USM PENANG, 28 September 2026 - More than 6,300 participants gathered online and onsite on the first day of Madayaw 9.0, San Pedro College’s ninth International Multidisciplinary Research Conference, with Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and the Asia Pacific University-Community Engagement Network (APUCEN) among those represented at the two-day event.
Held on Aug 12 and 13 at Philomene Labrecque Hall, Philippines and via Zoom, the conference brought together 31 participating institutions from the Philippines, alongside an international online audience.
Dato’ Dr Aileen Tan Shau Hwai, Professor of the USM Centre for Marine and Coastal Studies (CEMACS), was invited as a distinguished plenary speaker at the conference, which carried the theme “Sustainable Development Goals in the Era of the Fifth Industrial Revolution: Navigating the Decade of Action towards Human-Centered and Sustainable Futures.”
Aileen, who also chairs the Unesco Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission Sub-Commission for the Western Pacific (WESTPAC) and serves as APUCEN executive director, joined an international line-up of thought leaders at the conference.
Day One recorded up to 6,313 participants attending online and onsite, while Day Two drew a further 159 participants across parallel paper presentations.
The conference featured 48 oral paper presentations across five clusters – Arts, Language, Literature and Education; Business and Management; Social Sciences; Environment, Natural and Physical Sciences; and Health Sciences.
It also included 22 poster presentations, seven virtual poster presentations and a “Capture Your Research in a Photo Contest” featuring nine entries.
Madayaw 9.0 opened with a keynote by Dr Carlo Irwin A Panelo, Professor at the Department of Clinical Epidemiology, College of Medicine, University of the Philippines Manila.
The plenary sessions also featured Academician Professor Emerita Datuk Dr Asma Ismail, Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive Officer of IMU University, Malaysia.
USM and APUCEN’s participation also highlighted the role of regional research and university-community collaboration in advancing shared sustainability priorities under the Fifth Industrial Revolution.
APUCEN, and its Secretariat which are based at USM, was founded in 2011 to strengthen university-community partnerships across the Asia-Pacific. The network continues to work with member universities across the region to translate research exchange into community-engagement outcomes.