Three Lee Kong Chian Faculty of Engineering and Science (LKC FES) graduates won prizes at the 5th Tan Sri Haji Yusoff Ibrahim Final Year Project (FYP) Competition – 2021. Liew Son Qian emerged as the grand winner for his project titled “Hydrothermal growth of niobium oxide microrods in ammonium fluoride for electrochromic application”. Tan Wei Kun won third prize for his project titled “IoT based car plate recognition system” and Kwa Eng Keat won the special prize for his project titled “Finite element modelling of bone tissue scaffolds: Correlation between material properties and scaffold strength”.

Liew won a cash prize worth RM1,000 and a trophy while Tan and Kwa walked away with RM400 each. A certificate of achievement was given to all three winners. The grand winner of the competition will also be invited to publish a dissertation in the IEM journal. Their supervisors Dr Ng Chai Yan, Ir Ts Dr Tham Mau Luen, Dr Mok Siew Ying and Dr Chan Siow Cheng expressed their excitement about the students’ achievements. The competition was organised by The Institution of Engineers, Malaysia (IEM) and The Institution of Engineering and Technology to award outstanding undergraduate final year projects nationwide.

Liew said, “I am incredibly honoured to receive such a prestigious award from The Institute of Engineers, Malaysia. Special thanks to UTAR for providing me with quality education and also my supervisor Dr Ng and my family for their support and guidance. I am earnestly grateful for the recognition I have received for my work because I am certain that every other participant from different universities was as capable if not more, of winning this award. Being nice, humble, and gracious will take you far.”

Tan shared, “I am very honoured and grateful for the recognition I have received for my work. I have learned a lot more than I expected and gained new knowledge, especially on artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) applications throughout the development process. Winning this award would not have been possible without the inspiration and guidance I have received from my supervisor Ir Ts Dr Tham. I sincerely thank Ir Ts Dr Tham for guiding me in winning this award.”

“I would like to give my sincerest thanks to everyone who has supported me throughout the journey. I am very grateful to have this wonderful opportunity to participate in this meaningful event. It has given me so much self-confidence and motivation to continue to improve myself even more. The greatest reward I’ve gained in this competition is meeting all these amazingly talented people at the event and witnessing how incredible and enthusiastic their presentations are. I would like to convey my genuine appreciation to my supervisors, Dr Mok and Dr Chan for having the faith in me, trusting me and inspiring me to be my best,” said Kwa.