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Institutions | Training | Online Education | Papers / Articles
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A Systematic Approach in Remote Sensing Education and Training at University Teknologi Malaysia
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Graduate Course
In addition to the 4 year undergraduate programme the department also offers Master (both by Research and Taught Course) and Doctoral programmes in Remote Sensing to support the needs of the country in this field. Currently, there are 13 registered graduate students undertaking research in various fields. At present, only master course through research and PhD are available at the department. Master through taught course requires a minimum of 5 candidates to start the course. The specification of the postgraduate courses at the department is summarized in Table 2. Some of the present research works by the students are as follows : mapping topography using SAR interferometry techniques, extraction of coastal zone information using SAR, potentional of Radar data for estimation of soil moisture, remote sensing and hydrological modeling in flood prediction studies, extraction of sea grass information, remote sensing for sea oil spill studies, haze determination from NOAA AVHRR, Landsat TM and Radarsat SAR data fusion for improving landcover classification and GIS for oil spill monitoring.
Table 2. The requirements for M.Sc and PhD at the Department of Remote Sensing, UTM
| Requirements |
M.Sc (Taught course) |
M.Sc (Research) |
PhD |
| Admission requirement |
A relevant bachelor degree recognized by the university |
A relevant bachelor degree recognized by the university |
A relevant master degree recognized by the university |
| Total credit hours |
24 (taught subjects)
6 (master’s project) |
30 |
90 |
| Subjects |
Courses offered within interfaculties |
Own thesis topic |
Own thesis topic |
| Study Period (years) |
2 |
2 |
3-4 |
Research
Innovations, new understanding and advancement in remote sensing will only occur when great amount of effort is put towards research activities. The initiation of this field of research began as early as 1986. At present staff and postgraduate research projects span as diverse as marine applications, topographical mapping, vegetation mapping, hydrological analysis, spatial variability studies and natural hazards monitoring. The development of research and also consultation activities are greatly supported and enhanced by the well-equipped centre. Amongst the facilities available at the centre are PCI EASI/PACE (v6.1), PCI (v6.3), ILWIS, ERDAS-Imagine, ER-Mapper, Ergo Vista (Image processing), Digital Photogrammetric Workstation, ARC INFO, ARC VIEW, MapInfo, WinGis (GIS ), hand held GPS, Gamman Trimble (GPS), radiometer, LOWTRAN, MODTRAN, PcGiant,Autocad and Quicksurf, Surveying equipment and a library. Refer to the departmental homepage at http://.rs.fksg.utm.my for some of the major research projects that have successfully been completed by the staff at the Department of Remote Sensing.
The department and CRS proactively involve in many new projects in order to achieve innovations, new understanding and advancement in remote sensing. Among others are development of direct satellite data readout for daily monitoring of haze and coastal environments, Integration of remote sensing and GIS for oil palm spatial variability studies, ocean variability studies using SeaWiFs data, generation of spectral signature database and videogrammetry system for ship building, repair and maintenance. Funding for these projects come from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment via Intensified Research in Priority Areas (IRPA), contract research and etc.
Links have also been made with external organisations both for development of research and funding. UTM proactively involves with foreign organisations to undertake joint research projects. It started to have collaboration with the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) since 1991 which was scientists exchange programme and from 1999 both institutions have taken part in cooperative projects. Their focus is mainly to study the variability of ocean conditions from SeaWiFs data and ADEOS OCTS satellite data. Besides that, UTM is also involved with British universities like University College London under Committee for International Cooperation in Higher Education (CICHE) scheme to undertake topographical mapping in Malaysia using SAR data. Through these collaborative/ bilateral projects UTM aims not only to exchange techniques and skills but also to produce graduate students.
Consultancy
The centre has been offering consultancy services since 1990 to many local government, and private user agencies and also to some foreign agencies like Bintan Resort Management Pte. Ltd. The areas of consultancy services rendered by CRS can be grouped into; water depth mapping, seagrass mapping, sea surface temperature mapping, coastline variation mapping of Peninsular Malaysia, coral reefs mapping, land use mapping, estimation of water volume in reservoirs, modelling of sedimentation in reservoirs, pipeline corridor mapping analysis, and digital mapping.
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