.: MESSAGE FROM THE GROUP LEADER
		Associate Professor Dr Abd Karim Alias Group leader Food Biopolymer Research Group School of Industrial Technology Universiti Sains Malaysia Personal web page

Dear readers,

Greetings from Malaysia and members of Food Biopolymer Research Group! May I wish you a warm welcome to my website. If you have visited this website before, you probably have noticed this website looks very different. Yes, I have totally redesigned this website to make it more appealing. We are familiar with the phrase “don’t judge the book by its cover”,  or “appearance can be deceptive”, but I believe good first impression is very important and will send the right signal. The new visual design projects a neat, cool, distinctive, and contemporary look. But the changes go well beyond physical appearance—I have also improved the content and the structure/layout. Since the launching of this website in 2002, I have received numerous positive responses and constructive comments from food science students and fellow colleagues from all over the world (THANK YOU GUYS, you are my inspiration and motivation). Some of them emailed me a long list of relevant websites, photographs, etc. I always have the burning desire (perhaps a dream) to make this website to be a source of reference, or a gateway to resources in food science not only for food science students, but also for the public at large. Therefore, with the encouragement from the readers and strong support from the university administration (see acknowledgement), I decided to undertake the challenging task, i.e., to revamp the entire website. My main goal is to enhance your experience with the website and maximize its usefulness and functionality.

The website will serve two functions: firstly, as a research bulletin for the research group, and secondly, as a one-stop reference centre for food science/technology students. My envision is to establish this website to be a credible, authoritative, and respected source of knowledge on food science, technology, food safety, and product development. In order to achieve this objective, we have created Food Science & Technology Virtual Library (FST Virtual Library) under which all the relevant resources and links on food science and technology can be found.  In a sense, FST Virtual Library will act as a repository centre. The materials will come not only from us but hopefully, voluntary contribution from fellow academics, students, and food industries. In addition, I hope to add more local contents which could not be found elsewhere. For example, I hope to add informations on local traditional foods  and indigenous raw materials such as sago starch and palm oil. What are cincaluk, dodol, lempuk, maman, keropok lekor, tempe, pekasam, budu, etc.? How they are processed? What kind of technology can be used to upgrade the production and quality? Very little informations are available and I feel it is the responsibility of Malaysian Food Technologists to provide the information to the public at large. Other issues such as food adulteration and halal food would also be covered. If my dream come true ( I pray to God that it will), FST Virtual Library will be the first of its kind in the world.

As a repository centre, I envisage to build up documents in various forms. Lecture notes and Power Point presentations can be made available in the form of pdf files or in the original format (.doc or .ppt). In addition, recorded presentations (seminars, conferences) will be converted into a suitable video format (mpeg, avi, etc.), to suit the different download speed of various modems. While many food science/food processing concepts can be learned in a classroom they can be greatly enhanced by reaching beyond the walls of a lecture room. In an ideal situation, it is best to teach a principle or concept by hands-on approach or by a direct demonstration. Imagine teaching a student about Lane-Eynon titration to determine reducing sugar. Being an empirical method and the reaction is nonstoichiometry, strict adherence to the procedure is critical in order to obtain good results. A video recording of the whole experiment can be made and critical steps of the titration can be highlighted. Similarly, when teaching food processing operation, for example, extraction and refining of vegetable oils, each step of the process can be recorded in visual form and combined with narration. These examples represent a different form of pedagogy (teaching methods) that can be fully utilised for effective teaching and eventually will greatly benefit the students. As a start, you will find on this website a video on potato starch processing and snack food production by extrusion cooking. It is my sincere hope that I would get more contribution of similar files from individual or from food manufacturers.

As a teacher, I always believe in sharing knowledge with others – knowledge should be disseminated. Preparing a good lecture note or any form of teaching materials is undeniably a time consuming (and sometimes, painful) process. The question is, should we make it accessible only to a small group of students, or other students as well? In my view, teaching materials are not proprietary or exclusive to the author because much of the ideas and materials are also “borrowed” from others. Of course, others may have different opinions. In my case, I am pleased to make my teaching materials available for perusal or downloading for learning or teaching purposes.

Also in this new-look website, you will find more than 100 new links were added and new categories were created. It was a mammoth task to search for the link and annotate each one. My plan is to establish this part of the website as a megaindex for the students and people interested in any aspect of food science and technology, food safety, food innovation, and so on. I would greatly appreciate if you, the reader, could extend your helping hand to provide more links for this section.

As I stated earlier, my primary goal is to enhance your experience with the website and optimise its value. But, the website can only get better. As always, I welcome your feedback. Please send your comments on the redesign as well as ideas on how I can make the website even more useful to you. My email is nadhaz@streamyx.com or akarim@usm.my.