Skymind joins forces with USM to develop industry-ready AI talents

GEORGE TOWN (Sept 3): Artificial Intelligence (AI) innovation company, Skymind Holdings Berhad (Skymind) has joined forces with Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) to build industry-ready AI talents.

Skymind advisor Datuk Yasmin Mahmood today said that as Malaysia recognised the importance of the fourth industrial revolution (IR 4.0), talents were required in order to embrace the shift towards digital transformation.

“Malaysia itself has a large raw talent pool, which could serve as a golden opportunity to give exposure to students on AI and further nurturing their talents.

“We will be looking at around 100 USM students to be part of our first batch under this pilot partner programme,” she said at a press conference after the signing of a memorandum of agreement (MOA), here.

Yasmin said Skymind had also been involved and contributed its AI solutions to more than 350 companies under the Fortune 500 listing.

“Under Skymind’s talent development philosophy, we would want to nurture our talent pipeline, boost talent employability, groom potential AI talents, and engage with other industries,” she added.

Earlier, Yasmin, Skymind chief executive officer, Shawn Tan and USM vice chancellor, Prof Dr Faisal Rafiq Mahamd Adikan witnessed the signing of the MOA between Skymind chief operating officer, Dr Goh Shu Wei and USM deputy vice chancellor (Academic and International), Prof Datuk Dr Ahmad Farhan Mohd Sadullah.

Meanwhile, Ahmad Farhan said the collaborative pilot programme would introduce three parallel projects.

These projects are an internship programme under Skymind for a duration of six months to cater to the shortage of talents in the AI industry, Train-the-Trainer programme for qualified USM lecturers as certified deep-learning trainers, and introducing AI as part of the USM curriculum courses.

“If possible, we would also be looking into integrating AI into other curriculums in the future so that all our students can be exposed to and have a better understanding of the importance and benefits of AI in our lives,” he added.

Source: TheEdgeMarkets