This text first appeared in Digital Edge, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on July 13, 2026 – July 19, 2026
Malaysia’s push into semiconductors, robotics and good manufacturing is exposing a scarcity of engineers who can construct the software program that powers safety-critical programs, prompting Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) to introduce a brand new course on real-time working programs.
Developed with BlackBerry QNX, the final-year elective goals to equip engineering college students with expertise more and more wanted in industries starting from automotive and industrial automation to medical gadgets and aerospace. It’s the first college programme in Asean to include QNX into its curriculum.
As synthetic intelligence (AI) strikes past chatbots and cloud computing into machines working within the bodily world, software program engineers want a distinct set of expertise, says Raj Jain, vice-president of QNX Engineering and head of analysis and improvement for Asia-Pacific at BlackBerry.
“The way forward for AI is now not confined to chatbots or cloud computing. As AI turns into embedded in robots, autos and industrial tools, software program has to reply predictably and reliably each single time,” he tells Digital Edge in an e-mail response.
In contrast to standard working programs present in PCs and smartphones, real-time working programs are designed to ensure that software program responds inside exact deadlines.
That predictability is crucial for purposes the place even a fraction of a second’s delay may have an effect on security, together with for autonomous autos, manufacturing unit robots and medical tools.
Jain says most college pc science programmes deal with general-purpose software program improvement, leaving {industry} with a scarcity of engineers skilled in deterministic, safety-critical computing as producers more and more undertake AI-enabled programs.
To assist handle that hole, UKM has launched a three-credit Actual-Time Working Programs elective within the second semester of its fourth-year electrical and digital engineering programme.
The course builds on college students’ embedded programs research and offers them hands-on expertise growing software program utilizing BlackBerry’s QNX platform.
UKM vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Sufian Jusoh says the curriculum is meant to higher align engineering training with {industry} wants as software program turns into an more and more necessary element of recent merchandise.
“Our goal is to provide graduates who’re able to contribute from day one, with sensible expertise in embedded programs and real-time software program that industries are more and more on the lookout for,” he says.
The inaugural consumption will comprise round 60 college students, who will endure a number of months of sensible coaching earlier than participating in an industry-style hackathon. Educating might be delivered by UKM lecturers, supported by means of a train-the-trainer programme carried out by BlackBerry’s technical specialists.
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