From Paper Trails to Smarter Streets: Securing Communities Through Digital Patrolling
Introducing Dr Mohd Adib bin Sarijari, Senior Lecturer,Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
Department / Research Area: Membrane Technology
Email Contact: madib@utm.my
Back in 2017, the Security Division at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) approached our research group, TeSS, with a glaring challenge. They were struggling to manage physical security patrols effectively. Guard accountability, transparency, and incident reporting were still heavily reliant on manual paperwork and old-school logging. Around the same time, several of our industry partners echoed the exact same concerns. It became clear that this wasn’t just a local issue—it was a systemic vulnerability across the entire security landscape.
Driven by the desire to make communities genuinely safer, we asked ourselves how we could use technology to completely bridge this gap. This spark gave life to GuardExpert Pro, a smart security patrolling platform born directly from real-world problems and refined through academic innovation.
Translating a lab prototype into a physical, rugged tool used in the field is a massive journey. In the early days, our research focused on harnessing the power of the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Data Analytics to optimize tracking. But a piece of tech is only as good as its real-world execution.
This is where UTM’s campus as a “Living Lab” became our greatest asset. Our university’s security teams deployed GuardExpert Pro in its infancy, providing immediate operational feedback. We walked alongside guards to understand their environment. We learned that connection drops in basement parkings or high-rise structures are inevitable. This led us to develop an intelligent offline mode, allowing guards to log checkpoints seamlessly without internet access, syncing securely the moment they reconnect. Through UTM’s spin-off company, Significs Technologies Sdn. Bhd., we bridged academia and industry, turning deep research into a commercially viable, practical platform.
Global Relevance & WTUN Context
Security and community resilience are inherently global concerns. Our project directly aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (UNSDG) 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities.
As modern urban centers grow rapidly, maintaining citizen safety and safeguarding critical infrastructure demands a shift from passive monitoring to active, reliable coordination. The real-world impact of our research is validated by its massive deployment across diverse sectors. Beyond heavy industries like UMW Corporation, Malaysia Marine and Heavy Engineering (MMHE), and Tanjung Langsat Port (TLP), GuardExpert Pro has been trusted to secure public infrastructure. This includes higher education ecosystems like UTM, municipal town councils such as Majlis Bandaraya Kuantan, critical highway networks like the Besraya Highway, and high-stakes healthcare facilities like local hospitals. The necessity for robust, secure, and intuitive workforce tracking truly transcends geographical and sectoral borders.
Collaboration Opportunities including how to work with Dr Mohd. Adib bin Sarijari:
Great innovations thrive on diverse perspectives. Our system relies heavily on continuous multi-tenant dashboarding, facial recognition authentication, and data resilience. We deeply interested in connecting with fellow WTUN researchers, particularly those specializing in:
● Advanced sensor technologies and Edge AI
● Agentic AI, and Intelligence System for security and surveillances
● Cross-cultural studies on security and surveillance technologies adoption within industrial workforces
If your institution is exploring human-in-the-loop systems or localized public safety frameworks, we would welcome the opportunity to exchange knowledge or co-develop international pilot projects.
Impact & Looking Ahead
Today, GuardExpert Pro is actively protecting lives, public assets, and property across corporate giants, ports, town councils, hospitals, and academic campuses. Looking forward over the next five years, the security sector will pivot from systems that merely record events to systems that intelligently comprehend situations.
By merging IoT with emerging Agentic AI, our goal is to build an ecosystem where systems autonomously recommend emergency responses, keeping human decision-makers efficiently in the loop. We are excited to step into this future, turning shared research into safer spaces for everyone.
“We are eager to connect and collaborate with researchers and public-safety specialists across the WTUN network who are passionate about scaling IoT and smart city security solutions globally.”
About
Dr. Mohd Adib bin Sarijari is a Senior Lecturer at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) with 15 years of deep expertise in IoT technology & system integration, Artificial Intelligence, and telecommunication software. He focuses heavily on transforming industrial and civic challenges into smart digital applications. As a pioneer behind GuardExpert Pro—now trusted across major commercial enterprises ( such as UMW, MMHE, TLP) as well as public sectors, hospitals, and municipal town councils like Majlis Bandaraya Kuantan—his work bridges academic research and market-ready systems to build safer smart cities.
Keywords: Technology & Innovation | Internet of Things | Digital Applications
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