Hot Shit Form Here: NACES 2009

Amazing 2009

2009 definitely has brought lots of good things for me. These were the few worth mentioning things that had happen. I hope it’s not too late to wish you guys a Happy 2010! Yippee! Good things that happen to me in chronological order:

1. SECAV

I had participated in Engineering Exchange Initiative, Singapore Education and Career Visit (SECAV) in January. We went to Jurong Shipyard, Nanyang Technology University and National University of Singapore.

2. Industrial Training

During in between 3 months of semester break, I had the opportunity to do my industrial training at Sime Darby Technology Centre, Petaling Jaya. That was and thank God, only lasted there for a week. I moved to my brother’s house for the rest of my weeks there.

3. NACES

This time my friends and I went to University Malaysia Sabah to participate in National Chemical Engineering Symposium 2009 and you guys already knew, our team won the first place in the presentation competition. This year, the theme was Global Water Crisis: What can We Do? The exposure with others future chemical engineers from all over Malaysia was such an eye opening experience.

4. Bro’s wedding

My big brother was married at the age of 26 years old! Congratulation!

5. Sime Darby Engineering Sdn. Bhd.

I was lucky enough to be short listed for an interview with Sime Darby Engineering Sdn. Bhd. which located in Pasir Gudang, Johore. This company is the biggest company under Sime Darby Energy & Utilities and they are designing, producing and commissioning oil rig platform for oil and gas companies. There were only 6 of Sime Darby scholars were called with 3 of us are still studying, 2 already got other jobs and 1 just graduated. The interview session was, how I should put this, was super INTENSE. Try imagining you’re surrounded by 28 assessors from Sime Darby Engineering and another 2 from Sime Darby Head Quarters, Human Resource department. OUCH! The ~~good~~ great news is I got the job! But the not so good news is I am not sure I am mentally and physically prepared enough to work there. Oh and I am afraid of height. Hehe.

6. Finished design part 1

Even though I only scoring average grade for this subject, the experience of building a chemical plant from a grass root basis (from scratch) was priceless. All those sleepless nights and heated arguments are stressful but worthy.

7. On the way of completing FYP

Not only the project is almost complete, a master student and I (we did the same topic) are ~~were forced by our kind supervisor~~ planning to submit a collaborative paper on our research project to the International Conference on Process Engineering and Advanced Materials 2010 that will be held on June in Kuala Lumpur. If everything went well, the paper will be submitted at the end of this month.

8. Read more books than ever

While doing my final year project, I had the ample time on my hand in between waiting to collect samples. I read more than 10 books this year. An amazing number for the average 2 or 3 books per year :) My current favorite books are by James Patterson, Mitch Albom and David Sedaris. AMAZING!

9. Reached 22 years old

What is the great thing of being older? I just wish I am a little bit wiser this year.

10. The best New Year celebration ever!

This year around, I celebrated New Year with my friends and one of my very much sportive lecturers at Bukit Merah Laketown Resort. It’s a waterpark resort in Taiping Malaysia. Thank you Dr. Hekarl Uzir!

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What Have I Done for These Past Few Weeks?

*UPDATED on 5th September 2009*

Winner of Technical Presentation NACES 2009

Hi guys! I am back again. Haha. Sorry for missing out lately. I involved in so many activities until I lost track of time. And suddenly, it’s almost the end of 2009. Gosh. Where does the time fly?

First of all, I have been juggling the time between my design project and my final year project. My team and I had to design a chemical plant for the production of nitric acid. We proposed the plant to be built in Bintulu Sarawak due to the availability of our raw material; ammonia. We had to plant everything from the scratch; do the market analysis, cost estimation, production capacity and so on.

On the other hand, I just started my final year project. The title of my final year project is “Taming the Wild Type of xxx (the name of enzyme) on the Bioreduction of 1, 4-bromophenyl-ethanone into (R)-1,4-bromorphenyl ethanol in the Production of Angiotensin Receptor Blocker (ARB) Chiral Drug Precursor”. Don’t worry if you couldn’t understand what the heck I just said. I couldn’t understand it either when I first heard it. But in the layman words, I am trying to produce a drug to dilate blood vessel that hopefully will reduce the possibility of heart failure, treating high blood pressure and preventing kidney failure.

As Nobel as the project may sound, I cannot expose the name of enzyme that I use and the detailed procedures of the research done. If this project successfully conducted, there is a possibility of selling the product. I am not so good hearted after all.

Next, I also participated in National Chemical Engineering Symposium (NACES) 2009, held in Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) last weekend. Yes, this is the same competition where I won the second runner up in Technical Writing competition last year. But this time around, I am in the Technical Presentation team. And guess what? We won the first place! Yeah! Congrats to all the presenters. Even though my university only sent six participants (one of the fewest among other universities) – four Indians, one Chinese girl and one Malay, we actually won something there. Of course, when all the chemical engineering students’ representatives of universities in Malaysia gathered around, the environment is very formal yet educative.

Young students with their bubbling and innovative ideas are more than keen to share their opinion on this year theme; “Water Crisis: What Can We Do?”. I was impressed with some of the ideas and at the end of the three days event, I somehow feel a little bit smarter than before. Well, at least I have the opportunity to have an in depth knowledge on that particular topic. By the way, rest assured, I am sure if Malaysia is having water crisis in the near future, we, as the budding chemical engineers will come out with the best solution for the country. *crossing fingers*

On Monday night, we flew back to the college and then I have to attend Annual General Meeting of Chemical Engineering Student Society on Wednesday. After the meeting, I went straight back to Kuala Lumpur and will be back in Johor tomorrow (on Friday) to celebrate the first day of fasting in my hometown. I can’t wait to rejuvenate (and washing my clothes) as soon as I arrive home. It has been hectic few weeks for me and not having enough sleep is very tiring. Have a great weekend everyone! And for Muslim, Happy Fasting!

By the way, since I upgraded my firefox browser, I cannot find my Entrecard toolbar. They said that it’s not compatible with this current version of firefox. Am I the only one who noticed this?

xxxxx