Conceptual data model of International Research, Innovation, Conference and Competition (IRICC) system / Nurulnadwan Aziz, Mohd Hairi Jalis and Abd Razak Abu Kassim

Since the past 10 years Universiti Teknologi MARA Terengganu Branch (UiTMTB) Malaysia, particularly Department of Research and Industrial Linkages has organized several conferences and innovation competitions as a platform for the lecturers to share knowledge, achieve the Key Performance Index (KPI) in writing and publication, as well as develop networking among academicians and industrial practitioners at local and international level. As organizer, Department of Research and Industrial Linkages has put the maximum effort to achieve the objectives of the program although each of the task has to be conducted manually. These includes manage the participants registration, reviewing and notification process, as well as payment process. All of that are complicated tasks. Missing information and misunderstand the communication among the team members are some of the problems faced by the organizer throughout the process of conducting the program. Moreover, it was too unfortunate, as in this digital era all the critical tasks still have to be managed manually through email. These indicates that the committee members of the program need a systematic system to execute all the critical task efficiently. Therefore, further study needs to urgently be carried out in proposing a conceptual data model of the system that specifically address the user requirement particularly in organizing conferences and innovation competitions. Thus, the main objective of this study is to propose a conceptual data model namely Conceptual Data Model of International Research, Innovation, Conference and Competition (IRICC) System that useful to the developers to develop a complete innovation competition and conference system. To achieve that, Iterative Triangulation Methodology which reflected to Design Science Research Methodology will be adapted throughout the study. It comprises of three main phases; (i) theoretical study, (ii) development, and (iii) evaluation. The proposed model will be validated through expert review method in terms of its usefulness. Accordingly, the findings of this study could ensure that all of the conferences and innovation competition program organized by Department of Research and Industrial Linkages UiTMTB could be systematically managed. As it is part of university requirement, so it should be one of the priorities.