Unimas wins in two categories at symposium

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WE DID IT!: Unimas teams together with Dr Shanti (seated centre) posing with their trophies for winning the NACES 2012 competition in Chemical Plant Design and Technical Case Study.

KOTA SAMARAHAN: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) did the state proud when the university’s Faculty of Engineering — Chemical Engineering Department and Energy Sustainability teams won in two categories at the National Chemical Engineering Symposium (NACES) organised by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) in Bangi recently.

In a press statement, the university stated it was represented by 13 students who were led by Unimas lecturers Dr Shanti Faridah Salleh and Ibrahim Yakub.

The students were from the final year, third year and second year and all of them participated in the individual and group categories.

The group category saw team mates Low Ken Giap, Kam Yat Seng, Tan Sung Pink and Ling How Kui emerging as champions in the Technical Plant Design category with their design of a production power plant using ethanol produced from banana stems.

They impressed all three judges with their creativity and ability to put forward their design in terms of technical feasibility, environment, safety and socio economic point of view beating Universiti Sains Malaysia and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, who won second and third place respectively.

In the Technical Case Study category, participants were divided into different groups with Khadijah Hajon in Group 8, Tiara Afira Julaihi in Group 4 and Josephine Lai Chang Hui in Group 1. They would later win the competition with an idea of utilising fibre to produce unbleached papers.

For the Technical Video Presentation, Nur Syakina Jamali and Chang Wei Long were teamed up to participate in this category.

Participants were required to create a power point slide and video that covered climate

change prevention by considering health, safety, environment, economy, facilities and public concern.

Meanwhile, the individual categories consisted of Malay Speech and Technical Essay Writing. Fiouna Dok Wan participated and did her best in the Malay Speech section while Deviana Endia Pani and Mohd Iqmal participated in the Technical Essay Writing category.

Mohd Iqmal managed to enter top 10 with his essay entitled ‘Climate Change: Reengineering A Better Future’.

At the closing ceremony, UKM Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Students and Alumni Affairs) Professor Dr Othman A Karim presented the prizes to the winners.

Around 300 participants from 17 institutions of higher learning from Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore took part in the competition.

A three-day symposium, which welcomes both public and private institutions to participate and showcase creative and innovative idea in addressing environmental issues, was also held.