Focus Session 1 – Integrated Circuits and Systems: From Devices to Intelligence
Session Chair
Dr. Lioe De Xing
SUiCTE Co. Ltd & Shizuoka University, Japan
The semiconductor industry stands at a pivotal inflection point. As artificial intelligence, edge computing, and connected devices reshape every sector of the global economy, the design and engineering of integrated circuits has never been more consequential.
This focus session brings together researchers, engineers, and industry practitioners to explore the full spectrum of IC and systems design. Whether your work lives at the transistor level or the system level, this is the opportunity to present it.
The session reflects a shared regional urgency. Malaysia’s National Semiconductor Strategy has set an ambitious target of developing 60,000 high-skilled engineers to move the country up the electronics value chain, from assembly and test toward design and innovation. Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has similarly placed semiconductor revitalization at the heart of its industrial strategy. This focus session, co-organized with the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society Malaysia Chapter, is a direct response to that moment. A platform where foundational research meets industry relevance, and where the next generation of IC engineers and designers can showcase their contributions.
Focus Session 2 – Biomonotsukuri (バイオものづくり): Sustainable Bio-Based Manufacturing and Bioremediation for a Circular Society
Session Chair
Associate Professor Chek Min Fey
Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Japan
Biomonotsukuri (バイオものづくり) presents a broad perspective on bio-based manufacturing, carbon-neutral bioproduction, and bioremediation using engineered microogranisms and enzymes. This focus session welcomes contributions spanning biotechnology, materials science, and environmental microbiology, including metabolic and protein engineering, biopolymer synthesis and transformation, microbial discovery, and sustainable applications. Building on a long-standing Japan–Malaysia partnership, the session promotes interdisciplinary and international exchange to advance sustainable development toward a circular and carbon-neutral society.
Focus Session 3 – EnergiMirai (エネルギー未来): AI-Driven Intelligent Energy Systems for a Malaysia–Japan Sustainable Future
Session Chair
Professor Ali Najah Ahmed
Sunway University, Malaysia
Aligned with the Malaysia–Japan commitment to carbon neutrality, EnergiMirai (エネルギー未来) highlights interdisciplinary innovations in Artificial Intelligence, energy engineering, and sustainability. The session explores key areas including smart energy cities, renewable energy optimization, AI-enabled infrastructure, intelligent mobility, advanced energy storage, predictive grid maintenance, carbon capture and storage (CCS), hydrogen technologies, and bioenergy.
The session aims to strengthen Malaysia–Japan collaboration in advancing intelligent energy solutions that support decarbonization, enhance energy security, and promote sustainable development.
Focus Session 4 – Polylogues Across Culture, Heritage and Society
Session Chair
Dr. Syafiq Faliq Bin Alfan
Universiti Malaya, Malaysia
Session Co-Chair
Aliyyah Nuha Faiqah Binti Azman Firdaus
Hiroshima University, Japan
This focus session explores the relationships between culture, heritage and society, with particular attention to how human creativity and lived cultural practices shape exchanges across Malaysia–Japan and broader regional contexts. At its core is the recognition that culture embodies humanity’s accumulated wisdom, memory, ethical traditions and shared understandings of knowledge and meaning. The session examines how artistic traditions, language, education, governance and everyday social practices foster mutual understanding and contribute to more inclusive societies.
The session adopts the concept of polylogues as outlined by Ziauddin Sardar (2024): “polylogues connect minds: people from diverse communities, different worldviews, cultures, ethnicities, identities, perspectives, backgrounds, disciplines and views come together to explore common problems.”
Contributions are invited from interdisciplinary perspectives across the arts, humanities, social sciences, education and public policy, as well as from science, engineering and medicine that engage with culture, society, innovation and human well-being.
The session also highlights the role of youth engagement, cultural exchange and education in promoting peaceful cooperation. It further recognizes the safeguarding of cultural heritage as a shared responsibility of humanity, reflecting international principles that call for the protection and respect of monuments, manuscripts, archives, religious buildings and other cultural properties of global significance for present and future generations, including those articulated in the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property.