Written by Nurul Nadwa Zulkifli & Fatin Aliah Phang

Centre for Engineering Education (CEE), University Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) continues to raise awareness of low carbon society by organising the 3rd Problem Based Learning (PBL) for Low Carbon Society (LCS) program in collaboration with Jabatan Pendidikan Negeri Johor (JPNJ) and Kyoto Environmental Activities Association (KEAA), supported by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Majlis Bandaraya Iskandar Puteri (MBIP).

A total of 356 Form 2 students and 54 STEM teachers from 12 secondary schools in Johor involved in the program conducted in October 2018. The schools were SMK Seri Kota Puteri 2, SMK Sultanah Engku Tun Aminah, SM Islam Hidayah, SMK Seri Pulai Perdana, SMK Dato Jaafar, SMK Taman Johor Jaya 2, SMK Kota Masai 2, SMK Dato Penggawa Barat, SMK Sultan Ismail, SMK Kelapa Sawit, SMK Telok Kerang and SM Islam As-siddiq.

The program started in 2016 with only 2 pilot schools and expanded to 6 schools in 2017. It was a one year educational program among Form 2 students, which required them to learn about LCS themselves using PBL and then to propose a solution for low carbon problems in groups. All the teachers were trained and mentored both on LCS and PBL at CEE ranging from Environmental awareness, Active Learning, Cooperative Learning and PBL. After the training, the teachers crafted suitable real world problems related to LCS issue for the students to learn and solve. CEE team visited schools to provide clinical supervisions for the teachers. At the end of the program, the students presented their reports. From 90 reports submitted, 36 were selected for the semi-final competition as an incentive for them. And from there, 6 were selected for the final competition.

This year, the semi-final and final competitions were  held at the MBIP Hall, Skudai during the Iskandar Malaysia towards Low Carbon Society 2018 Seminar. In this competition, 36 groups out of 90 groups made it to the semi-finals and they needed to present and convinced their proposed solutions positively to the judges.  Excitingly, six groups from SMK Seri Kota Puteri 2, SMK Sultanah Engku Tun Aminah, SM Islam Hidayah, SMK Seri Pulai Perdana, SMK Dato Jaafar and SMK Dato Penggawa Barat made it to the final. The LCS issues included waste management, energy, water and transportation.

The judges for the final competition were Prof. Dr. Khairiyah Mohd Yusof, Director of CEE UTM who is also an expert in PBL, Ms. Satomi Tomita from KEAA, Mr. Amiruddin Abd Manaf from JPNJ, Ms. Daisy Harry from Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA) and Ms. Chew Lee Tin from MBIP. The winner of the PBL for LCS 2018 was a group of two students (The Nature Knight group) from SMK Seri Kota Puteri 2 with the project entitled The Hidropower. The first runner up (Chryscoral group) and second runner up (Crytalation) were from SMK Sultanah Engku Tun Aminah and SM Islam Hidayah respectively. The champion won a study trip to Kyoto City funded by JICA in collaboration with KEAA and the Kyoto City.

The program not only raised awareness about LCS among students, teachers and parents, it also instilled interest in STEM among the students as well as  developing  21st century skills in them such as communication skills, critical thinking, creative thinking, collaboration and life-long learning. Through this program, 54 teachers were trained to organize their classes using PBL and hopefully they would be able to use this teaching method to make their students become independent learners. UTM will continuously mentor the teachers in implementing PBL to create awareness in LCS in the future which in line with the STEM education and 21st century learning.

Sepang: School of Chemical and Energy Engineering (SCEE) of UTM Faculty of Engineering secured two slots as finalist for Anugerah Khas YB Menteri Pendidikan Malaysia: Rekabentuk Kurikulum dan Penyampaian Inovatif 2018 (AKRI 2018) under the Innovative Curriculum and Immersive Learning Experience – Blended category from a total of 210 participation for this award, ranging from universities and polytechnics from all over Malaysia.

On Thursday 13^th December, all 30 finalists from six different categories presented their best practices pitching in front of Malaysian Learning and Teaching experts at Movenpick Hotel & Convention Centre KLIA.

Finalist 1: UTM MSc Energy Management (MSc-EM) with Double Professional Energy Manager Certifications

Category: Innovative Curriculum

Team: Prof. Ir. Dr. Zainuddin Abdul Manan (Leader), Prof. Ir. Dr. Haslenda Hashim, Prof. Ir. Dr. Sharifah Rafidah Wan Alwi, Assoc Prof. Dr. Mohd. Kamaruddin Abd. Hamid, Dr. Azizul Azri Mustaffa, Dr. Lim Jeng Shiun, Dr. Zarina Ab. Muis, Dr. Ho wai Shin, and Dr. Nor Alafiza Yunus.

Finalist 2: Blended-Cooperative Learning for UTM Process Control Course Using TPACK Framework

Category: Immersive Learning Experience – Blended

Team: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mohd. Kamaruddin Abd. Hamid (Leader), Prof. Dr. Khairiyah Mohd. Yusof, Prof. Dr. Kamarul Asri Ibrahim, Dr. Saharudin Haron, and Ir. Dr. Zaki Yamani Zakaria.

The award was presented by YB Dr. Maszlee Malik, Minister of Education Malaysia on Friday afternoon (14^th December). Finalist 1 from SCEE won the third place for the Innovative Curriculum category.

JOHOR BAHRU, 16 Disember 2018 – Three final year undergraduate students were selected as the recipient of Undergraduate Research Conference (URC) 2018 Special Award for their outstanding achievement in presenting their final year project.

The URC 2018 Special Award recipients were Nurathirah Maarof from Azman Hashim International Business School ( AHIBS), Thipan Raj a/l Katigasu from the School of Education and Wong Ting Chun from the School of Chemical and Energy Engineering.
The URC 2018 Programme Coordinator, Mohd Rashid Abd. Rahup said that besides Special Award, The Best Presenter Award were also given to 11 Best Presenters among all the participants.

“There were 100 participants carrying with them 100 projects to be evaluated through the evaluation process conducted by 22 academicians and 11 industrial representatives,” said Mohd. Rashid.
He added that from this 100 participants, 41 were from the Azman Hashim International Business School (AHIBS) followed by 40 from the School of Chemical and Energy Engineering, School of Education (11), School of Mechanical Engineering (4) and another four were from the School of Electrical Engineering.

“As the first conference of its kind, the URC 2018 is an excellent platform to showcase research works carried out by our final year undergraduate students.
“This event also provides a mean for them to interact with other students from different discipline which could nurture their social and interpersonal skills, creativity and critical thinking which later could make these future graduates to be more holistic in their approach,” said Mohd. Rashid.

The URC 2018 were opened to all undergraduate students from all faculties and school in UTM. For URC 2018, all the 100 participants were required to write and draw about their Final Projects. which were later evaluated by panels from the academia and the industry.

“It is hoped that the URC 2018 will become a stimulating platform for undergraduate collaborative research of different disciplines not only in UTM but also between universities in Malaysia in the future,” said Mohd. Rashid.
All the winners received their prizes from Chair of Undergraduate Studies, Prof. Dr. Mohd. Zaki Kamsah in a simple ceremony held at the Senate Hall, UTM Johor Bahru. Also attending the ceremony was the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Student Affairs), Prof. Dr. Durrishah Idrus.

Norzarina binti Othman, a PhD student from School of Education, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), had successfully undergone one-month Postgraduate Student Exchange programme organised by King Mongkut’s Institute of Ladkrabang (KMITL) in Bangkok, Thailand, August 2018.

She joined another three (3) international students from the University of Bristol, United Kingdom; Charles Darwin, University and Australia; University of Oslo, Norway. The program offers a wide range of different academic disciplines and interesting scheduled programs in the Faculty of Industrial Education and Technology as part of their postgraduate degree. The program creates an opportunity to share knowledge and research between international and local students. It also exposes the international students to local cultures and languages as well as provides an opportunity for students to be ambassadors for their institution and country/region.

The UTM International Office supported this program under the Global Outreach Programme which positively affects the perception of confidence, attitude and future career choices. The program provides outstanding opportunity to be in different background and cultures between local and exchange students.

Norzarina who is supervised by Prof Dr Yeo Kee Jiar claims that this Global Outreach Program is a perfect opportunity to expand network contact globally while connecting with RMUTT students and lecturers as well as fellow international exchange students.

“ Throughout this programme, I constantly find myself in the situation outside of my comfort zone, in which I truly learn more about myself and my surroundings.”

Through this fruitful programme, she and the other international participants had exchanged research knowledge and culture and it has helped to enrich their learning journey.

On 12 December 2018, two lecturers from AHIBS UTM KL were awarded Special Award for case presentation in ICSC, 2018 conference held at TH Hotel  Convention Centre, Alor Setar, Malaysia from 11 to 12 December, 2018 and was attended by local and international participants around ASEAN region.

The case entitled “Swimming48: A Tattle Tale of the Organizational Chaos” was written by Associate Professor Dr Farzana Quoquab and Dr Jihad Mohammad. This case highlights the challenges pertaining to organizational chaos in an organization among its employees. Lesson learned from this case is how miscommunication and internal chaos can lead to less productivity at the workplace.

Dr Farzana and Dr Jihad have been working on writing teaching cases since 2010. Such cases provide real life examples in order to facilitate classroom learning. In addition to this significant contribution in upholding the local case writing movement, they have also published two case books and 16 local cases.

SEPANG, 15 December: – MyLinE, Language Academy from Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities (FSSH) from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) has won a second place in Pengalaman Pembelajaran Imersif Teradun (Blended) Category in the Anugerah Khas Menteri Pendidikan Malaysia: Reka Bentuk Kurikulum Dan Penyampaian Inovatif (AKRI) 2018 held at Movenpick Hotel & Convention Centre KLIA from 13-14 December 2018.

Out of 205 entries received from all public and private higher institutions in Malaysia, MyLinE was shortlisted to be in the top 30 finalists. These finalists were selected from rigorous selection process carried out by a group of expert panelists in November. Finalists were required to prepare a 2-minute summary video of the project and deliver a 10-minute pitch in front of four well-versed jurors in their respective category on 13 December.

MyLinE competed in Pengalaman Pembelajaran Imersif Teradun (Blended) category with the project entitled ‘MyLinE UTM-UNMC BCEDP MUET Preparatory Transnational Collaboration Project’. This collaborative project helps graduate students from Bangladesh who have been selected to join the Bangladesh College Education Development Project (BCEDP) to master English and to meet the required level of MUET Bands.

This collaboration involves face-to-face trainings as well as online assistance for 1000 University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus (UNMC) international students. It could also indirectly strengthen cooperation between MyLinE and Majlis Peperiksaan Malaysia (MPM) in meeting the needs of Malaysian University English Test (MUET) candidates.

Other categories contested in AKRI 2018 were Kurikulum Program Pengajian Inovatif, Pengajaran Transformatif Tanpa Syarahan, Pengajaran Transformatif Pentaksiran Alternatif, Pembelajaran Imersif Maya and Pengalaman Pembelajaran Imersif Bersemuka.

The closing ceremony was held the next day and the awards were presented by the Minister of Education himself, YB Dr Maszlee Malik. Also present was YBhg. Datin Paduka Ir Dr Siti Hamisah Binti Tapsir, Higher Education Ministry Director-General. MyLinE brought home RM 5000 and a certificate for securing second place in the Pengalaman Pembelajaran Imersif Teradun category. MyLinE team was represented by Assoc. Prof. Fatimah Puteh to receive the award on stage.

Note: MyLinE welcomes all other related parties to work together in the areas that could assist the learning of English. MyLinE can be accessed at http://myline.utm.my. For more information, please contact myline@utm.my or 075537955.

Oil and Gas Festival 2018 (OGFEST’18) was a major event that was organized by the Society of Petroleum Engineers Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Student Chapter (SPE-UTM SC) from 16th October until 18th October 2018 with the theme of ‘Energising Future Engineers’ as an incentive to promote Johor as the future of oil and gas hub globally.

It has brought a future outlook for the students and industry where the industry can plan for the upcoming quarters through innovations by young future engineers. Basically, this event consisted of many sub-events such as professional talk, technical talk, competitions, exhibition, panel session and workshop which involved many oil and gas companies in Malaysia.

The competition itself had a total of six competitions which were Petrobrain Competition, Oil Rig Design Competition and Paper Presentation Competition, Energy Debate Competition, Power Plant Design Competition and Photo Contest opened for both undergraduate and postgraduate students from all over the world.

OGFEST’18 also managed to be sponsored by oil and gas companies such as Repsol Oil & Gas Malaysia Limited, ConocoPhillips Asia Pacific Sdn. Bhd., Setegap Venture Petroleum Sdn. Bhd., Schlumberger WTA (M) Sdn. Bhd., SPE Kuala Lumpur Section, Lekir Energy Sdn. Bhd. and Alumni Kejuruteraan Petroleum (ALUKEP).

Participants had walked in to see our powerful exhibitors such as Repsol Oil & Gas Malaysia Limited, Schlumberger WTA (M) Sdn. Bhd., Setegap Venture Petroleum Sdn. Bhd., Aker Solutions and SPE-UTM SC.

Besides, the participation from international and local universities was very tremendous as we had received 200 participants from 5 countries. In addition, this year we had a massive collaboration with other societies in UTM such as Persatuan Teknomarin (SKMO), Gas Engineering Student Society (GESS), The Institution of Engineers Malaysia UTM Student Section (IEM-UTM SS) and UTM Toastmasters Club.

Last but not least, heartiest congratulations to winners from UTM students. Chuah Kai Jieemerged as CHAMPION in Paper Competition. Saravin Selleyitorrea, Dhevaruphan Sambathu, Prabu A/L Sinnasamy and Sharmeendran A/L Muniandy were crowned the CHAMPION in the team category in Power Plant Design Competition. Not to forget, Revinthiren Mathawan, Raja Johannes and Afiq Shamsukamal won the 2ND RUNNER UP in Energy Debate Competition. Proud of all of you guys!

For more information, please visit https://www.facebook.com/ogfestutm18/?ref=br_rs!

On 24 November 2018, a UTM senior lecturer Ts. Dr. Rozzeta Dolah CEng has been awarded as Tokoh Perdana 2018 by Education Malaysia in the United States of America. The award is given during the Perdana Scholar Awards (PSA 2018) event at Embassy of Malaysia Washington D.C.. PSA 2018 is an event which aims to identify and award Malaysian who have excelled in their: Academic, Leadership, Sports/ Inventions/ Research and best Malaysian Student Association. There are five (5) awards, with Tokoh Perdana as the primary award, covering areas such as academic, leadership, sports, inventions / research and best Malaysian Student Association (MSA). The PSA 2018 is organized by Education Malaysia USA and the Embassy of Malaysia, in collaboration with JPA and MARA.

Ts. Dr. Rozzeta Dolah CEng, her interest is in renewable energy for biomass conversion into biofuels, besides quality engineering of Taguchi experimental design, Design of Experiment (DOE) and optimization. She involved in designing and optimization of a second-generation pyrolysis reactor of bio fuel conversion from oil palm empty fruit bunch. As a postdoctoral fellow at Prof. Rohit Karnik’s Lab of Microfluidics and Nanofluidics Research Laboratory, in MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering, and having the experience in robust measurement and metrology for Ph.D at Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan; the research has enabled her to develop skills in robust engineering method for nanotechnology.

Dr Rozzeta, is also the President for the MIT Postdoctoral Association (MIT PDA) , representing 1600 postdoctoral trainees spread across every school and departments at MIT. She becomes the first Malaysian to hold this position in MIT PDA history https://news.utm.my/2018/09/universiti-teknologi-malaysia-senior-lecturer-becomes-malaysias-first-president-of-mit-postdoctoral-association/. The criteria she is chosen was mainly due to the fact that she is a woman in engineering and science field with exceptional leadership besides competent in research and studies. The criteria has considered her extra hard work during her postdoctoral study at MIT by promoting and carry the ‘flag’ of UTM and Malaysia irrespective who the government is. She made several public short courses inside and outside MIT to seek opportunities by her own initiative to sharpen her professional skills. Recent initiative by her is initiating the installation of Minitab Inc. license at MIT which caught the attention of global Minitab providers.

Her research consists of three main parts: (1) The optimization and design of pyrolysis reactor; (2) the study of literature, analysis, and evaluation of biofuel source from biomass; and (3) Water-oil based extraction method for bio oil’s improvement into biofuels. Main feedstock, palm oil empty fruit bunch (EFB) was converted into bio oil (bio oil) using 300L thermochemical pyrolysis reactor. A second step reaction is the biomass into bio oil and followed by an upgrade method for converting bio-oil into jet fuel or aviation kerosine oil. The results and composition of pyrolysis oil depend on the raw materials of biomass, catalyst, and other reactor operation parameters. The effect of variables on bio oil yields is optimized using a robust parameter design through Taguchi Method and other optimization methods. Apart from reactor optimization, the quality of pyrolysis oil is improved. The use of direct bio oil is limited because the physical and chemical properties are different from conventional petroleum fossil fuels (diesel, gasoline, and kerosene). Thus, upgrading bio oil is necessary to improve the bio-physicochemical properties of bio oil before it can be used in transportation, heating, and other applications.

Together with her supervisor, Prof. Rohit Karnik from MIT Dept. of Mechanical Enginering working on the most economical and feasible method to upgrade the pyrolysis oil. Water-based extraction using oil, water or solvent extraction is one of the methods to upgrade and improve the quality of bio-oil into biofuels.  The extraction of certain compounds in bio oil allow it to be used as another chemical and for the purpose of fuel volume increment. Studying the solubility of the solution by adding water and organic solvents (kerosene, octane), and sodium hydroxide alkaline solution as acid buffer are the alternatives to solve the drawbacks of bio oil properties. The phases formed after extraction are aqueous and inaqueous phases. Acetic acid and phenolic compounds are extracted in aqueous and organic phase. Polar chemicals, such as acetic acid, are not divided into organic solvents. Acetic acid in the water phase after extraction is beneficial for the application of microbial-electrolysis to produce hydrogen as a source of energy in subsequent bio-oil hydrodeoxygenation. Adding sodium hydroxide has adjusted the bio-oil pH,  The oxygenated compounds with low molecular weight are extracted such as phenols, acids, ketones, alkenes, and esters thus results in lower oxygen content in biofuels to provide high efficiency in transportation engine. High water content in bio oil is also criticial to be reduced to increase the heating value as less heat of combustion leads to difficult ignition for transportation. Recent challenges and potential biomass as a source of biofuels are discussed through detailed studies using EFB and other feedstocks in Dr. Rozzeta’s research.

Dr. Keith Cook, Associate Director (International) of Edge Hill University, United Kingdom visited UTM Kuala Lumpur  recently. He is responsible in introducing Edge Hill Business School and looking for collaboration opportunities on student exchange program and research grants.

Dr. Rossilah Jamil from Azman Hashim International Business School (AHIBS) is keen to collaborate with Edge Hill as it offers many programs in Business and Management including Bachelor Degrees and they also offer various MBA specializations. She is also interested in linking the Professional Doctorate Emergency Services Management program offered at Edge Hill with MBA (Healthcare Management) offered by AHIBS.

She is looking forward to work closely with Dr. Keith Cook for a joint cooperation program and likely to sign the Letter of Cooperation (LoC) with Edge Hill University and  AHIBS will be the owner of this cooperation.

A senior lecturer from Faculty of Built Environment and Surveying , Dr Kamalahasan has been appointed as a Vice Chairman of the Royal Institution Surveyors Malaysia Johor chapter from 1^stJune 2018 to 30^th June 2019. He received his appointment in the recent RISM Annual General Meeting in Johor Bahru.

RISM is a professional body representing four distinct but closely related divisions i.e. Real Estate, Geomatic and Land Surveyong Division, Quantity Surveying Division, Property Management, Valuation and Estate Agency Surveying Division and Building Surveying Division. Dr. Kamalahasan is from Property Management, Valuation and Estate Agency Surveying Division.

Dr, Kamalahasan has a PhD in Real Estate and Planning from University of Reading, UK.

He is also a member of the Association of Valuers, Property Managers, Estate Agents and Property Consultant in the Private Sector Malaysia (PEPS, Johor)

12 Dec 2018 –  A group of representatives from Tashkent Institute of Architecture and Civil Engineering (TIACE), Republic of Uzbekistan, led by Mr. Raavshan Rashodovich Khakimov, Rector of TIACE visited School of Civil Engineering (SKA), Faculty of Engineering and was welcomed by the School Management team and Course Coordinators headed by Prof. Dr Mohammad Ismail, Assistant Chair (Research).

The discussion was conducted via a translator , Mr Rafael, from TNE, UTMSPACE. TIACE is very keen to start a Master of Engineering (M.Eng) (Construction Management) programme this coming semester in February 2019. SKA then elaborated on the programme details, especially on the total credits, as well as core and elective courses.

SKA and TIACE have agreed to conduct the programme through the franchise mode where most core courses would be delivered by academic staff of SKA, while  the remaining courses would be conducted by lecturers from TIACE. However, the selection of the lecturers from TIACE will be endorsed by SKA to ensure the competency and eligibility of the appointed lecturers.

SKA then distributed the brochure of this programme to all representatives from TIACE. TIACE also would like to develop more programmes with SKA in the future. Upon the success of this programme, more programmes will be implemented. The implementation of this master program is now managed by TNE, UTMSPACE. Mr Zulkifli bin Osman, TNE (UTMSPACE) stated that the paper work will be presented in JKTS and LPU, latest by January 2019. During this visit, SKA also organised a short visit to the teaching laboratory at Block M50. TIACE representatives were very satisfied with all the laboratory equipment and facilities.

source : Dr Roslli bin Noor Mohamed, Associate Chair (Continuing and Transnational Education)

KISH ISLAND, 10th Dec – Heartiest congratulations to Innokai team from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) who has made Malaysia proud in the Robocup Asia Pacific 2018 competition.

The team, comprising five Bachelor of Electronic Systems Engineering students grabbed second place in the Robocup@Home League in the final round held at Kish Island, Iran. The students are Lim Sheng Wei, Brian Lai Lap Hong, Heimrih Lim Meng Kee, Ahmad Syahmi Bin Mahmod and Rishiekumar A/L Muniandy.

“I would like to express my gratitude and special thanks to my teammates because we have worked very hard for this as it was a very tough competition. This win was really unexpected.  I feel very proud as a UTM student and I hope that I have made my family, friends and UTM proud”, said Lim.

They were guided by Dr. Zool Hilmi bin Ismail.

Innokai was among the five teams that made it through to the final and the award-winning project was judged by both roboticists and non-roboticists panels.

The RoboCup@Home league aims to develop service robot technology with high relevance for future personal domestic applications.

It is the largest international annual competition for autonomous service robots and is part of the RoboCup initiative.

A set of benchmark tests is used to evaluate the robots’ abilities and performance in a realistic non-standardized home environment setting.

The main focus lies on the following domains but is not limited to: Human-Robot-Interaction and Cooperation, Navigation and Mapping in dynamic environments, Computer Vision and Object Recognition under natural light conditions, Object Manipulation, Adaptive Behaviors, Behavior Integration, Ambient Intelligence and Standardization and System Integration.