Research areas (Challengeable)

Research areas of special strength at USM include environmental science , aquaculture , biomedical and pharmaceutical studies , natural language processing and computer aided translation , information technology , food technology , polymer science and technology , brain and neuroscience , biotechnology , distance education , geographical information system , structure analysis , materials science , engineering , surface chemistry , and robotic vision . Penang has excellent research facilities for collaborative search , particularly in coastal pollution , mangrove ecosystem and marine aquaculture .

Universiti Sains Malaysia offers excellent opportunities for research and education to both local and foreign scholars . The University's core competencies are teaching , research and consultancies , which relate directly to the advancement of human resource and capacity building , knowledge and industrial competitiveness .

The route taken for the development of academic excellence at USM has been the establishment of research institutes , center and units has always been that the areas which they cover must be the ones in which there have already been notable achievements and where the setting up of formal structures would help to mobilize more effectively research University . But it has always been understood that these structures , while providing better opportunities for integration and networking , would not replace or reduce the research roles of the teaching schools and their staff . Indeed , a cardinal rule in the University's overall planning has been that principal areas of teaching and research would overlap , as would areas of staff and postgraduate research , to the common advantage of all .