USM INAUGURAL 3MT COMPETITION: RISDEV STUDENT WON 2ND PLACE

Stating her points succinctly  - Shereeza in action

RISDEV (ISDEV Postgraduate by Research) student, Shereeza Mohamed Saniff recently participated in the 3 Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition 2015 organised by the Institute of Postgraduate Studies (IPS), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). The 3MT competition was held at Dewan Pembangunan 2, Kompleks Cahaya Siswa, USM on at 10:00 a.m. on Monday 16 March, 2015.

Deputy Dean of Institute of Postgraduate Studies, Prof. Dr. Fauziah Ahmad officiated the competition.

The 3MT Competition is the first of such competition organised in USM. It was inaugurated by the Deputy Dean of IPS, Professor  Dr. Fauziah Ahmad. The competition is open to all USM PhD candidates who have been registered as a student of USM for at least two years. Participants from both local and international students were divided into three main categories - the Social Sciences Category, the Engineering Category and the Science & Technology Category.

Shereeza was the third contestant out of the 32 participants to present her winning title on Streamlining the Islamic-based Development Actor for Islamic Asset Management to the judges as well as the audience present that day. As per the requirement of the competition, she managed to present her thesis within three minutes with only one static slide.

Shereeza takes her time to organise her notes and thoughts just before presenting her thesis related to
"Streamlining the Islamic-based Development Actor for Islamic Asset Management".

In her 3-minute presentation, Shereeza managed to present and explain succinctly within four main points. She started of with a factual circumstance of today where man's need of money is now a necessity and that holding to the idea that money is the root of all evil is a fallacy as money can and do calm nerves too. Second she highlighted the lopsidedness in the development paradigms that we are in today, where the dominant conventional development paradigm is at odds with the viewpoint of the Islamic-based development paradigms. These differing viewpoints actually affect the way we interact with the assets we manage.

Her third point stressed about her thesis which goes back to the core - the believing humans as termed in the Qur'an. Based on the four criteria she had set out in her studies, there are five main terms (with three ancillary terms) referring to believing man (in which antagonistic polarities are mentioned) that fits the criteria she had set out. Thus in conclusion, she submitted that with the general attributes and traits derived from these five main terms especially, the identity of the Islamic-based Development Actor, can truly bring about a holistic Islamic Asset Management. With only 2 seconds left to spare, she closed her presentation with an adage she came across a few years' back "When you get the man right, the world will be right".

Shereeza receiving her prize from the Dean of IPS, Prof. Dr. Othman Sulaiman while the
Head Judge, Assoc. Prof. Dr Sundramoorthy (Director of Security USM) looks on.

Shereeza was up against six contenders from the Social Sciences Category. After a brief deliberation by the judges, it was finally announced that Shereeza won second place in Social Sciences Category and deserved a cash prize of RM400. She has indeed made ISDEV proud and hoped that her humble win had contributed in some ways to the glory of Islam as she expressed her optimism that research on Islam can still be found of relevance, importance and of interest even to a non-Islamic based research audience as she encountered that day.

Congratulations Shereeza!