Professor Sohal giving his talk on ‘Industry Engagement, Impact and Academic Outcomes’.

Eager participants at the talk.

A group photo with Professor Sohal, Faculty of Business and Information Science members and students.

The Logistics Student Association (LSA) of UCSI University invited Professor Dr Amrik Sohal, Professor of Management from Monash University Australia to conduct a talk on ‘Industry Engagement, Impact and Academic Outcomes.’

Every year, LSA takes on a new theme that fosters progress and industry growth in logistics. This time, the talk had the theme of "Industry and Academic Impact", where the focus was on providing participants with real opportunities to help them collaborate with the industry and researchers. The half day event at UCSI University featured the latest technology, solutions and strategy for possible ways for collaboration.

Professor Sohal was among the top 50 researchers in the world in 2012 in the technology innovation management field, winning the International Association for the Management of Technology Research Award. He was also the Editor for the Asia Pacific Journal of Quality Management (1992-1995) with a current h-index of 70. He has published impactful papers in the areas of operations and supply chain management, quality, innovation and technology management.

Apart from that, Professor Sohal is also an active member of the Editorial Review Board for a few journals namely Journal of Operations Management, International Journal of Operations and Production Management, International Journal of Production Research, Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, Total Quality Management Journal, Technovation and International Journal of Business Performance Management.

The talk highlighted the significant growth opportunities and benefits that can be expected between the industry and research partners which consist of academicians at the university level. This collaboration was confirmed as very crucial in every stage of planning and operation in achieving the desired outcome.

The detailed discussion on the collaboration and networking between industry and universities researchers made this event even more rewarding. This included the Co-operative Research Centres (CRC) programme where the main intention was to explore the competencies of Supply Chain Professionals using a survey method to enhance importance of competencies in supply chain activities.

With a truly international collaboration and partnership between the two universities, the talk emphasised current knowledge on logistics environment and supply chain collaboration opportunities were discussed to impart new knowledge to the participants.