June 27, 2015, by jgkhor

UNMC Team Wins IEM Research Paper Competition

By DOMINIC CHWAN YEE FOO

Two postgraduate and an undergraduate students of chemical engineering won the 2015 Research Paper Competition, organised by the Chemical Engineering Technical Division of the Institution of Engineers, Malaysia (CETD, IEM).  This competition was held in conjunction with the Asian Pacific Confederation of Chemical Engineering (APCChE) congress on 27 September – 1 October 2015 at Melbourne, Australia.

At the final presentation held on 20 June 2015 at IEM, all shortlisted students from various universities in Malaysia presented their works from a wide range of engineering research topics.  The PhD students Chong Fah Keen and Viknesh Andiappan emerged as the winner and first runner-up respectively for the postgraduate category.  As the winner of the competition, Chong Fah Keen received a cash prize of RM 1,000 and a free registration for the APCChE congress.  Upon receiving his award, Chong Fah Keen expressed his joy for his achievement and is grateful to be chosen as the Malaysia representative for the APCChE congress.  His paper entitled “Designing ionic liquid mixture as carbon capture solvent using systematic visual approach”, was a collaboration work between University of Nottingham and Qatar Univeristy.  Meanwhile, 1^st runner-up Viknesh Andiappan who presented a collaboration work with De La Salle University, Philippines entitled “Synthesis and Optimisation of Biomass-based Trigeneration Systems with Reliability Aspects”, was delighted to receive a cash prize of RM 800.  Upon receiving his prize, Viknesh Andiappan also expressed his elation for his colleague Chong Fah Keen’s triumphing success at the competition.  Both Chong Fah Keen and Viknesh Andiappan then spoke of their gratitude for the guidance and support from their supervisors, Associate Professor Dr Nishanth Chemmangattuvalappil and Professor Dr Denny Ng Kok Sum respectively.

UNMC’s stronghold in the competition grew further as undergraduate student, Shee Jia Wei clinched the winner’s prize for the undergraduate category.  The soon to graduate student expressed his delight over winning a cash prize of RM 500 and cannot wait to share the wonderful news with his research project supervisor, Associate Professor Dr. Mohammad Khalid Siddiqui.  His paper entitled “The Effect of Waste Tea Powder on Mechanical and Thermal Properties of PLA Biocomposites”.

This is the second time where UNMC student won such competition.  Winner of the 2013 competition was also from UNMC (see report here).

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