UTM Razak School researchers join forces with the international humanitarian and climate research centre in an event entitled ”Humanitarian and Hydropower Sectors Join Forces to Manage Flood Risk”, which was held from 9-11 May 2017 at the Hotel Intercontinental, Addis Ababa (Ethiopia). This event is co-convened by the Climate Centre, The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the World Bank Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), in the context of the World Hydropower Congress 2017. It brings together disaster managers, donors, dam operators, government officials, researchers, and machine learning experts. The objectives of this event are to bring together the global hydropower community and the disaster risk management sector to forge long-term, creative, systemic collaboration. They have jointly explore the new approaches to flood risk management downstream of dams, focusing on two promising opportunities: ‘Forecast-based Financing’ (FbF) and Machine Learning. FbF is being piloted in West Africa through a digital tool called FUNES: Volunteers collect rainfall data in the Mono river basin upstream of the Nangbéto Hydropower Dam in Togo, and an innovative self-learning algorithm designed under data scarcity which anticipates the probable timing and discharge of any imminent dam overspill. This forecast enables dam operators to plan releases, including those that may inundate communities downstream, according to a downstream model. When FUNES forecasts flood elevated flood risk, the Red Cross, government and partners receive an automated message to activate radio alerts, distribute water purification kits, and deploy other pre-funded disaster preparedness measures. The participants also able to test the FbF in Togo through Virtual Reality (VR) technology. First successfully tested in September 2016, the FbF+FUNES system received the 2017 World Government Summit’s Global Innovation Award. This side event gave an opportunity to open dialogue with all actors on the given opportunity to adapt and scale up this hydro-humanitarian collaboration to simultaneously improve hydropower operations and humanitarian outcomes. There are prospects of adapting this approach to river basins in Malaysia.
Interactive session with the participants
Participants from various international organisations, disaster management expert, dam operator, government officials, researchers, and machine learning experts are actively participate in the workshop activities.
Participants from various international organisations, disaster management expert, dam operator, government officials, researchers, and machine learning experts are enjoying the workshop activities.
Dr Pablo Suarez, the Associate Director for Research and Innovation of Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre gave talk and facilitate the dynamic and interactive workshop
Short Course on MINITAB Statistical Software: Experimental Designs for Robust Product/ Process Optimization
On 25 January 2018, Dr. Rozetta Dolah has delivered a technical short course for MIT and Harvard affiliates, universities and industrialist. This is part of the IAP 2018 (Independent Activities Period) event organized by MIT annually every January of the year. For...
Welcome to the 4th International Conference on Robust Quality Engineering (ICRQE) and 7th International Conference on Engineering Business Management (ICEBM) Kuala Lumpur 2018
For the first time in Malaysia, Razak School of UTM in Engineering and Advanced Technology will be organizing a join conference between ICRQE and ICEBM in August 2018. As for ICRQE, Razak School of UTM in Engineering and Advanced Technology is once more...
The 3rd Master’s Project Symposium organized by UTM Razak School
The 3rd Master’s Project Symposium was organized by UTM Razak School from 19-20th December 2017 for Semester 1 Session 2017/2018 at Menara Razak, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) Kuala Lumpur. This symposium is a regular event held at the end of every...
The International Conference on Smart Instrumentation, Measurement and Application 2017 (ICSIMA)
The International Conference on Smart Instrumentation, Measurement and Application 2017 (ICSIMA) will be submitted to IEEE Explore with much more adding on to its début since its last events in ICSIMA 2013, ICSIMA 2014 and ICSIMA 2015 which are already...
Talk by Dr. Rozzeta Dolah CEng MIET at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA on Variation Measurement and Improvement in Industry/ Engineering Application
On 17 October 2017, Dr. Rozzeta Dolah was invited to present a talk at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA on “Variation Measurement and Improvement in Industry/ Engineering Application”. The talk was attended by MIT professors, undergraduate and graduate...
