USM PENANG, 10 December 2023 – Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and ams-OSRAM have successfully organised the ‘2nd School of Physics and ams-OSRAM Industry in Classroom’ programme, as part of the School of Physics’ MSc Solid State Physics curriculum.

The recent programme aimed to empower postgraduate students with recent developments relating to specific optoelectronic devices through structured guest lecture series by ams-OSRAM doctorate engineers that maps the courses within the MSc Solid State Physics Master’s programme.

45 emerging scholars participated in the opening session of this programme, held at the USM School of Physics in early October 2023.

Participants included students from the MSc Solid State Physics course and interested postgraduate research students.

According to the Dean, School of Physics, Professor Dr. Abdul Razak Ibrahim, the second programme is almost a 3-fold increase compared to the first industry in classroom initiative, which was held last August.

“The same trend was observed in the number of MSc Solid State Physics enrolment, whereby 65% were made up of international students. This shows that the programme is beyond local visibility, and we have accomplished global visibility,” he said.

The programme started with an engagement session on postgraduate industrial opportunities with ams-OSRAM by the Director of Advanced Development and Services ams-OSRAM, Dr. David Lacey.

Throughout the semester, a series of lectures will be delivered by ams-OSRAM engineers, namely Dr. Fabian Kopp, Dr. Abdelkarim Kahouli and Dr. Azharul Ariff Kamarulzaman.

Lecture slots totalling 6 hours will be part of the MSc Solid State Physics curriculum, with specific focus on properties and application of materials in LEDs, single crystal X-ray diffraction and geometry of X-ray diffraction “spots”, and quantum and low-dimensional semiconductors.

The lead coordinator, Ts. Dr. Wan Maryam Wan Ahmad Kamil is optimistic on the next level of collaboration with ams-OSRAM.

In her opening remarks, she said: “This programme is for you – the postgraduates. We started with an enrolment of just 8 MSc Solid State Physics students; we now have 21.”

“We started this School of Physics and ams-OSRAM industry in classroom initiative with 15 active participants, and we have 45 with us today. From just one course, Semiconductor Devices, we have now expanded by incorporating three more courses, namely Semiconductor Physics, X-ray Structure Analysis and Physics of Complementary Materials.”

“ams-OSRAM is looking for postgraduate talents and as such, we open this programme beyond our MSc coursework to our research students at Master and PhD Levels to engage and learn from our industry partner.

This initiative gives added value to our MSc programme and at the same time promotes academic excellence. I hope the participants will get all the benefits from the programme,” she added.