Institution news
On 12 April 2016, the IMechE Student Chapter of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) was officially launched. It was held in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and attended by about 70 participants including students and staff. This is an initiative of the faculty to put UTM in a global arena in line with its aspiration.
The launch started at 9.00am with a welcome speech by our honoured guest, Ir. Mathew Thomas, Immediate Past Chairman of IMechE Malaysia Branch. He was very pleased with the initiative & great effort taken by UTM students and academic staff in promoting IMechE to the students. Dr. Zaini Ahmad, the Academic Liaison Officer of UTM was responsible to bring IMechE Student Chapter to UTM. There were 63 students registered as Affiliate Members with IMechE which far exceeded the minimum number requirement to form a student chapter in the university. Ir. Mathew congratulated UTM for being the 16th student chapter to be established in Malaysia. Special thanks go to Ir. Mathew Thomas and Dr. Zaini Ahmad who had played a big role in making this event happen. Ir. Mathew also introduced the lineup of the UTM Student Chapter Protem Committee to the audiences.
In his speech, Ir. Mathew has also encouraged students to continuously support IMechE by participating in the events planned and renewing their membership to Associate Member upon their graduation. He also highlighted all the benefits gained by joining this learned society. For instance, students will have the opportunity to enhance global employability, supported in their professional development and keep abreast of the global engineering environment. He gave an introductory talk on IMechE Malaysia Young Member Section (YMS). In his briefing, Ir. Mathew introduced YMS to the participants and presented the previous annual activities and competitions that YMS had organized. He urged student members to join and get involved in these activities such as seminars, talks, technical visits and so forth. He also spoke about prizes and awards to be won which will foster development of their soft skills and enhance their CV.
The event continued with a speech from Prof. Dr. Noordin Mohd. Yusof, Dean of Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. He stressed the significance of our students to participate and connect with the learned societies like IMechE where they will benefit from their association with its activities, interaction with fellow members, sponsorship, awards, resources for research, and also networking opportunities may be useful and beneficial for the students throughout their study period in UTM. He also added that through this institution, students will get early professional development and will help them achieve their dream of becoming a professional engineer in the future. Finally he thanked and praised Ir. Mathew, Dr. Zaini and Protem committee in making IMechE UTM Student Chapter a reality.
After the speech from Prof. Dr. Noordin, the master of ceremony called upon Ir. Mathew to present the IMechE launch certificate to Prof. Dr. Noordin, followed by presenting IMechE pull-out banners to Dr. Zaini Ahmad, Academic Liaison Officer (ALO) and Muhammad Shahmy, Protem Chairman. On behalf of UTM, Prof. Dr. Noordin presented a token of appreciation to Ir. Mathew and in return Prof. Dr. Noordin received a token of appreciation from Ir. Mathew.
The final event of the ceremony was a technical talk given by our guest speaker, Ir. Dr. Istas Fahrurrazi Nusyirwan who is a BEM registered Professional Engineer and a member of joint DCA-UTM airspace and an AIAA Senior member. Ir. Dr. Istas talk was entitled "University Industry Collaboration Effort in Aviation Industry". In his talk, he exposed the audiences to the airspace safety monitoring research with the Department of Civil Aviation, Malaysia whom he has been working with. Through the developed monitoring system, the current air traffic of Malaysia flying path can be monitored efficiently and accurately. He and his research team have developed a special software to retrieve air traffic data from various sensors and sources. Huge database system has been developed and statistical tools is employed to process, compare and analyze the data in real-time. In addition to this, he also has developed a ship simulator for the Marine Department of FME, UTM and is an expert in aircraft design and simulation. Special thank was given to Ir. Dr. Istas for his willingness to share his knowledge and experiences in working with the industry. The audiences have gained many benefits from his talk. At the end of the technical talk, Dr. Zaini Ahmad presented a token of appreciation to Ir. Dr. Istas.
In closing, Ir. Mathew encouraged Protem Committee to recruit more members, organize activities for the members to participate and at the same time, to continue engaging with IMechE. The event ended with a group photo session with staff and students followed by for lunch and networking session with all present.
Please visit the Malaysia Branch NearYou site to find out more about the activities of the instituion's Malaysia Branch and the UTM Student Chapter.