Award (SCBEA) 2017/2018 for the Corporate Social Responsibility Category. Subsequently, the following year, UTAR won the Sin Chew Education Awards (SCEA) 2018/2019 for Outstanding Educational Institutions in the Private Universities/Colleges Category.
Between 2010 -2012, Prof Chuah endeavored to get support and contributions from various corporations and individuals to set up sponsored Chairs, resulting in major public listed companies and philanthropists sponsoring nine Endowed Chairs for the university. In addition, further support from the industry led to many research grants, sponsored IT & Engineering laboratories, and scholarship schemes for UTAR students.
Under his leadership, UTAR, which is only 17 years old, has been ranked #188 in the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) Asia University Rankings 2019, #111 in the Times Higher Education (THE) Asia University Rankings 2019, ranked #101-150 in the Times Higher Education Young University Rankings 2019, ranked #501-600 in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings in 2018, 2019 and 2020, ranked top 120 in the Times Higher Education Asia Pacific University Rankings for 2018 and 2019; and ranked #101-200 in the inaugural Times Higher Education (THE) University Impact Rankings 2019. These achievements are significant considering the fact that UTAR was only established in 2002. UTAR has recently been awarded Premier Digital Tech University status by the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) for quality and commitment in offering top-notch digital technology courses in Malaysia. This recognition is a result of providing students with the relevant training in digital technology to ensure our students are professionally qualified to fulfil digital job demands locally and globally.
Prof Chuah’s contributions to the university are also, to a great extent, enhanced by his illustrious achievements at the professional level as well as his contributions internationally. He is a member of the Engineering Accreditation Council (EAC) of Malaysia (2000-2008; 2015-present). The EAC was established as a one stop centre for accreditation of engineering degrees in Malaysia. It consists of members from the Board of Engineers, the Institution of Engineers Malaysia, the Public Service Department and the Malaysian Qualifications Agency of Malaysia. He was active in drafting the first two versions of the engineering accreditation manuals for implementation in Malaysia where he contributes toward ensuring that engineering degrees in Malaysia are of international standard, as Malaysia was admitted as a full signatory member to the Washington Accord in 2009. This means that engineering degrees accredited by the EAC are now recognized as substantially equivalent to other engineering degrees accredited by the member economies of the Washington Accord which included USA, UK, Canada, Ireland, South Africa, Hong Kong China, Chinese Taipei, Korea, Japan, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Turkey, Russia, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, China and Peru.
Through the Institution of Engineers Malaysia (IEM), Prof Chuah has been instrumental in putting up a proposal to establish a platform for mutual recognition of engineering degree programmes in the Asia-Pacific region. He actively contributed in the Engineering Education Working Group of the Federation of Engineering Institutions of Asia and the Pacific (FEIAP) in establishing the FEIAP Engineering Education Guideline which was accepted at the General Assembly of FEIAP in Hanoi in Dec 2010. Through his efforts, the FEIAP Engineering Education Guideline was acknowledged by the UNESCO Jakarta Office for Asia and the Pacific region in 2015, indicating the endorsement of the engineering guideline. In 2018, FEIAP approved another two Engineering Education Guidelines for Engineering Technologists and Engineering Technicians.
Prof Chuah’s contributions to the engineering field go way back in his younger days and he has been consistently garnering achievements over the years. In May 2010, he was appointed as a Mentor to help establish the Engineering Accreditation System for Myanmar Engineering Society and Myanmar Engineering Council so that the engineering degrees awarded in Myanmar will be of substantial equivalence in terms of standard and quality to those offered by other economies in Asia and the Pacific. He has been appointed as the Chairman of FEAIP Standing Committee on Engineering Education from 2015 until present. He was appointed to review/mentor the Accreditation System of Pakistan Engineering Council, Nigeria, Rwanda and Cambodia. Since July 2018, Prof Chuah has been appointed as a Consultant Professor to Northwestern Polytechnical University in Xian, China.
From 2009-2011, Prof Chuah chaired the Science Education Committee of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia. Under his leadership, workshops and forums were organized among all stakeholders in education across the country. The findings of the workshops formed the basis for the ASM Science and Mathematics Education Advisory Report to the Government, which was submitted to YAB Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education, Malaysia.
In view of his vast experience in education, Prof Chuah was appointed in 2012 by the Government of Malaysia as a member of the Malaysia Education Independent Review Panel to advise the Government on education reforms in Malaysia.
In spite of his busy schedule, Prof Chuah is a frequent speaker at schools, universities and public forums to promote public understanding and awareness of science, engineering and technology in Malaysia.
In recognition of his significant contributions to the engineering profession and engineering education, the Institution of Engineers Malaysia honoured Prof Chuah by establishing an annual lecture named after him, titled as “Ir. Academician Dato’ Professor Dr. Chuah Hean Teik Engineering Education Prestige Lecture” which commenced in 2012, and was admitted into the IEM Engineering Hall of Fame in 2019.
He made history in Malaysia when the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers USA elected him as a Fellow in 2014, being the first from within Malaysia. In 2017, he was awarded the Exemplary Leaders Award (Education Category) by The Federation of Hokkien Assoications of Malaysia, and in 2017, the Outstanding Engineering Achievement Award by the ASEAN Federation of Engineering Organisations for his significant contributions and achievements in research, education and technical leadership.
For his inspirational and dedicated role in introducing outcome-based engineering education and quality assurance system for engineering profession in Myanmar, he was conferred the Distinguished Honorary Mentor Award by the Myanmar Engineering Council, and the Distinguished Patron Award by Mandalay Technological University, Myanmar in 2018. For his significant contributions in the engineering profession, particularly in engineering education in developing economies in Asia and the Pacific and Africa, he was conferred the prestigious FEIAP Engineer of the Year in 2019. He was also awarded the World Federation of Engineering Organisations WFEO 2019 Medal of Excellence in Engineering Education for his significant contributions to the improvement of engineering education.
Prof Chuah’s research in theoretical and experimental work, as well as applications in the field of microwave remote sensing has been recognized internationally. The theoretical simulations from the High-order Renormalization Radar Backscatter Model developed by him in 1989 could consistently explain, for the first time in the literature, both co-polarization and cross-polarization measurements from agricultural fields. Prof Chuah’s Scattering, Emission and Propagation Models based on Monte Carlo Technique form another group of theories which are generic and can be used for various applications such as in agricultural fields, forest stands and even sea-ice and snow cover.
Between the years of 1994-1997, Prof Chuah came up with yet another useful multiple scattering model for a dense random medium. When he started the project, no existing theories then were able to explain fully the measurement data from laboratory experiments or field measurements. His Dense Medium Phase and Amplitude Correction Theory (DM-PACT) is able to elucidate the scattering mechanisms in an electrically dense medium. His theory provides self-consistent explanation of both experimental and field measurements. His model was used by research groups in other countries like the USA for predictions of microwave backscatter returns from tropical forest stands, as well as from snow cover and sea-ice.
He is constantly invited to present papers in international conferences, and to be a technical reviewer for papers submitted for publication in top international journals in this field such as the IEEE Transactions on GeoScience and Remote Sensing, and the Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications. He has authored/co-authored 260 papers in refereed international journals and conferences. All these are the necessary and sufficient conditions to achieve internationally recognized status in the field.
Prof Chuah’s contributions in research have received recognition locally and internationally which are evidenced by the following awards:
Prof Chuah’s research in the area of electromagnetics and its applications is of vital importance to Malaysia’s economy, particularly in defence, agricultural and environmental sectors. His pioneering work in microwave remote sensing has laid the foundation for the development of microwave remote sensing sensors in the nation’s aspiration to enter into the space technology. From a human resource development point of view, he has successfully supervised/co-supervised and graduated 14 PhD candidates, and 13 Master’s candidates in the last 15 years.
Needless to say, Prof Chuah is an eminent technical leader and is very active in professional bodies throughout South East Asia, as well as Asia and the Pacific region. He is currently the President of the ASEAN Academy of Engineering and Technology (AAET). He was the President of the Institution of Engineers Malaysia for Sessions 2009-2011 (the largest professional body in Malaysia, with a membership of 50,000) and a Board Member of the Board of Engineers Malaysia, a professional engineer licensing board in Malaysia (2005-2010). He was the President of the Federation of Engineering Institutions of Asia and the Pacific (FEIAP) (2011-2015). He was also the Country Registrar for ASEAN Engineers Register (1995-1997). He was an elected Council Member of the Academy of Sciences in Malaysia (2007-2011). He is also an ASEAN Chartered Professional Engineer, Chartered Electrical Engineer (Engineering Council, UK), APEC Engineer and Engineers Mobility Forum International Engineer. Prof Chuah has also managed to secure IEM as the permanent secretariat of FEIAP since 2008, thus putting Malaysia in a leading position in the engineering fraternity in the Asia and the Pacific region.
In recognition of his significant contributions to the engineering profession in Malaysia and in South East Asia, he was awarded the Honorary Fellowship by the ASEAN Federation of Engineering Organisations (AFEO) at the 24th Conference of AFEO in 2006, and Honorary Fellowship by the Myanmar Engineering Society in 2015. In 2011, He was appointed as the first Senior Fellow of the Physical and Mathematical Sciences Discipline of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia which carries the title of Academician. He is the youngest Fellow and Senior Fellow of the Academy of Sciences of Malaysia at the point of investiture.
Prof Chuah serves as a reviewer for technical papers submitted to international journals such as the Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications, U.S.A., Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute Journal, Korea, and Journal of Systems and Software, Elsevier. In recognition of his services to the promotion of engineering profession, he was awarded the Sterling Award in 2002. The Award is given by the Sterling Group of UK Research-based Universities with Engineering Faculties. In 2011, he received the IET Malaysia Outstanding Achievement Award by the UK Institution of Engineering and Technology (Malaysian Chapter) for his exemplary contribution and achievement in the field of engineering.
His appointment to various committees of professional bodies, and government agencies is a reflection of the vast recognition accorded to Prof Chuah:
In recognition of his scholarly achievement, Prof Chuah has been admitted as a Fellow of the following Academies and Institutions:
As a fitting pinnacle of his contributions to education and the engineering profession, both locally and internationally, Prof Chuah was conferred the Darjah Kebesaran Panglima Setia Mahkota (PSM), which carries the title Tan Sri, by Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah (His Majesty the King of Malaysia) on 9 September 2019 at the investiture ceremony held at Istana Negara (National Palace).
Citation by Ir Dr Tan Yean Chin on Prof Chuah at the FEIAP Engineer of the Year Award 2019
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