Haslina Md Sarkan, Local Arrangement Chair,IEEE R10 HTC 2024
HTC 2024 took place at Royale Chulan Kuala Lumpur from 1-3 October 2024. This year theme for HTC was, “Advancing Sustainable Technologies for Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Impact”.
The event commenced on the morning of 1st October with welcoming remarks by Prof. Dr. Norliza Mohd Noor, the General Chair of R10 HTC 2024, followed by a welcome address from Dr. Nordin Ramli, the IEEE Malaysia Section Chair. Prof. Lance Fung, the R10 Director, delivered the opening address and officially launched the IEEE Day Celebration.
This was followed by a keynote speech from Mr. Jayakrishnan MC, Co-Chair of the IEEE Humanitarian Technologies Board (HTB), who shared insights on the impact of humanitarian technologies. These projects are applicable in both urban and rural settings, not just underdeveloped regions, with a focus on sustainability and continuous refinement to meet the evolving needs of communities.
The morning session ended with the Humanitarian Technology Activities (HTA) Forum, titled “Bridging the Digital Divide: Empowering Communities with Inclusive Technology.” The forum featured a lively discussion on key humanitarian technology initiatives, with panelists Lance Fung, IEEE R10 Director, Jayakrishnan MC IEEE HTB Co-chair, Emi Yano, IEEE R10 HTA Committee Chair, and Nordin Ramli, moderated by Khairul Zahreen Mohd Arof, UCSI University.
Ahead of the conference, two challenges were launched. The Sustainable Energy Development Authority (SEDA) Innovation Challenge received 60 submissions, with the top three winners awarded RM15,000 in prize money. SEDA generously sponsored RM20,000 for this challenge. The R10 HTC 2024 Innovation Challenge saw 68 submissions, evaluated by 60 experts from various universities. The top five submissions were invited to submit full papers, all of which were accepted and included in the conference proceedings.
The R10 HTC 2024 Conference Dinner, held on 1st October, celebrated the conference’s achievements and recognized outstanding contributions. During the dinner, three Best Paper Awards were presented in the categories of Best Paper for Professionals, Students, and Industry. The top three winners of both the R10 HTC 2024 and SEDA Innovation Challenges were also recognized.
On the second day, alongside parallel technical paper presentations, industry speakers shared their expertise with the participants. An R10 WIE Special Session on Women in Action for Disaster Preparedness was also held.
On the third day, two tutorials and two workshops took place at the Campus of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), covering topics such as Reverse Vaccinology, Climate Actions for a Sustainable World, Knowledge to Action for Climate Literacy and Technology for Humanitarian Aid and Robotics with Python.
R10 HTC 2024 embraced a green initiative by not providing printed program booklets. An e-program book was made available online, and videos and photos from the event were shared in the R10 HTC 2024 photo gallery on the conference website.
