Building Surveying Student Association (BISA) Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Shah Alam, Centre of Studies for Building Surveying (PPUBg) Faculty of Architecture, Planning and Surveying (FSPU), UiTM Shah Alam, and Department of Regional Development Studies (RDS), Faculty of Global and Regional Studies (FGRS), Toyo University, Japan organized a joint workshop entitled Online International Building Surveying – Regional Development Studies (BS-RDS) Workshop 2021. This event is scheduled on 14th October 2021 and 5th November 2021 for the workshop sessions and 18th November 2021 for the open final presentation on the outcomes from the workshop sessions.
This event was held via the Cisco Webex platform with 24 participants for the workshop activities and 46 audiences on the final presentation day. The three-day student-led event focuses on group discussion that addressed the issue of Covid-19 effects on housing and neighbourhood in Malaysia and Japan. Students are expected to discuss the issue and exchange opinions among the group members. Then, the findings based on the comparison of similarities and differences of both countries that focused on the effect of the changes due to Covid-19 are determined in order for them to propose the ideal home and neighbourhood for post-pandemic. There are twelve students from each university under the PPUBg and RDS participated in this workshop, which they were equally distributed into six groups.
On the first day workshop, the opening speech was given by the program chairman Dr. Julaida Kaliwon (UiTM) and Prof. Dr. Yoshito Yamazaki (Toyo University). Followed by the briefing session on task explanation and grouping of the students. Then, the breakout rooms session took place, where the students were given a chance to get to know each other and discuss the topic given in the assigned group. On the second day, each group were presented their works progress accompanied with constructive comments and suggestions by the respected lecturers at the end of the session. The final presentation day starts with the opening remarks by Prof. TPr. Dr Jamalunlaili Abdullah the Dean of FSPU, UiTM to convey his gratitude and support towards this event.
Afterwards, all groups were successfully presented their works that highlighted the ideal home and neighbourhood for post-pandemic in both countries with interesting supported data, figures and short videos. In particular, inputs on the similarities and differences between Malaysia and Japan on the effect of Covid-19 towards the environments, lifestyle and spatial are thorough. The overwhelming feedback from the audience on the presentation was well received. Furthermore, It is interesting to note that despite the online distance discussion being the only method for them to obtain and exchange information, they were able to produce excellent outcomes. This joint workshop will be continued with more lectures and activities in order to strengthen the relationship between UiTM and Toyo Universities, Japan.