Top three posters awarded at virtual FYP poster competition

The biannual event of the Faculty of Engineering and Green Technology’s (FEGT) Final Year Project (FYP) Competition May Trimester 2021 was held virtually on 8 September 2021. The second virtual FYP competition was conducted via Microsoft Teams.

The aim of the competition was to provide a platform for the students to showcase their FYPs, cultivate research interest among students, and encourage industry linkage between Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and staff.

The top five posters from each department, namely Construction Management, Electronic Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Industrial Engineering and Petrochemical Engineering were chosen based on their novelty, impact and environmental consideration. Therefore, after meticulous evaluation by the departments, only five out of 50 posters were selected as finalists. These five finalists were evaluated by the honourable judges from IEM Perak Branch, namely Chairperson of IEM Perak Branch Ir Loh Ban Ho; Vice Chairman of YES, IEM Perak Branch Ts Syahrul Ramadhan; and YES Committee Member, IEM Perak Branch Dr Mark Ovinis. All cash prizes and certificates were sponsored by IEM Perak Branch.

Clockwise from left: Ts Syahrul Ramadhan, Dr Mark Ovinis and Ir Loh Ban Ho

Hamza (fifth from left) presenting his research to judges

First-place winner Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) Petrochemical Engineering student Hamza Sudqi Hamad Mohammad was awarded RM150 cash prize and a certificate for his research titled “Photocatalytic Degradation of Phenol by Fe3O4/ZnO Composite under Compact Fluorescent Lamp Irradiation: Efficiency, Kinetic and Energy Consumption Studies”. He thanked his supervisor FEGT academic ChM Ts Dr Sin Jin Chung for his guidance and explained, “The (FTIR) Fourier transform infrared spectrum of Fe3O4/ZnO demonstrated the succession in coupling the photocatalysts by its functional groups of Zn-O and Fe-O. The ZnO/ Fe3O4 composites, containing three-dimensional hierarchical structures, have been revealed in scanning electron microscopy (SEM) pictures. The energy dispersiveX-ray (EDX) spectroscopy pictures illustrated the Fe3O4 dispersion on the ZnO surface. For ZnO/Fe3O4, the optimum Fe3O4 charge was found at 7 wt % with a degradation efficiency of 73.2%. The kinetics of the photocatalysis breakdown of phenol over 7 wt % Fe3O4/ZnO was concluded as a first-order reaction. The electrical cost for the photocatalytic degradation of phenol over 7 wt % Fe3O4/ZnO was determined at RM629.75/m3.order, by using the electrical energy per order (EEO).”

Meanwhile, the research titled “Improving Throughput for an Automated Conveyor Line Subject to Raw Material Availability Constraints” won Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) Industrial Engineering student Pierre Chew Seng Yaw second place. He received RM100 cash prize and a certificate. He elucidated, “Ten different future models are constructed. Based on the comparison of these 10 future models and the current model, it shows that increasing the output width and decreasing the input scrim size are feasible for this production line and it greatly reduces the material waste while other methods are not feasible.” He also thanked his supervisor FEGT academic Dr Joshua Jaya Prakash for his support and guidance. He also mentioned other benefits of his research, which included that the effect of the selected solution can be studied after a period of time; study and methods could be applied to other product types and lines; optimal width of input scrim can be studied after the production control unit had been set up after a period of time, and alternative methods on performing the online and offline tasks can be studied.

Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) Electronic Engineering student Ooi Yi Khang won third place for his research titled “AI Integrated Sun Tracking Algorithm”, and received RM50 cash prize and a certificate. “My research aims to track the trajectory of the Sun in the sky using deep neural network based on concentrated solar power technologies known as heliostat. I was inspired to do this project because of the increasing advancement in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and increasing demand in the industry field needed in future. Learning AI is very interesting by looking at how the algorithm and theory are being applied. The solar tracking system can be applied in a wide field exposed to Sun to collect the energy and supply it to the surrounding household. This is considered as green technology and has a very minimal impact on the environment, while also providing a more sustainable and clean energy.” He also explained that his research is related to Goal 7: Affordable and clean energy of the Sustainable Developments Goals, because it aims to convert solar energy to electrical energy, which can be used as an alternative source to supply energy to the household, improving energy productivity and providing clean energy to the whole world using the advancement in the technology (AI). He thanked his supervisor Dr Yew Tiong Keat for the support he gave throughout the research.

On the other hand, researches titled “Kinetic Study of Photocatalytic Fuel Cell (PFC) System for Methyl Green Dye Photodegradation and Simultaneous Electricity Generation” by Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) Environmental Engineering student Ng Yee Jie, and “Critical Design and Construction Risk of Residential Projects in Malaysia Construction Industry” by Bachelor of Science (Honours) Construction Management student Kam Heng Sang won consolation prizes and the students received a certificate each.