My Ph.D Progress so far... Oct 2011 Updates
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
I am now midway in my experiments. I am also preparing several technical papers to be published in index journals. It's really not easy. The mood and motivation are always against me. Let's see today's example...
I tried to work on my technical paper draft in my office room. After several minutes I felt sleepy (I did not sleep late at night). Then, I experienced some headache. Both of this elements (sleepy + headache) makes a perfect combination to demotivate me from pursuing my work. I tried to fight the negativity. I relaxed for 2-3 minutes. Then, I thought myself...maybe I should do other work that still can contribute towards my study. I then decided to learn a new optimization method from youtube since I am going to include them in my study. So, I decided to stop working on the technical paper draft for a while and studied this new optimization method. It works... I felt energized to learn a new stuff. This is indeed a good technique which I personally discovered (maybe this is not new to you guys). I have the option of perhaps give up, rest, sleep, relax, chit-chat with my friends, drink some coffee, watch some movie in my laptop but instead I decided to work on something else which still contributes towards accomplishing and perfecting my thesis. I'm really glad to do that.At the same time, to keep up my spirit and assure continuous momentum, I changed my desktop wall paper. It has a message that I should complete my study in the allocated time. This constantly reminds me that I have an unsettle business to complete (the Ph.D off course!!!). This is the final major hurdle that I need to conquer after the other 2 big projects which is to be a professional engineer and chartered engineer, all within a space of 3 years. Fuhhh.... it's really tough but I'm glad I managed to complete the other two.
Enough rambling for now. I'm going to continue with my work. Need to work on something... If you have any motivational quote for me, I really welcome and appreciate them very much. Thanks in advance.
p/s- The photo above shows the Thermal Gravimetric Analysis (TGA) equipment with its PC. The PC is very old. It still uses the 3.5" floppy disc. Although it is old, it is still very useful and important for me because it provide one part of my catalyst analysis. The TGA is still in good shape as it is regularly maintained.
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posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 8:08 PM,
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Professional Chemical Engineer - A story... Part 1
Monday, May 24, 2010
Slightly more than 3 years ago, I registered myself as a graduate member of Institution of Engineers Malaysia (IEM), a professional organization for engineers. I joined the chemical engineering division and search a mentor to guide me become a professional engineer.
Prior and earlier to that, I registered with Board of Engineers, Malaysia (BEM). Registration with BEM is compulsory for all graduate engineers in Malaysia. In addition, before we can be accepted to be a member under IEM, part of the requirement is to be a BEM member first. So, if you have graduated and have not yet registered with BEM, go ahead and register now. As soon as your application is approved and you get your BEM membership number, apply for IEM. If you are a student, it's OK, you can register with IEM as a junior member first, but after graduating, register with BEM and then upgrade your membership under IEM to graduate member.
But before that, here is a brief story how I got to that level (I'm not yet a professional engineer. I'm working on it now).
I asked for a list of mentors that I can select from IEM headquarters in PJ, Selangor. I checked the list for chemical engineer mentors. There were only 2 mentors for chemical engineer in Johor Bahru (the state I live and work in). I met one of them, who is a manager of a huge palm oil plantation / refinery company in Malaysia to get my certificates certified by him. I requested to him if in case he can be my mentor. Unfortunately, he was already having few mentees under him and could not spare a space for me. That's fine. I contacted the other potential mentor in Johor Bahru but unfortunately he was somehow could not be contacted...not sure why.
Puzzled with the situation, I decided to opt for a mentor from Klang Valley (a different state but in the capital of Malaysia). The first in my list was a professor from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. He seems to be a successful chemical engineer in the academic line. I tried calling him several times but all calls were disappointing. I could not reach him. Like earlier case, I don't know why the telephone was never answered. After a few days of frustrating attempts, I decided to move on and contact the next person to be my mentor.
That's when I called Ir. Hj. Tunai, a senior manager attached to a successful consulting company based in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, just few hundreds of meters from IEM Head quarters. Unlike the previous two potential mentors who cannot be contacted, I managed to reach Ir. Tunai and requested politely if he can be my mentor. He gave me a positive answer and I was finally very happy to have a mentor who is willing to coach and guide me to be a professional engineer.
Even though I have to travel up north to Kuala Lumpur when ever I needed to meet my mentor, I'm very glad and please to have Ir. Tunai mentoring me. He professionally guided me and I'm very confident that I can be a better engineer under his supervision. I have no regrets and I'm extremely proud to me his mentee :) .My first batch of log book reports
Despite of the distance, I communicated with my mentor with telephone, SMS and email. I prepared my first log book report and sent to him via email. Ir. Tunai went through the report and provided me his sincere comments. That time I was working as a process engineer in a physical refining plant. One of the weak point working as a process engineer is my job scope is narrowly focus on taking care of my plant only. Month after month, year after year, what I have to do majorly dwell in managing my 3000 tons per day plant. Yes, that's it. Nothing else. Well, I do handle other minor tasks such but those are not really significant. Hence, in the monthly log book report, I keep repeating my jobs and my skill remain permanently the same. There was not much improvement in engineering learning curve and not much new engineering skills. The report was stagnant and boring. I kept reporting the same activities.
Although I really have learned massively being a process engineer who runs a huge physical refinery (imagine the heat exchangers, cooling towers, pump, annual shut down-maintenance, production costing, valves, handling the SCADA control system, and other environmental, mechanical and engineering matters)..., that alone would not help me be a professional engineer. According to my mentor, I need to feature more activities in my log book report.So, what does that means?
To be continued... :)
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Labels: Chemical Engineer, Chemical Engineering, IEM
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 11:02 PM,
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Engineering Ethics 101 Videos
Monday, October 19, 2009
When I did my chemical engineering degree, I was not exposed to the engineering ethics. Now that I know the importance of engineering ethics, plus my quest to be a professional engineer, I'm progressively learning about engineering ethics. Learning from my own mentor (from IEM) is one way. Another way is to learn it from the book. However, I found it easier to learn the basics by watching video. I was searching about engineering ethic videos and found a set of fantastic video by Prof. Michael C. Loui. Though he is from the electrical engineering background, but the engineering ethics content is generally the same. The video is simple, easy to comprehend and I believe it can provide us good understanding on what is Engineering ethics.
Part 1: Engineering Ethics 101 - Professionalism
We need to really understand that engineering is a profession, and one way that professions distinguish themselves is by having and enforcing a code of ethics. The code of ethics are very important. Without it, engineers would not earn the respect like it earned today. Students and junior engineers need to be exposed with this. Check out the first video on Engineering Ethics 101 - Professionalism.
Part 2: Ethics & the Responsible Engineer
Taking responsibility for one's actions is an important part of being an engineer. In this video, Michael Loui reviews different types of responsibility and gives case examples from notable engineering failures.
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 Chemical Engineering:Serves chemical engineering professionals in the chemical process industry including manufacturing, engineering, government... |
Part 3: Conflicts of Interest for EngineersMany engineering engagements are frought with conflicts of interest. This (3rd) video explains what they are, how they can be avoided, and how the can be dealt with when they cannot be avoided.
There are more videos, but lets digest the first 3 videos. I'll publish the other videos later.
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posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 11:39 PM,
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IEM Events
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
In case you are in Malaysia and not getting updates from Instituition of Engineers Malaysia (IEM), then hear you are...
Dear Sir / Madam,
We are pleased to announce the IEM upcoming events. Kindly click on the respective URL link's to download the flyer / brochure.
- Talk on "Engineering Applications of Seismic Refraction & Resistivity Techniques" - 15 May 2009, Friday (2 CPD/PDP) - IEM Auditorium, 3rd Floor, Wisma IEM, Petaling Jaya - GETD-150509-T.pdf
- IEM Training Centre Sdn Bhd - May to June 2009- IEMTC-MAYJUNE09.pdf
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Labels: IEM
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 9:26 PM,
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IEM Upcoming Events
Thursday, March 05, 2009
If you are chemical engineers (or from other engineering disciplines) from Malaysia, you might be interested to enrich yourselves with good training and courses. IEM had sent me some information that I think need to be expended to others. Following is the adopted email content.
Dear Sir / Madam,
We are pleased to announce the IEM upcoming events. Kindly click on the respective URL link's to download the flyer / brochure.
- Talk on "Embedded Systems in Satellites" - 14 March 2009, Saturday (2 CPD/PDP) - 2nd Floor, IEM Conference Hall, Bangunan Ingenieur - ITSIG-140309-T.pdf
- ITSIG 11th AGM - 14 March 2009, Saturday (2 CPD/PDP) - 2nd Floor, IEM Conference Hall, Bangunan Ingenieur - ITSIG-140309-AGM.pdf
- Talk on "Progress Report of PEMUDAH" - 23 March 2009, Monday (2 CPD/PDP) - 2nd Floor, IEM Conference Hall, Bangunan Ingenieur - MANU-230309-T.pdf
- Talk on "Introduction to Airborne Contamination on Control for Operating Theatre - 26 March 2009, Thursday - 2nd Floor, IEM Conference Hall, Bangunan Ingenieur - OGMTD-260309-T.pdf
- 2 Day Intensive Course on "Common Commercial & Contract Administration Problem and Their Solutions" - 23 to 24 March 2009, Monday & Tuesday (16 CPD/PDP) - Hotel Armada, Petaling Jaya - MASHRAE-23240309-C.pdf
- Technical Visit to the Construction of Triang transfer Tunnel & Associated Project JBANS, Sungei Triang, Negeri Sembilan - 28 March 2009, Saturday (6 CPD/PDP) - Negeri Sembilan - TUSTD-280309-TV.pdf
- Professional Interview Workshop - 11 April 2009, Saturday (3 PDP) - Auditorium, 3rd Floor, Wisma IEM, Petaling Jaya (IEM new building) - PIB-110409-W.pdf
- Project Management Consultancy Survey by PMTD - (1 CPD/PDP) - PMTD-Survey.pdf
Thank you
IEM Announce
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Labels: Chemical Engineer, Chemical Engineering, IEM, Seminar, Training
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 9:24 PM,
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Technical Visit To NeWater Facilities Singapore
Sunday, June 22, 2008
My second visit with IEM was to Newater Facilities in Singapore (pronounce it as New Water). NEWater is managed by Public Utility board (PUB) Singapore. I have looked forward for the visit few weeks the actual event. It was a really interesting technical visit and I wanted to learn about their process as an idea because I am handling the project to purify effluent water to be used for our cooling towers and washing facilities. Well, the visit have gave me some ideas on how I should approach to build our own micro or ultra filtration system.
The half day technical visit took place on the 24th of May 2008 on a nice beautiful Saturday (I planned to made an entry on it earlier but I was too occupied with my jobs etc). We gathered in front of the IEM building and get onto a specially chartered bus to bring us all (about 30+ engineers from various disciplines) to Singapore.
As soon as we arrived, we were welcomed by their officers and brought for a technical tour. We were so impressed with their modern and high tech facilities. They have also spent substantial amount of money to educate Singaporeans others (like us and foreigners) to learn how they process the water. The education and learning center was very impressive and anybody who visit their center would agree with me. We were given a bottle of NEWater drinking water as a souvernier - some of us immediately tasted them while others kept it. Well, no worries....the water is extremely clean and safe - Thanks to the Reverse Osmosis treatment system.
Fellow engineers enters the NEWater foyer and showroom
Among the items displayed in the foyer. There are various types of bottles and label designs for NEWater. NEWater drinking water is not for sale. They are distributed on certain occasions. Visitors to NEWater facilites will be given a Newater bottle as a token.
These are sample of the first batch of NEWater bottles being distributed.
This is part of NEWater reservoir. Nice...Cool...
A presentation by one of the NEWater tour guide. They have done a great job in explaining to us about the history, news, progress, technology, process, future etc.
The colourful NEWater fountain. We stepped on it and took photos (not shown here...).
A simulator to educate the visitors on how much water we used a day based on our lifestyle. It reminds us to appreciate clean water and do not waste them unnecessarily.
Visiting the NEWater process plant (from outside).
I never thought they made us see the control room. This means anybody, everybody can see the control room and its operators working in it. Cool...
Another site of the NEWater plant. On the left we can see the Reverse Osmosis membrane units.
Some of the piping of the system is made from stainless steel pipeline. The plant is very clean and well maintained. Well done.
There are a lot of LCD TV like this in the NEWater facilities to provide visual for better understanding to visitors. This visual shows the layout of ultrafiltration process.
These are the example of membranes for micro filtration of the water. Micro filtration takes place before preceding to reverse osmosis stage.
These are the casing for membrane filters exhibited. Water from outside the membrane will be forced to enter the membrane pores, leaving out bigger particles to provide cleaner water.
This is the membrane for reverse osmosis. Water from the micro filtration stage will enter the tube and forced to enter the membrane by exerting pressure onto it. The pure water will then enter the core of the membrane and channel to subsequent stage - UltraViolet process.
This is the ultraviolet step which is to terminate any nano sized bacteria that may possibly passed through the previous micro filtration and reverse osmosis system. This ensure us that the water produced from NEWater is extremely clean and safe for consumption.
Another view of the ultra violet system.
One tube of ultra violet canister will have 4 tubes of UV lights. The flanges , connections and fittings are made from stainless steel.
Oh yea... That's me signing off from the NEWater facilities in Bedok, Singapore.Finally, check out following video to have a clearer view on the NEWater center. Just ignore the first 1 minute and 50 seconds of the video (Total time 7 minutes +).
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posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 8:35 PM,
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IEM Southern Branch Technical Visit to Claytan Group
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Last month, we (me and my wife) joined the Institute Engineer Malaysia (IEM) Southern Branch for a technical visit to Claytan Group. It was my first technical visit with IEM and I began enjoying my association with the institution. This technical visit is worth 4 CPD hours (BEM approved). All together there were about 30 professional engineers joining the visit.
Here is a little bit information about Claytan Group (adopted from their website):
"Founded in 1920, Claytan Group manufactures high quality ceramic products ranging from vitrified clay pipes, sanitaryware, artware, tableware to hotelware. 
Combining nearly a century worth of experience and cutting-edge ceramics manufacturing technology from Japan and Europe, we are one of the most experienced Malaysian ceramics manufacturers with the most diversified ceramic product range in the country.
Claytan Group products are designed with the customer in mind. We strive to find innovative ways to improve the quality of our ceramic products to produce products that rank high on customer satisfaction.
The quality of our products is recognised by many international Quality Assurance (QA) bodies such as SIRIM, PSB, AS and CSA. They carry out third party audits twice a year to ensure that our quality management system and products meet their stringent requirements."
These are some of the very gorgeous tableware shown in their display room. These are products from Claytan Group. Most of the beautiful ones are exported. Some of it are sold locally.
More elegant and modern looking tableware exhibited. Do you like them?
Technical presentation from Claytan Group representative. All IEM members were tentatively listening to what he was presenting. We were the youngest engineer participating in the technical visit.
Some of the clay pipes manufactured by Claytan Group. We visited the plant and learn their processes which began from various clays being crushed in a crusher. We witnessed their efficient conveying system and large mixers. Then there are a very huge kiln to bake and harden the clay pipes.
There are also various tests carried out on the clay pipes to ensure the quality is up to the required standard. On of the test is the hydro test which is to test whether the clay pipe can withstand its designated pressure or not.
These are different batches and design of toilet bowls being tested in their R and D department. Honestly, before this, I never imagine a toilet bowl being studied as extensive as this. There are also a lot of test being perform to ensure the toilet design works well and can remove the "sludge" in it. I also learned that there are 2 types of toilet bowl, one which can operate with 4.5 liters while the other one with 6 liters of water. It was also interesting to learn about the vacuum type flushing toilet which are also used in some places like in a plane.I'm really impressed with all the hard work made by the research and development department to ensure they produce a very quality toilet bowl that can work efficiently and effectively. It was also my first time touching the holes of the water outlet from the bowl. I never touched it before. I never thought of touching them... I touched it to inspect the size and diameter of the holes where the water poured out during flushing. Very interesting...
These are part of the sanitary ware exhibited at the display room. Claytan Group is a major player of the country's sanitary market.Conclusion
It was a very informative and beneficial visit for us. Besides listening to the technical presentation, checking out their sanitary research and development department, visiting their clay pipe plant, they also served us good warm food for lunch and a gave us a very nice colourful mug (as souvenier). We also visited their wholesale tableware and saw a lot of their collection. I sincerely thank them for their hospitality to us.
For those who are not yet associated with IEM or any professional engineering association in your country, I urge you guys to do so. It is very good for your future. You can also mix and mingle with other fellow professional engineers and hence expand your network. Cool stuff....
Next entry...
Technical visit to New Water Facilities in Singapore. Wait for it.
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posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 7:43 PM,
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The Author
I’m Zaki. I used to be a project, process and chemical engineer. Few years ago I successfully became a Chartered Engineer (IChemE) and Professional Engineer (BEM). I'm now employed as a chemical engineering educator/researcher/consultant. Hope you like reading my blog. I welcome any feedback from you. My email: zaki.yz[alias]gmail.com. TQ!
