Today is the beginning of a 4-days Problem-Based Learning (PBL) training that is conducted at DEwan Seminar Jasmin, Institute of Biotechnology Development (IBD), Block N23, UTM

The semester has been quite full of surprise in terms of the holidays and sudden break announcements. It has disrupted our early planning which was honestly I can say a very detail one. We were lucky because the 2 Sunday breaks (due to JDT winning the league and also Deepavali) did not affected us. However the PRU14 election heavily effected us as we lost 3 hours of class – the class on Thursday (1 hour) and Monday (2 hours).

Other lecturers may sneer at us, hinting that we maybe very uptight or strict, something like that. But the truth is we carefully planned and designed the course almost to perfection. We designed and synchronized 3 courses – that are Introduction to Engineering (ITE), Industrial Seminar and Profession (ISP) and Introduction to Computer Programming (ICP). ICP will be integrated later at the mid of the semester. But for ITE and ISP, the planning and integration commenced from the 1st week of the semester.

Today’s meeting managed to resolved the lost of 3 hours (due to PRU). We created an alternative measure. InsyaAllah everything will be fine and on track. I really appreciate the team work among us, the ITE and ISP lecturers, and also ICP lecturers too, which will heavily participate in discussion later.

Our intention is purely to deliver the best for the student. To bring the best out from them. It maybe tough, it maybe painful and hurtful, but we can observe the impact it gives to the students at the end of the semester. The students will in great and better shape in terms of their important skills – Communication, Critical thinking, Leadership, and others. 

Other tasks of the day:

• Attended eLPPT roadshow
• Borrowed gas sampling bag
• Prepared Dewan Seminar Jasmin, IBD for PBL training tomorrow
• Meeting with 2 Phd students (Areen and Mohamed)
• Superfood Project

In order to encourage researchers in UTM to write and publish in reputable journal, incentive claim has been introduce several years ago. It started more or less when UTM was given the Research University status. The incentive for journal paper publication back then was lucrative, for example Q1 journal will receive RM5000. Scopus journal will receive RM200. Citation will receive RM50, if I am not mistaken. That was quite some time ago.

Nowadays, the incentive claim depends on budget and the amount has been reduced. It has been very competitive as well. Q1 and Q2 journal paper will receive RM2000 and RM1500, respectively. There’s no longer any incentive for Scopus publication and also citation.

Alhamdulillah, the announcement for new Incentive Claim publication was announced and released 1-2 months ago. I have 2 journal papers that I submitted for the incentive claim. However, I’m not sure if the application will be reimburse this year since there are so many researchers who have so many journals who are waiting for the incentive claim budget and payment. InsyaAllah if there’s rezeki, there will be something for me and the team.  

Other tasks of the day:

• Engineering Identity Contract grant extension for
• Finalized the date for SPC’22 meeting
• Responded on the invitation for Reflective Talk
• Reviewed a Frontier Journal Paper

Today I applied for an annual leave to take care of Ikhwan who is positive (and soon late afternoon we discovered that Zara was also positive). Nevertheless, the work loads kept piling up, but I keep on settling one by one. What I would like to highlight here is that I read, checked and commented on SG’s first manuscript attend to be submitted to ASEAN Journal of Engineering Education (AJEE). The special thing about SG is that he is still in his 1st year and just completed his 1st semester. However, I realized and discovered his maturity in writing and motivate him to write something of great value, that is a manuscript. Let’s see how it goes soon.

Other tasks of the day:

• Follow up permission to purchase rack
• Discussed with Pak Wahyudi on the Conference / sympossium RCEE2022
• Figured how to pay the oven – found the owner finally
• Checked IOP Agreement and how to upload
• Response to JSEE invitation for the talk this coming Thursday
• Checked Tan’s review paper draft
• Check Poh Lin’s Thermo paper draft
• Obtained video to calculate Ln K of reactions.

I have to travel to UTM to fill up the INATEX 2021 online forms since the submission need to be done using UTM line and system, which can only be accessed within UTM vicinity. Two of my students Areen and Mohamed, who both of them were originally Dr. Muhammad Tahir’s students participated in INATEX 2021 this year. To access the system is tricky and to fill up the form is also tricky. Luckily the students have diligently prepared the video and information to be submitted in the system. That happen after several meetings with Dr. Tahir as well who is far away in UAE.

Other tasks of the day:

• Finalized marks for ITE and ISP
• Met ABSI

Alhamdulillah this program which was my first time, first training, first involvement went smooth. This means that after this we will be one of the interviewers for the Focus Group Discussion (FGD). In Syaa Allah…Towards a more quality engineering program and quality engineers in Malaysia… (Link)

Other tasks for the day:

• PROGRAM BERSAMA TNCPI – “WHAT’S UP, DVCRI: SUSTAINABILITY | EXCELLENCE | RESILIENCE | INTEGRITY” (SERI ECOSYSTEM)” – 2.30pm
• Completed RAE SCEE Proposal on the WBS, Theory of Change, Gantt Chart and Budget.

The due for RAE SCEE is around the corner and my main challenge (or rate limiting reaction) is the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). This has been the toughest one for me and I anticipate that the Theory or change and Budgeting will be the next one.

Other tasks of the day:

• Discussion on SPC22
• Discussion on carpet and paint for C09
• Meeting Mataf with company that can help on the fundraising purpose (9pm)