Speak Out for Engineering (SOfE) Malaysia Heat 2016

The Malaysia SOfE competition was hosted at Heriot-Watt University Malaysia this October

This year’s Speak Out for Engineering (SofE) Malaysia Heat 2016 was held in Heriot-Watt University Malaysia on 22^nd October 2016. The Young Members Section of Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) Malaysia and IMechE Heriot-Watt University Malaysia (HWUM) Student Chapter jointly organized this event where engineers showcased their talents in delivering technical mechanical engineering subjects to the public.

Speak Out for Engineering (SofE) which is one of the most renowned public speaking competitions in engineering industry for engineers, by engineers is conducted annually by the IMechE Volunteer Network and has been conducted in Malaysia for the past 10 years.

For the first time, IMechE Heriot-Watt University (HWUM) Student Chapter was chosen to be the host of this national level competition in 2016.

Affiliate members of IMechE from reputed engineering institutions in Malaysia participated in this competition. The esteemed judges for this competition were Mr. Alex Yu, President of IEM Toastmasters, Mr. Robert Ram, Distinguished Toastmasters Member and Mr. Singam, Distinguished Toastmasters Member.

This event was also graced by the presence of honourable guests from IMechE Malaysia. They were Ir. Matthew Thomas, IMechE SEA Region Chairman, Dr. M E Raghunandan, IMechE SEA Region Young Members Section (YMS) Representative, Joel Bharath, YMS IMechE Malaysia Chairman, Achugovind Kumar and Yap Lee Phoon, the organising committee for SOfE Malaysia Heat 2016 from YMS IMechE Malaysia.

The atmosphere during the event was competitive and intense as speakers presented their topics at their best. After listening to every inspiring speaker, the judges decided to award Sandy Song Chia Shuen from Taylor’s University as the champion who presented the topic on “Hand Controlled Walking”. The runner-up title was awarded to Shahriman Bin Shahrul Zaman from University Tenaga Nasional (UniTEN) who presented the topic “The Energy Enigma: Nuclear”. The second runner-up of the competition was Chee Voon Long from Heriot-Watt University Malaysia (HWUM) with his topic “Oil Palm Helper”. Other participants, namely Clarence Hong Wei Ying from Tunku Abdul Rahman University College (TARUC), Ong Xuan Zhi from University of Science Malaysia (USM), Sean-Michael Morais, from University of Southampton Malaysia, Lee Jen How Daryl from Monash University Malaysia (MUM) received a certificate of participation for their good effort. The champion of this competition will be representing Malaysia for the SOfE South East Asia Region Competition 2017.

The event was considered a success as there were a 50% increase in the number of participants and the organizers were particularly proud of the efforts to reach out with at least 50 people attending the competition.

The proud organizing committee from IMechE Heriot-Watt University Malaysia (HWUM) Student Chapter were Lim Jit Wei, Samuel Tan Juan Yu, Mirza Saboor Ahmed, Tan Yu Xiang, Dinesh Roy, Goh Jin Mei, Hong Chin Hsien, Muhammad Irfan Bin Mohd Iwan Jefry and Jason Liman.

For more information about IMechE Malaysia and their future news and events, please visit and like IMechE YMS Malaysia Facebook Page as well as IMechE Heriot-Watt University Malaysia Student Chapter Facebook Page.

You can read more about the Institution's activities in Malaysia on the Malaysia NearYou site.