school of engineering

Two teams of our students from the School of Engineering successfully achieved the Gold Award and the Bronze Award at the International Conference on Information, System and Convergence Applications (ICISCA), which was held from 24th June (Wednesday) to 27th June (Monday), at the Royale Chulan Hotel, Kuala Lumpur and Everly Hotel, Putrajaya.  

At the conference, a Student Poster Competition was held, in which participating students were required to design a 100cm x 140cm poster based on any work related to the ICISCA 2015. Cleopatra Musa and Syed Abdullah, mentored by Prof Dr Ir Vinesh Thiruchelvam, achieved the Gold Award with their outstanding poster design, and walked away with a cash prize of RM1,000. On the other hand, Lee Chii Jun, mentored by Mr Chandrasekharan Nataraj, attained the Bronze Award and walked away with a cash prize of RM300.

Apart from taking part in the competition, the students also gained valuable eye-opening experiences while attending the conference, as they were exposed to conference paper presentations on several engineering technologies, such as electromagnetic sensing, intelligent systems and control, artificial intelligence, smart sensors and so on.

As part of their Petroleum Geology out-of-classroom assessment, 15 students from the Petroleum Engineering programme organised a two-day geological fieldwork to the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia, as accompanied by their lecturers from the School of Engineering, Ms. Ailie Serasa, Dr. Amin Shahbazi and Dr. Bathaee recently.

The expedition started with an observation of the metamorphic rock at Ukay Perdana, followed by a study on cave architecture at the Charas Cave, analysis of basaltic pillow lava at the Black Stone Beach, an observation of river architecture at the Bakau Tinggi Recreation Park, and the analysis of petroleum system with geological structure at the Taman Tasik Puteri Bukit Besi and Rantau Abang – what a contenting 2-days journey they had!

While Petroleum Geology classes typically take place within the Geology Lab on-campus, the students appreciated the trip that provided hands-on experience studying the concepts of rock cycles, structural geology and depositional environment through observation, collection of samples and then drawing analysis reports – these are key subject areas in line with the geological concept of petroleum systems, and the trip turned out to be an enjoyable learning experience for them. In addition, the group, that comprised students from Morocco, Zimbabwe, Libya, Yemen, Philippines, Nigeria and Malaysia, were awestruck by the picturesque display of natural caves, beaches, river banks and forests that they discovered at the trip.

The 2-days expedition ended on a positive note, as students gathered immense experience and valuable practical skills throughout the trip. Kudos to the School of Engineering for organising this amazing adventure! 

Drilling is a crucial phase within the oil and gas extraction and production process – our students are exposed to the real-life experience visiting a drilling facility at the oil rig, as part of their out-of-classroom experience under the Petroleum Engineering programme.

Recently, 15 students under the guidance of their lecturers, Dr. Amin Shahbazi, Ms. Ailie Serasa and Dr. Mahmood Bathaee from the School of Engineering, conducted an industrial visit to Velesto-INSTEP Drilling Academy (VIDA) in Batu Rakit, Terengganu. The academy was established as part of a collaboration between Velestro Drilling Academy Sdn Bhd and Petronas Technical Training Sdn Bhd, to provide comprehensive training for professionals within the oil and gas industry.

Throughout the visit, a Drilling Instructor, Mr. Muhamad Saufi was assigned to coach the group for the day. Students experienced being on an actual oil rig and seeing an actual drilling unit, as they visited the Naga 100 land rig at the site. While the site was being operated, students had the opportunity to witness an operational drilling that took place, demonstrated by the rig supervisor.

The second part of the visit was conducted in the drilling simulator room, in which the students had a hands-on experience operating the console-based simulator, through the physical consoles, touchscreen devices and desktop computer that were provided. It was a realistic and immersive training experience, while students enjoyed the interactivity of the system as they gained practical knowledge on drilling engineering, operations and activities on-site.

In overall, the students enjoyed the interactive experience conducted by the School of Engineering and the Academy. As drilling engineers are amongst the career choices for graduates of Petroleum Engineering degrees, it is always beneficial for students to expose themselves to potential careers that they may embark into, before they graduate in a few years’ time.

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Our School of Engineering continues to stand tall and stay strong! At the Institution of Engineers Malaysia (IEM) 60th Annual Dinner that was held recently, we are pleased to share that Yim Jun Ming, our final year student of the Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical & Electronic Engineering with Honours programme, attained the IEM Gold Medal award 2019. The award was to acknowledge Jun Ming’s outstanding academic excellence in his final year of studies, particularly in his final year project, that was built on an environment monitoring system using Internet of Things (IoT).

A moment of pride for APU was recorded at the event as well, when our own ELA robot, designed and built by the Asia Pacific Centre of Robotics Engineering (APCoRE), was used by the Minister of Primary Industries, YB Teresa Kok to officiate the event.

Jun Ming is the 6th Engineering student from APU to receive the IEM Gold Medal since 2014; our continuous success is a testament of our outstanding quality of teaching and learning at the School of Engineering.

Following their success as the Winner for MSC Malaysia Asia Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA) Awards 2016, Ngie Kok Sin and John Lim Hong Aun,  Year 3 Mechatronic Engineering students, made APU and Malaysia proud at the international arena as well! At the International APICTA Awards 2016, they attained the Merit Winner at the "Oscars of IT", with their innovative solution, the Low Cost Finger Exoskeleton for Rehabilitation of Stroke Patients​. They were mentored by ​Vickneswari Durairajah and Suresh Gobee during the 9 months of preparation before participating in the Malaysia APICTA Awards and the International APICTA Awards.

Congratulations to the team! We are absolutely proud of you!

Here comes another success story!

We are proud to share that our students from the APU School of Engineering (SoE) successfully emerged as the Winner for the recently concluded ABB Intervarsity Innovation Challenge. The winning team comprises Chama Serenja, Mohammad Haadi Goolfee & Ting Ding Ching, who are Year 3 Electrical and Electronic and Mechatronic Engineering students.

Their innovative idea, the ‘Low Cost Integrated Smart Systems’ stood out among all other local and private universities in Malaysia in the ‘Undergraduate’ category, in which the duo attained the prestige award. Prior to the participation in the competition, the team worked hard on the proposal and presentation for 1 month, under the supervision and mentorship of Vickneswari Durairajah, as well as the advice and support from several lecturers from the School of Engineering – Mr. Suresh Gobee, Dr. Freddy Tan Kheng Suan and Dr. Alvin Yap Chee Wei. The duo walked away with a cash prize of RM10,000, being the Grand Prize Winner of the competition, despite being the first-timer in the arena.

The competition’s objective was to stimulate creativeness and innovative thinking amongst undergraduates, apart from building an interactive platform between the academic circle and industry experts. The competition core theme was “Smart Technology, Intelligent Upgrading”. The winning team chose “Smart Grid and City” category, in which they developed a proposal and presentation on their idea that elaborates a new alternative way of implementing the smart grid system at low cost, by storing excessive energy from the power plant and generating more efficient power using compressed air via Tesla turbine. 

Let’s put our hands together to congratulate them for the astonishing achievements! Utmost gratitude is also dedicated to the team’s mentors and supervisors who guided the team towards success.

Our Mechatronic Engineering student, Hoy Chun Wai recently represented Malaysia in the Young Person World Lecture Competition (YPWLC) which took place in Araxa, Brazil. Prior to his entry into the global arena, Chun Wai was pronounced the winner of the National Materials Lecture Competition that took place at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) in June this year.
 
YPWLC has been organized annually by the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) UK since 2005. Sponsored by IOM3 and the support from The Worshipful Company of Armourers & Brasiers, the Young Persons' Lecture Competition invites students and professionals up to the age of 28 to deliver a short lecture on a materials, minerals, mining, packaging, clay technology and wood science related subjects. The judges were from IOM3 and the main sponsor, CBMM.
 
At the competition, Chun Wai competed against other contestants from various countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Ireland, UK, South Africa, Australia and Brazil. Despite being the youngest contestant among all, Chun Wai received excellent feedback from the judges for his presentation on the title, “ Nanocellulose: Nature’s Answer to Energy Poverty”. Even though he didn’t win the first prize in Brazil, it was a great exposure for him. Based on his excellent performance, we are proud that he was on-par with other participants who were members of the industry. 
 

Congratulations to Chun Wai for this notable achievement! The credit goes to the coaching team from School of Engineering (SoE), that comprises Brian Lim, Jacqueline Lukose, Dr Lai Nai Shyan and Dr Lau Chee Yong. Since November 2015, the team has been planning and strategizing Chun Wai’s strength for the competition which included content development and mock lectures. 
 
Coming up next, APU will host the 2017 Malaysia IMM MLC Semifinals and Finals at our new campus. It will take place in February 2017 and May 2017 respectively, and will be chaired by Brian Lim Siong Chung from School of Engineering. As hosts for IMM 2017, we look forward to us continuing in the winning ways.

For the 23rd time since 1999, we have won ourselves an APICTA Award!

Our students from the APU School of Engineering (SoE) successfully emerged as the Winner for MSC Malaysia Asia Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA) Awards 2016. The winning team comprises Ngie Kok Sin and John Lim Hong Aun, who are both Year 3 Mechatronic Engineering students.

Our students’ innovative invention, the ‘Low Cost Finger Exoskeleton for Rehabilitation of Stroke Patients’ stood out among all other universities in Malaysia in the ‘Best of Tertiary Student Project – Software/Hardware’ category. Prior to the participation in the competition, the duo has worked on the project for 9 months, under the supervision and mentorship of Vickneswari Durairajah and Suresh Gobee.

The APICTA Awards is an international awards program organized by APICTA, which aims to increase ICT awareness in the community and assist in bridging the digital divide. Upon their victory in the Malaysia Finals, Kok Sin and John will be representing Malaysia in the International APICTA, which will be held in Taipei, Taiwan from Friday, 2 December to Monday, 5 December 2016.

Congratulations to them for the achievement! Let’s also join our hands together to wish them ‘all the best’ for the upcoming International APICTA in Taipei.