Materialization of MEMS in a collaborative AMBIENCE: A UniMAP experience

Micro Electro Mechanical System (MEMS) is an emerging engineering field that owes so much to material and its processing technologies. It is proven to be capable of enhancing the performance of many devices traditionally produced using conventional microscale manufacturing methods. However, the manufacturing involves requires quite substantial investment in which is normally a major obstacle for universities. Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP), being a relative new in Malaysia, innovative and collaborative effort are explored with outside organization to overcome this obstacle. Leveraging on its close relationship with the industries, UniMAP collaborated with industries and other critical non-academic partners to plan set-up and launch the first industry driven MEMS based centre of excellent in Malaysian universities. It is named AMBIENCE (Advanced Multidisciplinary MEMS Based Integrated Electronic NCER Centre of Excellence). This paper elaborates in the collaboration history, contribution planning, physical set-up, capabilities and success stories of a new industry driven centre of excellence in UniMAP.