The 7th International Visual Informatics Conference 2021 (IVIC'21) has ended yesterday. The three-day conference, which took place in hybrid mode was jointly organised by the Institute of Informatics and Computing in Energy (IICE), UNITEN and the Malaysian Information Technology Society (MITS), together with collaborators comprising local and international institutions.
The opening ceremony of the conference was graced by the Minister of Communications and Multimedia Malaysia, Yang Berhormat Tan Sri Dato' Sri TPr Annuar Musa. At the end of the second day of the conference, I did the honour of delivering the closing speech. Speaking at the conference closing, I shared about our experience organising this conference amidst the changing landscape of the COVID-19 pandemic (now endemic) and the lessons learnt thereof.
In a number of occasions, when asked about what COVID-19 has taught us, there is only one word that came up in mind mind - agility. Agility that is defined as the the ability to move quickly and easily, and to think quickly and clearly. Below is an excerpt from my speech.
"Among other things, COVID-19 has taught us about ‘agility’. About the ability to do things without putting so much thought and plan about them. Because of the uncertainties. We’re not sure how the numbers are going to change, if they’re going to increase or decrease, when the MCO is going to be imposed or lifted and so on and so forth. We’re taught to act fast and to do what we can, as much as we can, while we can – that is agility. But that doesn’t mean that we have to do things in ad hoc manner. It’s just that the time span to do things is now short, so we have to be able to reach to a decision quick and ready to change it if the need arises."
COVID-19 has somehow rendered meticulous and detailed planning irrelevant. Such planning requires a great degree of certainties and confirmed information that we just do not have access to during COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, we have to have a number of alternative agile plans, plan B, plan C, plan D and so on and so forth that are readily available for take off when needed.
COVID-19 taught to act fast and to do what we can, as much as we can, while we can – that is agility. But that doesn’t mean that we have to do things in ad hoc manner. It’s just that the time span to do things is now short, so we have to be able to reach to a decision quick and ready to change it if the need arises.
It trained us to be more creative in solving problems, away from the conventional methods that we are accustomed to. I have seen our researchers adapting well to the situation. Of notable mention is a project on emotion recognition led by Dr. Leong Yeng Weng, which was supposed to recognise emotion based on the full facial expression. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic where only the upper half of the faces can be captured, the algorithm has to be modified accordingly to recognise emotion based on the information obtained from the upper half of the face. Another manifestation of agility.
I also see more and more projects being completed on time, despite the initially planned activities hampered by the movement control order. It shows a great deal of agility of our researchers in adapting to changes. Well done!
COVID-19 also taught us to be prepared at all times in anticipating the unexpected. To try every means possible to reach objectives. Honestly, this is not so much a problem to me who is so used to try every means until there is no means left or until you are boldly told "No!" from my previous training. And also, to rely more heavily and greatly on Allah the Almighty, the best planner. I hope that I can impart this trait to the other members of the Institute and to our researchers as much as I can through our series of discussions and information sharing sessions.
COVID-19 is far from over yet. In fact, as I write this, I heard over the news about the new COVID-19 variant coming from the Africa that is more deadly and spreads ten times faster. Till then, agility needs to stay with us and becomes our new best friend.
Yours truly,
Hazleen Aris
November 26th, 2021
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