Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN), a wholly owned subsidiary of Tenaga Nasional Berhad, Malaysia’s largest utility and EnVerv, Inc. announced today their collaboration on research and development for Internet of Things, Smart City technologies and Energy Management technologies. The two organizations signed a Memorandum of Understanding today at the Putrajaya Campus of UNITEN during the 8th Industry Advisory Panel meeting for the Department of Electronics & Communications Engineering and the Department of Electrical Power Engineering. The collaboration has specific aim to develop talent, foster innovation and release production worthy reference designs for companies to productize and market worldwide. Internet of Things will address a global market with an existing $13.4B value at stake.
As part of this MOU, Mr. Reza Mirkhani, Founder and Sr. Vice President at EnVerv, has been named as a member of the Industry Advisory Panel of UNITEN.
As part of TNB (Tenaga Nasional Berhad), UNITEN, a private university in Putrajaya, Malaysia, offers Bachelors, Masters and Doctorate programs in Engineering, Information Technology, Business Management and other related fields. UNITEN is involved in extensive research in energy management and smart city technologies. UNITEN also serves as the Test Bed for new communications technologies for energy Management and Internet of Things. EnVerv has been working closely with UNITEN over the past four years in conducting the most challenging field tests in Smart Grid communications over Low Voltage and Medium Voltage power lines in different cities in Malaysia.
“We have been very pleased with the cooperation and transfer of technology by EnVerv,” said Dr. Hang See Ong, Associate Professor & Head of Electronics and Communication Engineering at UNITEN. “We are looking forward to long term collaboration with EnVerv in product, program and talent development for the emerging markets of Internet of Things, Smart City development, Solar Power and Energy Management.”
“As an integral part of TNB, and having advanced Engineering Graduate & Doctorate programs, Universiti Tenaga Nasional is uniquely positioned to not only lead the research in Smart City Technologies, Smart Sensors and Smart Grid Communications, but to have the ability to rapidly develop, prototype and field trial these new technologies within the UNITEN Smart City Test Bed,” said Reza Mirkhani, Founder and Sr. Vice President at EnVerv. “We look forward to a long-term partnership with UNITEN as we map out our expansion plans in Malaysia which includes state of the art Research & Development for all aspects of Internet of Things (IoT) including Smart City Elements such as Smart Sensors, Active Lighting, Next Generation Solar and Advanced Smart Grid technologies. With a high density of top engineering universities harnessing advanced engineering programs, and a vision for transformation by the Malaysian Government towards a Low Carbon Economy, Malaysia has all the right ingredients for a successful launch platform for our next generation IoT plans.”
Malaysia has identified low carbon economy as the driver of economic growth for this decade. The Malaysian government is actively putting in place the ecosystem, value system and supply chain to create a vibrant low carbon economy. The winning of hearts and minds of the public is also aggressively pursued. As part of this effort, Malaysia is also focusing on creation of green jobs as well as the transformation and/or substitution of jobs to become green jobs. These efforts provide a paradigm shift in the labor market in the country towards a more sustainable workforce.
As a newly appointed member of UNITEN’s Industry Advisory Panel (IAP), Mr. Mirkhani will be joining the upcoming 8th IAP Meeting for the Department of Electronics & Communication Engineering and the Department of Electrical Power Engineering, whose charter will be to evaluate the direction and contents of the engineering programs offered at UNITEN with the aim of guiding curriculums that can enable Graduates with the knowledge and skill sets required to compete in the emerging markets of IoT, Energy Management, Smart Grid Systems and Smart City Engineering.
A resident of California in the United States, Mr. Mirkhani graduated in 1989 with a degree in Applied Physics & Mathematics from CSUN University in Los Angeles, California. Prior to founding EnVerv, Mr. Mirkhani spent over 20 years in strategic planning and business management roles with System on Chip companies focused on communications solutions for broadband and narrowband datacom and telecom markets.
About EnVerv Inc.
EnVerv is a fabless semiconductor company in the United States with headquarters in Milpitas, California with SoC solutions enabling robust and high-speed communications over Low Voltage (LV) and Medium Voltage (MV) power lines and are applicable to various grid connectivity markets such as AMI, solar micro-inverters, transformer monitoring, substation communications, lighting networks, etc. EnVerv’s family of communications SoC solutions comprises single-chip soft-modems supporting ITU-T G.9903 (G3-PLC), ITU-T (G.9904) PRIME, IEEE 1901.2 and IEC-61334 (S-FSK) standards across CENELEC, FCC and ARIB frequency bands. For more information please visit www.enverv.com.
About Universiti Tenaga Nasional
Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN) is a unique institution, providing both academic programmes and engineering technology skills training within the same campus. The university’s programmes are focused on engineering, information technology, business management and related areas. UNITEN not only prepares its graduates to become knowledgeable and competent professionals, but also to develop them as well-rounded individuals with broad intellectual outlook. UNITEN is one of the first private universities in Malaysia and is wholly-owned by the public-listed Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB), one of the largest utility companies in South East-Asia. Though relatively new as a university, UNITEN is moving rapidly towards establishing itself as the regional centre of educational excellence. The support and commitment it receives from its holding company, TNB, has enabled it to accelerate the infrastructure development of the campus.
