Taylor's Culinary Institute Collaborated with TiffinLabs on Entrepreneurial Competition

In order to embed real-world environment and original input from industry partners, Taylor’s Culinary Institute collaborated with TiffinLabs to conduct an Entrepreneurial Competition in mid-2022 for Final Year Diploma in Culinary Arts students.

TiffinLabs is a global digital restaurant group founded in 2019 by industry veterans with leadership experience at the world’s leading restaurants, hospitality, food delivery and technology companies. With more exciting brand concepts planned, TiffinLabs aims to activate 500 storefronts by 2022. They create and scale delivery optimized virtual restaurant brands crafted by their in-house leading culinary team and proprietary food trend experts.

What makes TiffinLabs different from the common cloud kitchen? Their virtual restaurant brands are cooked on their own with their network of partnered kitchens compared to having only one fixed location. With them as an experts in creating food brands and launching new ideas, they have collaborated with TCI to work with our final year module, Food Production Operation which is an Entrepreneurship module for Diploma students.

Hence, a competition for the students to develop a proposal of creating a new virtual restaurant brand was held in collaboration with TiffinLabs. The top 3 winners won a cash prize up to RM1500 and the best creation would be featured as TiffinLabs new menu brand. This has brought a more meaningful learning experience for the students and inspired the students on how to open a restaurant brand upon being an entrepreneur in the future.

Taylor’s Culinary Institute is in discussion on working with TiffinLabs for a long-term collaboration towards a more valuable learning experience for the students at Taylor’s Culinary Institute.

Indo-Pacific Circle Engagement in Shaping the Emergent Narratives: A Network of Thought Leaders

Dr. Benjamin Yew Hoong Loh, Senior Lecturer, School of Media and Communication was invited to attend the inaugural Indo-Pacific Circle Chennai Residency, a curated network of early and mid-career scholars from the Indo-Pacific engaged in shaping the emergent narratives of the region. The programme, jointly organized with the US Mission to India, gathered 55 academic scholars and think tank researchers from India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and South Korea to discuss issues affecting this region.

During the residency, Dr. Benjamin was part of a capstone grant proposal team that won a prestigious cash award of USD5000 for the whole team and to cowrite articles for a special issue in the Indo-Pacific Review Journal. The article will be focusing on how informal/amateur investments are becoming more commonplace as costs of living are going up across the Indo-Pacific and possible regional cooperation is needed to reduce the impact of shocks to global supply chains.

He was also a presenter on a panel titled “The View from Southeast Asia: Harnessing Emerging Technologies for Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific”. The avail from this event was able to network and communicate with many scholars from the region and talked about potential future research projects.

Indo Pacific Circle: https://www.ipcircle.org/member/dr-benjamin-yew-hoong-loh

ECCE PhD Scholar Denise Duar's Diary: Ep2 "The Octopus" Christy Tong, Principal of Alpine Preschool

Denise Duar, Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) PhD Scholar from the School of Education, Taylor’s University shared another entry from her “Diary” as she caught up with a good friend of hers, Christy Tong from the Early Childhood Education industry. Christy is an alumna of Taylor’s University, she has completed her Master of Teaching and Learning from the School of Education a couple of years back. Christy is now a Principal of Alpine Preschool and has recently co-published three books with her colleagues from the field of Early Childhood Education.

In this casual interview, Christy shared how she embarked on her career and how the pursuit of qualifications starting from a Diploma in Early Childhood to the Doctor of Philosophy in Education exposed her to a wide range of skills and knowledge that she is now well equipped with. “Octopus” – a term that Christy used to describe herself in the interview with much joy and passion.

Find out what Christy meant by that and how becoming an “Octopus” can be rewarding and can bring joy to one’s career like hers! The YouTube video entitled, Diary of an ECCE Scholar: Christy Tong, the octopus.

If you missed the first episode of this docu-series (ECCE through Denise’s lens), simply head over via Early Childhood Education Mini-series 1: ECCE through Denise's Lens to watch it!

Special thanks to Mr. Azrain Bin Muhamad Arifin, Senior Lecturer from Taylor's University School of Media and Communication, Faculty of Social Sciences & Leisure Management and students from the Taylor's University School of Media & Communication, namely Maizatul Amirah Mahat, Pon Hang Lam, and Akif Amir, School of Computer Science & Engineering for making the pilot episode of this docu-series a possibility!