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| 1 | 19 July 2021 | Virtual Talk on My Career Path as a Civil Engineer 19 July 2021 / 2.00pm - 5.00pm, MS Team Ir. Kuah Kee Hong is our UTAR IAP and he is a registered Professional Engineer with Practicing Certificate (PEPC) with the Board of Engineers, Malaysia and holds a Bachelor Degree in Engineering (Civil) from the University Sains Malaysia (USM) in 1994. He is currently with Sepakat Setia Perunding Sdn Bhd (SSP), a multidiscipline Consulting Engineering firm at Seri Kembangan, Selangor since graduated from USM until today. Ir. Kuah is now holding the position as Engineering Director for the Company. This IAP talk was initiated by Dr. Yip Chun Chieh and collaborate with ICE student chapter to invite IAP Ir. Kuah to come share his valuable experience to share with our Civil Engineering Students. Figure 1 shows the achievement of Ir. Kuah as a Professional engineer journey from year 1994 to present in SSP Company.   Figure 1The company is founded in 1924 and now is one of the largest Consulting Engineering Company in Malaysia. It is situated in the outskirt of Kuala Lumpur at Seri Kembangan with authorised share capital of RM25 million. This company is registered in BEM, MOF and ACEM with ISO standard to carried out all sort of engineering work that complies standard operating procedure.  Figure 2Figure 3 show 1 of the biggest treatment plant in Malaysia being built by his company and achievement in earlier time in year 2010.  Figure 3Figure 4 shows the Board of Directors in his company right now. The office has been divided into several important engineering division such as Bridge & Marine, E&E, Geotechnical, High Rise, Highway & Rail, Land Development & Drainage, Building & structure, Waste & Environmental and Water Resources & water Supply division are ready for young engineer to join their favourite discipline.  Figure 4There are 515 employees in his company with 189 engineers in Civil & Structures, 38 mechanical, 85 drafter, 122 Site construction supervisors are major manpower to run the company.  Figure 5SSP has their own library with over 27,000 volume of technical books to facilitate the project construction and development. The books are accessible by UTAR library for student who are interested.  Figure 6Figure 7 shows the company offers various of engineering services including investigation, feasibility study, master planning and many more for student to venture in the future.  Figure 7Figure 8,9 & 10 are the project done by the company shared by Ir. Kuah. For more project completed by the company feel free to visit https://www.sspsb.com.my/  Figure 8 Figure 9Figure 10 & 11 shares the experience done by Ir. Kuah in various project in construction and software analysis. Ir Kuah also emphasize engineer also need to follow the industry development into BIM industry to detect the clashes before construction to achieve the greater saving in initial cost of construction. Ir Kuah do mentioned to student always check the temporary support strength and the design may not be perfect and monitor the cost closely to client.   Figure 10  Figure 11The event officially ended by 4.00pm after the sharing of the video from Ir. Kuah’s company with project that has been completed and achieved by far. The participants have some Q&A session and group photo.  OUTCOME Through this talk, students were able to acknowledge the construction industry especially in Civil Engineering Field and the technical details of projects. Students will be able to apply these knowledge and experience in their future applications. They were able to see the differences between different type of project on how the project design, build and construction. CONCLUSION The IAP talk was a success as its agendas were met. With the warm hospitality given by the event chairlady and also the great cooperation by the students, the talk was able to be conducted smoothly. Students were able to have their doubts answered on the spot through the Q&A session between the students and the staff. Thus, this event done with the great motivation from our experienced Professional Engineer to brighten up our UTAR young civil engineering students. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2 | 27 August 2021 |
Introduction to Occupational Noise Exposure Monitoring in Construction Workplace 27-08-2021 / 09:00 am - 12:00 pm, MS Team 1. Executive Summary It is an honor to invite the first speaker Dr Lim Ming Han, he is an assistant professor in the Department of Civil Engineering under the Lee Kong Chian Faculty of Engineering & Science, as well as the chairperson in the Research Centre for Disaster Risk Reduction, in UTAR. While the second speaker Mr Ooi Wei Chien is a graduate engineer from UTAR. Besides, he is also the committee member of The Institution of Engineers Malaysia, Young Engineers Section (IEM YES). 30 minutes before starting the workshop, our organizing chairperson, June Lee Chong Keat started the scheduled meeting and played some classical piano masterpieces while waiting for all of the students and speakers to join. At 9.00 am sharp, the workshop started with a short briefing for a tentative workshop program by Dr Lim Ming Han such that there would be 3 sessions throughout this workshop and each session was adhered with 1 checkpoint for Kahoot-quiz. Besides that, all participants were informed to get ready with their stationery such as pen, paper, and calculator to stay prepared for the upcoming Kahoot quiz-sessions. In session 1, Dr Lim Ming Han introduced the main intention of the Construction Noise Exposure in Construction Workplace. In addition, participants were introduced with the fundamental physics-knowledge to measure the sound pressure with several calculation examples, which was important for them to practice for the quizzes later. Not only that, Dr Lim Ming Han also described the types of noise in the construction workplace such as steady noise, fluctuating noise and impulse noise. The frequency weight network of sound level was outlined such that there were several health problems that have been categorized according to their different sound levels and noise sources. For instance, 20-55dB level is considered as normal conversation level; above 60dB level, the workers will begin to experience annoyance, disturbance, and hearing damage if it’s severe. Before the end of session 1, all participants were instructed to surf into https://kahoot.it and enter the passcode given by Dr Lim Ming Han. The participants had to enter their own nicknames as the game-usernames. Throughout the ten quizzes prepared by Dr Lim Ming Han and Mr Ooi Wei Chien, the top 5 players with the highest scores were selected as the winners of session, they are (Lin Chee Fong, score 7410), (Lau Lik Heng, score 7132), (Lee Kah Sheng, score 7006), (Wong Wai Kit, score 6577) and (Heah Zhan Hao, score 6106). In session 2, Dr Lim Ming Han introduced about the class 1 and 2 instrumentations such that sound level meter (IEC 61672) and the dosimeter (IEC 61252) which is a small, light device that is worn by the worker with microphone positioned above the outside edge of the wearer’s shoulder. Moreover, the process of the noise risk assessment was apprised with the following sequence: 1)Determining noise source → 2)Noise Mapping → 3)Personal Monitoring → 4)Noise Risk Evaluation → 5)Noise Risk Assessment Report. In addition, the daily noise exposure level, Noise dose and Noise Reduction Rating (NRR) were illustrated with several calculation examples, where students are taken for the quizzes later. The detail hierarchy and applications of engineering control such as noise barrier, damper and silencer were described with plenty of interactive images in the displayed slide. Before the end of session 2, all participants were instructed to surf into https://kahoot.it again. The participants had to enter the same nicknames as the one used in previous quiz-sessions. The top 5 winners were: (Heah Zhan Hao, score 8543), (June Lee Chong Keat, score 7813), (Wong Wai Kit, score 7696), (Muhammad Iqbal Budiawan, score 7597) and (Lin Chee Fong, score 7540). Before carrying forward to the last session, there was a 5-minutes break time where our organizing chairperson: June Lee Chong Keat had seized the opportunity to urge donations from the participants to contribute for the community healthcare of UTAR Hospital. In session 3, Mr Ooi Wei Chien took over the session and introduced the importance of noise monitoring in stationary and mobile sites by adhering to British Standard BS5228-1: 2009. Not only that, he also summarized all the calculation steps in tabular format for the ease of understanding so that students could apply on the last quiz-session later. Furthermore, Mr Ooi Wei Chien also described the developments and applications of the Simple Prediction Chart Method, accompanied with several calculation examples to determine the mean level deviation, combined sound pressure level and the combined standard deviation for the control point of the construction site. Eventually, the Question-and-Answer session was carried out, Students had the chance to voice out their inquiries and Dr Lim Ming Han had answered all the questions from the students in order to ensure a better understanding. Before the end of session 3, all participants were to join another Kahoot quiz and the top 5 winners of session 3 were: (Muhammad Iqbal Budiawan, score 5043), (Chai Hao Cheng, score 4977), (Wong Wai Kit, score 4939), (Heah Zhan Hao, score 4935) and (Adrian Lee Yu Xuan, score 4891). 2. Outcome The virtual workshop lasted for 3 hours on 27th August 2021, and it was our pleasure to invite Dr. Lim Ming Han and Mr. Ooi Wei Chien to conduct the virtual workshop. After participating in the virtual workshop, the students had garnered an insight on Noise Exposure Monitoring in Construction Workplace. The Kahoot-quiz sessions were indeed helpful in stimulating participants’ interest to apply existing knowledge they had learnt. The participants were induced to compete in order to seize the top 5 ranks and win the cash prizes during the interesting Kahoot-quiz sessions prepared by our speakers Dr. Lim Ming Han and Mr. Ooi Wei Chien. 3. Conclusion The workshop provided an opportunity for the students in learning more about new subject matter on Occupational Noise Exposure. It was helpful for the students to have a clearer picture on their potential research direction in construction noise monitoring for Final Year Project (FYP). The students are also interested in the interest in 3D& 4D Building Information Modeling (BIM) software in the field of Occupational Noise Exposure Monitoring. Eventually, the objectives of the talk were achieved with the effort given by Dr. Lim Ming Han and Mr. Ooi Wei Chien.  Figure 1: Introduction of 2 speakers. Figure 2: Tentative Workshop Program of the workshop. Figure 3: Session 1 - Decibel Sound Scale Categorization. Figure 4: Kahoot Waiting-Lobby after participants entering their usernames. Figure 5: Game 1 report was displayed to the participants for them to see their respective rankings Figure 6: Session 2 – Noise Risk Assessment Process Figure 7: Session 2: Engineering Control of Damper and Silencer Figure 8: Game 2 report was displayed to the participants for them to see their respective
rankings.
 Figure 9: British Standard BS5228-1: 2009 on stationary and mobile construction site. Figure 10: Game 3 report was displayed to the participants for them to see their respective rankings. Figure 11: Group Photo Session | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3 | 28 August 2021 | Take Away Your Major, What do You Have? 28-08-2021 / 03:00 pm - 04:00 pm, MS Team 1. Executive Summary Ts. Dr. Tan Ooi Kuan is the assistant professor of Lee Kong Chian Faculty of Engineering and Science from the Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman. He obtained a Doctorate specializing in Engineering Management in the year 2015 from Universiti Utara Malaysia. His areas of expertise involve Project Management, Marketing and Organizational Behavior. Currently, he is conducting research in business entrepreneurship and on the impact of pandemic towards the construction industry in Malaysia. Before joining as an academician, he has developed vast experience in the construction project management related industry. Moreover, he has published many international journals and proceedings papers throughout his academic career. He is also the registered professional technologist under MBOT, Graduate member of BEM and a certified Train-the-Trainer. The talk started with a brief introduction to the key outline of the talk. Firstly, Ts. Dr. Tan did a short explanation about the title, which is special on the word take away and major. A question had been asked to the audience which was “do you choose the right course” to have the interaction and make the audience think about their choice of major. After that, Ts. Dr Tan shared about the industrial revolution from the IR 1 until IR 4 to give students a picture of the impact the industrial revolution brings us. Next, Ts. Dr. Tan shared his own journey to encourage students to try no matter how hard because a positive thinking makes things become possible. Ts. Dr. Tan also made a salary comparison to students to show the issue that they face in the industry even though our major work. Economic crises and the impact of pandemic now had caused the drop of salary in many jobs and joblessness. This is the reality but study is still important for students to enter the industry. By taking away the major, Ts. Dr. Tan shared about the internet, online etc. to students as this is the trend in the era. Ts. Dr. Tan also explained the importance of online platforms and shared the way to find a good online platform. He encourages the participants to build up their network from now on because the network will only get bigger and bigger throughout the year. Ts. Dr Tan motivated all the students to never think about the right or wrong of a choice because there is nothing wrong, every choice just creates more opportunity in a major program and builds up a network in our major. He also encouraged us to try to get contact on an online platform using our current physical network. Ts. Dr. Tan ended the sharing session with a motivational quote which is “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a first step” to encourage students to try and do now to achieve success. After the sharing session, a Question and Answer session was carried out. Students are able to voice out their questions and Ts. Dr. Tan had answered all the questions asked by the student to enhance a better understanding. Lastly, a group photo has been taken at the end of the talk. 2. Outcome The talk lasted for 1 hours 45 minutes on 28 August 2021 and it was our pleasure to have Ts. Dr. Tan to conduct the talk. After participating in the talk, the students are now able to have a better understanding of the current situation of the working field and trends of the era. 3. Conclusion The talk provided an opportunity to students to know more on the impact of the economic crisis and the industrial revolution brings to us and our working field. It has helped the students to have a clearer picture on their career. The talk also provided a new thing to students besides their major which is online platform. Students will have a better understanding on the online platform throughout the talk. Ts. Dr. Tan also encouraged students to start and try to do instead of focus on can or cannot. Students may know more about themselves and opportunity after the talk. Hence, the objective of the talk has been achieved.  Figure 1： Title of the talk Figure 2: Revolution of Industrial Figure 3: Working Experience of Ts. Dr. Tan Figure 4: Trend of the Era Figure 5: Conclusion of the Talk Figure 6: Group Photo Session | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4 | 3 September 2021 | Virtual Talk on Important skills to be a professional civil and structural engineer 03-09-2021 / 02:00 pm - 4:00 pm, MS Team 1. Executive Summary IR. Tan Chee Peng is a registered Professional Engineer with the Board of Engineer Malaysia and obtained his Bachelor of Science (Civil Engineering) from University of Salford, U.K. He has 30 years in construction field as well as in the design of the following works: Civil & Structural, Geotechnical Engineering Works, Foundation - Bored / Micro pile & Driven pile, Structural Assessment & Integrity Test, Oil & Gas Tank & Foundation, Pipe Rack Design, Jetty and Marine Works Design, TIA (Traffic Impact Assessment) & TMP, Steel and Reinforced Concrete Bridge Design, Concrete Rehabilitation/Refurbishment and Commercial & Housing Developer shareholder. The talk started with sharing the career path of IR. Tan. IR. Tan firstly shared his experience of working in Jabatan Pengaliran Saliran (JPS) of Government for 2 years. He explained his responsibilities in JPS and attitude that an individual should hold when entering a government department. Students should have high discipline to self-learn and high adaptability to improve their capabilities using available resources. Students should work and learn independently since no one will spoon feed others at the working places. Then, he discussed his contractor career. The scopes that were covered by a contractor were introduced. IR. Tan shared the qualities that a student should impose when they become a contractor in a consultancy firm to survive in the recent working environment. IR. Tan also suggested some of the hard skills and soft skills that a Civil Engineering student should master before becoming a professional civil and structural engineer. IR. Tan warned students that the world would be more challenging in the 20th century, hence students should equip themselves to increase competitiveness. Afterwards, IR. Tan started with some technical topics related to the job scope of Civil and structural Engineer. For example, Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer (CFRP), Application of Composite Wrapping, Column Strengthening and Bridge Piers Wrapping. He utilized some case studies to ensure the complex situations can be understood easier by the students. There are 3 study cases. First design is to strengthen 3 numbers of columns, second design is to propose CFRP on the piers with more additional strength while last design is to carry out on various beams. Students were able to imagine as they are on sites via the detailed explanation and figures prepared by IR. Tan. Then, IR. Tan introduced the services provided by his company, Masreka Consultancy Services. He provided some examples of completed projects in Civil and Structural, Highrise Building, Industrial Plant, Palm Oil Structure, Pipe Rack, SILO, etcetera. This sharing gave students an opportunity to visualize the industry works and consider the field that they want to join in future. After the sharing session, a Question and Answer session was carried out. Student able to voice out their question and IR. Tan had answered all the question ask by the student to enhance a better understanding. Lastly, a group photo was taken at the end of the talk. 2. Outcome The talk lasted for 1 hours 30 minutes on 28 August 2021 and it was our pleasure to have IR. Tan to conduct the talk. After participating in the talk, the students are now able to have a better understanding of the background, experience and career aspects of civil and structural engineering and be inspired to become a professional civil and structural engineer. 3. Conclusion The talk provided an opportunity to students to learn more on the background, experience and career aspects of civil and structural engineering in industry. The talk also educated students on basic hard skills and soft skills that they should master before becoming a professional civil and structural engineer. It has helped the students to have a clearer picture on the industry works and latest criteria to be an engineer. IR. Tan suggested students to start to prepare themselves from now on because the outside world is becoming more competitive now and the job opportunities are limited. Students may plan their career path from now and equip themselves before entering society. The objectives of the talk had been achieved.  Figure1: Explain the career in JPS or government Figure 2: Explain about the Contractor Career Figure 3: Explain the important skills in the consultancy firm Figure 4: Case study about the repair work Figure 5: Q and A session Figure 6: Group Photo session | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 5 | 10 September 2021 | Sharing Session on the Construction Experience by Sunway Construction 10-09-2021 / 02:00 pm - 04:00 pm, MS Team 1. Executive Summary Mr William Ng Kim Leong is actually a UTAR alumni which graduated with a in UTAR Kampar. Mr William is one of Sunway Construction homegrown talents who started off his career journey with Sunway Construction as a Project Engineer upon his graduation, and now he is a Deputy Project Manager with 8 years of experience in the industry. He was attached to the company’s first top down method used in the geotechnical field, KL North East Carpark. Subsequently, he took on the role as a block master for an exclusive high-rise residential project who managed construction operational matters including site planning, technical issue, managing consultant and clients. His wide exposure had made him champion of excellence in project management. He is now entrusted as the Person-In-Charge who currently oversees the first medical center located in the heart of Perak. The talk started with an introduction to the key outline of the talk which included the brief introduction about Sunway Construction, Industry Insights, Life beyond work and the career path and opportunities of Sunway Construction. The HR from Sunway Construction Ms Natalie began the talk with a brief introduction about Sunway Construction. Sunway construction is the largest pure-play construction company in Malaysia. Suncons were named Builder of the Year three times in 2003, 2005, and 2013 and Contractor of the Year in 2019 at the Malaysian Construction Industry Excellence Awards (MCIEA). To date, they have garnered numerous national and international recognitions for excellent industry performance, management, safety and health, as well as quality. Ms Natalie shared about the journey of 40 years about Sunway Construction and vision of Sunway Construction. Next, Ms Natalie passed to Mr William to start sharing about his experience as a project engineer through the 8 years with Sunway Construction. The first project of Mr William involved is the KLCC North-East Car Park. He shared his experience mostly on the geotechnical knowledge based on the 5 levels basement car park with a top- down method. He shared his experience on the soil investigation, diaphragm wall and raft foundation to the participants. Next, Mr William shared his experience of being a block master on the Sunway Geo Lake Residence Project. He shared a lot of his faced problems and how to solve the questions during this project to the participants. Then, Mr William shared with the participants that he is now a deputy project engineer for his latest Sunway Medical Centre at Ipoh. He shared a lot of situations and problems that as a project engineer will be faced during this pandemic situation. He advised the participants to always be prepared for the unexpected and uncertainty. Besides, he also advised the participants must adapt and change their own mindset when dealing with a changing environment. After the sharing session, a Question and Answer session was carried out. Students were able to voice out their question and Mr William and Ms Natalie had answered all the questions asked by the student to enhance a better understanding. Mr William gave advice to all the participants that must have the willingness to learn and this attitude is the most important in life. Lastly, a group photo has been taken at the end of the talk. 2. Outcome The talk lasted for 2 hours on 10 September 2021 and it was our pleasure to have Mr William Ng Kim Leong to conduct the talk. After participating in the talk, the students are now able to have a better understanding of the current situation of the working field and trends of the era. 3. Conclusion The talk has provided an opportunity for the students to be exposed to the real-life working scenarios of a civil engineer. It has helped the students to have a clearer picture of their future careers. Mr William Ng Kim Leong has explained clearly about the trade and road that may be experienced by a fresh graduate civil student. Hence, the objective of the talk has been achieved.  Figure 1: The Agenda of Virtual Talk. Figure 2: Industry Insights by Mr William Figure 3: Sunway Geo Lake Residence  Figure 4: Question and Answer Session Figure 5: Group Photo Session. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 6 | 13 November 2021 & 4 December 2021 | Educational Program 2021 - Thinking about Vaccine Inequality and Inequity 13/11/2021 & 04/12/2021, Kobe University (Virtual), Japan  The program was successfully held online on 13 November 2021 & 04 December 2021 with the chair from Kobe University, Japan. The Program focused on inequality and inequity of vaccination with the following learning outcomes and awareness:
The Itinerary of the program was as follows:
UTAR Participants:
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