D1.6 – 3rd meeting report – Penang
The SOHO consortium meets in Penang, Malaysia, on 5–6 December 2024, hosted by Universiti Sains Malaysia and Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, to close WP2, launch the development of the training modules and prepare the interim report.
Day 1 – Gurney Bay Hotel, 5 December 2024
The meeting opened with welcome addresses by Professor Dato’ Dr. Aileen Tan Shau Hwai, Director of the Centre for Marine and Coastal Studies (CEMACS) of Universiti Sains Malaysia, Professor Choong Chee Keong, Vice President of UTAR, and Professor Tudor Prisecaru, President of POLITEHNICA Bucharest. Thirty-one participants from all nine partner institutions took part, with POLIMI and the University of Danang joining online.
Gabriel Dima (POLITEHNICA Bucharest) reviewed the state of the project: WP2 – LMS deployment and curriculum design – closed on 30 November 2024 with deliverable D2.2 Training curriculum, and the SOHO Moodle instance (moodle.sohoproject.eu) is live as the platform on which all training content will be developed and delivered.
In the afternoon, YB Wong Hon Wai, Penang State EXCO for Tourism and Creative Economy, addressed the consortium and presented Penang Vision 2030 – a family-focused, green and smart state – underlining the importance of working with local government to turn the project’s initiatives into practice.
The rest of the day was dedicated to WP3. The programme will comprise 20 courses in three modules – smart transportation, smart sustainable accommodation and smart renewable energy – at beginner, intermediate and expert level, starting with the beginner level for students. ULL (Thanh-Ha Bargas, Yacine Ouzrout) presented the four skill sets of the transportation module; Gabriel Dima the technical, digital and transversal competences of the accommodation module (smart devices, PLC programming, energy management, IoT and control systems); Emanuele Ogliari (POLIMI) the photovoltaic competences of the renewable energy module. The partners agreed a schedule with the first three courses per module on the LMS by 1 June 2025 and the full content by 31 January 2026.
Day 2 – CEMACS, Teluk Bahang, 6 December 2024
The second day, held at the Centre for Marine and Coastal Studies, covered financial and administrative management: all planned deliverables have been uploaded to the Continuous Reporting Platform, and the Progress Report due at M18 (May 2025) was announced. Alina Borcos presented the dissemination status – the first two SOHO newsletters are published on the website – and reminded partners to record every dissemination action in the online reporting form and to acknowledge the project in all publications.
The consortium agreed to hold the 4th Transnational Project Meeting in Bucharest on 19–20 May 2025 and to re-think the intensive training schedule so that Asian participants can attend consecutive sessions with a single visa procedure. The meeting closed with the farewell speeches of Professor Aileen Tan and Professor Tudor Prisecaru, followed by a visit to the CEMACS gallery, reference collection and hatchery.
About this deliverable
| Deliverable | D1.6 – 3rd meeting report – Penang |
| Work package | WP1 – Project management and coordination |
| Lead | POLITEHNICA Bucharest (UNSTPB), hosted by USM and UTAR |
| Type / dissemination level | Report / Sensitive – consortium and EACEA |
| Status | Delivered – December 2024 |
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or EACEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.