AUGUST 16 — A few years ago, we joined the Ideation and Entrepreneurship Programme at Universiti Malaya with colleagues from different academic backgrounds – pharmacy, dentistry, medicine, chemistry, engineering and statistics.
We were asked what seemed like a simple task: identify a specific and meaningful problem worth solving.
Surprisingly, that turned out to be the hardest part.
Like many researchers, we were trained to analyse data, investigate problems and develop solutions.
Yet the programme challenged us to pause and look at problems from the perspective of the people we hoped to help.
It was a different way of thinking. Instead of asking, “What can we build?”, we first had to ask, “What problem truly needs solving?”. That lesson has stayed with us ever since.
It was also our first exposure to tools such as the Business Model Canvas, which helped us translate ideas into something that could be sustained and eventually implemented.
We realised that generating knowledge is only the beginning. Turning an idea into something that people can use and benefit from requires continuous listening, validation and collaboration.
One idea that emerged from our discussions was a question many parents often ask: how can we help our children make informed education and career choices in a rapidly changing job market?
That conversation eventually grew into degreemate.my, a platform that matches students with suitable degree programmes and career pathways using probabilistic modelling. What began as a workshop discussion later received institutional support and evolved into an active prototype.
For us, it reinforced a simple lesson: meaningful innovation rarely starts with technology. It starts with understanding a real problem and having the desire to improve people’s lives.
The most rewarding part of the experience was not developing a prototype.
It was having the opportunity to pass these lessons on to our students. Together with colleagues, we adapted what we had learned and introduced the Ideation and Entrepreneurship Programme to students at the Faculty of Pharmacy and Centre for Foundation Studies in Science (PASUM).
Instead of asking them to think about winning competitions or building businesses, we encouraged them to observe problems around them, listen to users, test their assumptions and improve their ideas.
Watching the students embrace this process has been one of the most fulfilling outcomes. Many continued refining their projects after the programme, participated in national and international innovation competitions, and remained active in innovation activities after entering their degree programmes.
Their achievements mattered not simply because they received awards, but because they demonstrated confidence, curiosity and a willingness to turn ideas into action.
This experience also made us reflect on a challenge faced by universities around the world. Every year, universities produce thousands of patents, inventions and research breakthroughs.
Yet many never progress beyond the laboratory, prototype or patent stage to create tangible benefits for industry and society.
The challenge is often not the quality of the research, but whether we truly understand the people we are trying to serve.
Universities will continue to generate knowledge, and rightly so.
But if we want our research to create lasting impact, we must spend as much time understanding people as we do developing solutions.
Perhaps the most important question is not, “What do we know?” but “Who can benefit from what we know?”.
Research creates its greatest value when it is shaped with people, understood by people and ultimately used by people.
* Dr Norli Anida Abdullah is a Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Foundation Studies in Science (PASUM), Universiti Malaya, and Associate Professor Dr Baharudin Ibrahim is from the Faculty of Pharmacy, Universiti Malaya.
** This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
