National Autism Research Centre (NARC), Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences, UiTM Shah Alam is pleased to announce a collaborative partnership with the National Autism Society of Malaysia (NASOM) in producing a mushroom farming project using Internet-of-Things (IoT). NASOM, a society formed with the aim to deliver lifespan services to the community of persons suffering with autism, has decided to collaborate with NARC due to the fact that this partnership will provide a great benefit to the university as well as the community.
The cultivation of the mushrooms is being facilitated at one of the NASOM centres located at Bandar Puteri, Klang. As a start, 500 blocks of mushroom have been planted for this project and the time taken for the IoT kit to be fully installed at the mushroom house is 3 weeks. NARC technical team installed two IoT sensors in the mushroom house that measure the temperature and humidity, and automatically controlled the desired environmental conditions for optimized mushroom production. This project tremendously reduced the burden of the teachers and autism individuals at the centre who previously must manually attend the mushrooms. Consequently, the labour cost and waste are cut down and the mushroom production is doubled.
The mushroom farm has benefited both parties who have worked together to ensure the project runs smoothly. Since NASOM has been chosen as the place to cultivate the mushrooms, it has given NARC a great opportunity in conducting research regarding the mushroom growth. The first batch was cultivated early October 2020 and NASOM president, Datuk Megat Ahmad Shahrani Megat Shahrudin honoured the Vice-Chancellor, Emeritus Professor Datuk Ir Dr Mohd Azraai Kassim with a bag of mushroom during his visit on 2 October 2020.