2022 Day 66 Task – Global Engineering Capability Review (GECR) Feedback Workshop

RAE Global Engineering Capability Review (GECR) website

I was invited more than 1 month ago to participate in GECR workshop. Today, I had the opportunity to join this global forum and I must say that I am proud to be participating in it. Let me share a brief infor about what is GECR… and the program I attended (8.30pm – 10.00pm Malaysia Time Zone).

Engineering X ‘Engineering Skills Where They are Most Needed Programme’ is considering a follow up report to the GECR 2019. To produce a better GECR 2022 that is useful to Royal Academy of Engineering, UK (RAE) audience, they run a workshop to assess whether the GECR 2019 report contained the right kind of information that is useful for our audience. The outcome of the workshop will inform the design and scope of the GECR 2022 to ensure the Review is more useful to RAE target audience.

Hence, RAE invited me to participate in a 90-minute GECR 2019 feedback collection workshop that has been held virtually on 07 March 2022 from 12:30 – 14:00 (GMT).

As a workshop participant, I was asked to read the GECR 2019 report – the PDFs of the report, methodology and dataset here.

We were asked to at least read the following sections of the report before the meeting if we do not have time to read the entire report:

  1. Executive Summary
  2. Engineering Index 2019: 3 out of 99 countries that you are interested in.
  3. Country Case Studies: One of the countries that you are interested in.
  4. Recommendations

Other tasks of the day:

  • Met Haseeb (my IEM mentee) and received FOBS sample from him. Thanks Bro.
  • Filled up forms for Anis Master Proposal defense.
  • Followed up on Zeolite order and purchase.
  • Followed up on gas standard purchase.
  • Sign and Stamped BEM documents for KarChun and the geng.
  • Sign and accepted the appointment to be STRATEGIC PRIORITY AREA 5: – SDG LOCALISATION member, under UTM Campus Sustainability, UTM-CS (Appointment from 1 Mac 2022 hingga 28 Februari 2023).
  • Registered SG’s paper in AJEE.

2022 Day 65 Task – Discussion With One of My Academic Student Advisor’ Parent

One of the important task that many are not aware of a lecturer is his role as an Academic Advisor (Penasihat Akademik) to a group of student he is assigned for. I am not excluded. I am assigned 24 students in 2018 and now all of the students are going to graduate at the end of 2nd quarter 2022. In Syaa Allah.

However, there are always 1 or 2 students that require special care and attention. I have 2 students this semester that I have to really closely monitor. They are highly intelligent students but somehow something went wrong and we have to help, guide and monitor them accordingly so that they can graduate the chemical engineering course.

Following up to that, I squeezed my time from my hectic schedule to contact the parent of one of the student that requires help. We had a conversation and I smell and see some positive sign. I hope the student will enhance his performance soon and I really want to see him excel and graduate. I want to see the student have a bright and awesome future ahead.

Other tasks of the day:

  • Meeting with Dr. Helen
  • Updating Chem-Eng-Online site
  • Followed up on the rack for lab status permission
  • Checked Thermo paper
  • Lead discussion on IEM SESIG FB Page via whatsapp
  • PA Report for PNG below 0
  • IEM SESIG Proposed Paper Meeting – 10pm
  • Assigned reviewers for AJEE

2022 Day 64 Task – MCED FGD Meeting & Malaysia Zeolite Association Meeting

Yes, another working weekend. It has appeared to be a default setting for me. Today was really tricky. At the beginning of the day, 2 of my daughters felt sick. One tested positive another have to wait for Covid test kit as we ran out of stock in the morning. Imagine, there are so many test kids already in used in the house because there are many people in the house who have been checking their status on a daily basis (or sometimes twice a day).

I have a scheduled Focus Group Discussion (FGD) for Engineering Deans in Malaysia under Malaysia Council of Engineering Deans (MCED) research program that takes place from 9am to 1pm. My role was as a note taker in the second group. Well, I have to take note as accurate as possible although we also have the session zoom recorded, but having it written will be easier to refer after that.

At the same time, at 9am, I have to attend the first Malaysia Zeolite Association (MyZA) Annual Grand Meeting. It’s so tricky to be in 2 virtual meetings, but luckily MyZA meeting ended slightly after 10am. Alhamdulillah, So then after that I can focus on the MCED FGD meeting.

Other tasks of the day:

  • Blog update
  • EREKA jurying in progress
  • Global Engineering Capability Review (GECR) 2019 – (RAE) – Read the documents for the meeting this coming 7th March.
  • AJEE Editorial Role
  • SWOT CEE planning

2022 Day 63 Task – Checked Our JCLPRO’s Paper Drafts

It’s Friday today and 2 of my children are still positive. Ikhwan seems to be ending his positive streak today (this morning). Still we have to take care and manage everything in the house strategically. In the morning I had a meeting with Pouline at 9am to discuss about the thermo paper, and again we discussed about the software and results 12 hours after that. I also checked Tan’s review paper which is quite long. I hope the paper can be improved and get stronger in terms of the discussion related to starch-derived catalyst.

Other tasks of the day:

  • Drafted review paper for me and Thushara’s project
  • Partially filled up JCLPRO registration form
  • Help Dyna Dyalan (ex-MKKE student) to sign and register his REEM application – he came to my house
  • Checked about EREKA research competition where I was invited as jury. Managed to view 2 out of 7 videos.

2022 Day 62 Task – Presented Short Speech at DHEX 2022 Symposium – Organized by JSEE, UTMI and CEE

I spent the morning preparing for the slide that I will deliver in the speech that I was invited 2-3 days ago. It’s good that I was invited as I can share the experience of CEE in terms of Academia-Industry Collaboration for Digitalization. I will update more details about this soon.

Other tasks of the day:

  • Prepared report about Farid’s progress / performance
  • Called Farid and his father, no response. Whatsapp the father to discuss matters, late response and that’s just it at the moment.
  • Communicated with Ir Tajul, Head of SESIG about my unavailability for the meeting last Monday and what will be the next planning.
  • Friendly contact Dr. Helen.
  • Check Pauline’s draft.
  • Wan Bariq and Sufi came to my house to get my signature and stamping for Wan Amri’s BEM application. They then helped me to fetch my Alphard from the workshop at TSPP.

2022 Day 61 Task – Presented My Academic Student Semester Marks to Director

Today, similar as yesterday, I took an annual leave to take care of my positive children and also to curb myself from other people – to stay safe and also make other people safe. However, there are still plenty of tasks to do. The highlight of today should be my meeting with DVCRI, but since I cannot physically appear, hence the meeting was postponed. Nevertheless, at 11.30am I attended a long Academic Marks Presentation Meeting to be presented to the Director.

Other tasks of the day:

  • CEE Server Meeting – 11.30am
  • Took a leave today
  • Changed coins to paper money at Teko 🙂
  • Signed and stamped Dinie’s LI Report
  • Signed and stamped KarChun and friends BEM application documents.
  • Sort out the Kewpa for Oven at lab

2022 Day 58 Task – Enter Final Marks into AIMS

I have numerous small minor task for the day. But among them, the most important and critical one is the checking and entering of final ITE and ISP marks to the system.

Other tasks of the day:

  • Followed up Anis items to purchase.
  • ITE Meeting marks standardization.
  • Contacted Dr. Helen about SWOT Analysis methods.
  • The meeting with TNCAA was postponed (sick leave).
  • Requested extension for JCLPRO SI submission.
  • Evaluated Stage 1 video marks.
  • Request to repair table top at Lab N12.
  • Followed up for the approval to purchase rack for furnace – reactor.

2022 Day 57 Task – Reviewed Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology Manuscript

I felt a little bit relaxed today. Perhaps it was from the sheer stress of preparing for the Centre for Engineering Education Strategic Plan 2022, which was help yesterday (for Day 1).

As I have received an interesting manuscript to be reviewed on Thursday, I thought that might as well I complete this task as soon as possible while at the same time learn something new from other researchers. The manuscript review invitation is from Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, where I am the associate editor as well. The topic of the manuscript is “Paper Cress Methyl Esters Synthesis and Structural Characterization Using a Novel Sulfur Doped Nano-Photocatalyst”. For this manuscript, at the moment I thing that it is ok to not make it confidential as upon acceptance and publication of the manuscript, the reviewers profile will be revealed.

Other tasks of the day:

  • Finalizing ITE marks
  • Finalizing ISP marks
  • Update website

2022 Day 56 Task – Strategic Planning Centre for Engineering Education 2022 (SPC’22) – Online

Alhamdulillah, after a long time, finally we managed to start with first day of CEE Strategic Planning.

We can only plan but Allah decides. We plan for a 3 days 2 night retreat for the strategic planning but due to sudden spike of omicron positive cases, we have to opt for an online workshop. The workshop is not over yet. We have to break it down into smaller segments due to online limitations (difficulty to focus long duration of time in front of laptop).

We believe that we are heading in the right direction,

In Syaa Allah. Towards a more quality engineering program and quality engineers in Malaysia…

This post is also published in FB.

2022 Day 55 Task – Video Shooting for INATEX 2022, Progressive Freeze Concentration Research

This is my wife’s research in which I am part of the team. Today I became the camera man, unlike yesterday where I was the presenter. The shooting take place in our N12 laboratory.

Other tasks of the day:

  • Preparation for SPC’22
  • Checked Abdelrahim’s Methodology for proposal
  • Request for permission to purchase rack for Anis’s furnace / reactor
  • Request for permission to purchase HSC Chemistry
  • Email TNCAA
  • Checked and commented on Wan Ting’s review paper
  • Pulang text book Zara (darjah 3), ambil buku teks darjah 4.