MARE Staff and Student Mobility Program at University of Catania (20 March 2023 – 2 April 2023). 

One of the deliverables of the Erasmus+ project "Marine Coastal and Delta Sustainability for Southeast Asia (MARE)" for EU funding under the Erasmus+ Capacity Building in Higher Education is to have student and staff attachment programmes at the partner universities. Dr Hee Min Teh has arranged a 14-day research attachment programme at University of Catania (UNICT), Italy from 20 March 2023 to 2 April 2023. The programme was participated by two of his PhD students, Vasukey Palany Kumar and Eric Joseph Pereira.  

The programme was initiated to assist and strengthen collaborative efforts between UTP and UNICT for joint research initiatives in coastal vulnerability assessment and marine renewable technologies. The students have the opportunity to discuss the research topics with their field supervisors, Prof Dr. Daniele La Rosa and Prof Dr Pietro Scandura, to acquire additional input to strengthen their research methodologies and gain exposure to the available software, laboratory facilities, and techniques best suited to their specific research topics. The students also had sharing sessions with students from UniKL, Malaysia regarding their topics of interest. They also joined the campus tour and student exhibition of different departments on the Open Day, and visited the Wind Tunnel and Mechanical Engineering Material Testing Laboratory. 

Campus Tour 

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Lab tour by Prof Giuseppe Mirone​ 

Besides that, Dr Hee Min also visited the university to explore coastal and marine research collaborations, explore academic collaborations particularly in teaching and learning of coastal, marine and water courses, and to facilitate the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between University of Catania and Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS. ​

Dr Hee Min had several discussions with Prof Dr. Daniele La Rosa and Prof Dr Pietro Scandura and their research team to consolidate the joint research areas and initiatives. Besides that, they also explored the possibility of having a joint problem-based learning (PBL) project for both UNICT and UTP students. Dr Hee Min also visited some other academic staff whose expertise was beyond the fields of coastal and marine engineering to share research and academic experience. 

​Engagement with the academic staff of Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering, University of Catania  

Education fair and exhibition of UNICT research products 

Dr Hee Min also had an opportunity to engage with the Undergraduate students, academic staff and research fellows through a sharing session. Dr Hee Min gave a brief introduction about UTP and MARE initiatives prior to sharing the teaching innovation which he adopted in delivering the coastal engineering courses. The academic staff of UNICT were particularly interested in the teaching method that literally led to the enhancement of student learning experiences and academic performances. They furthered the discussion on the possibility of academic collaborations using the proposed teaching innovation, after the sharing session. Overall, it was a good sharing session with the aim to nurture the interests of students toward coastal and marine environments.