Congratulations to UTAR Lee Kong Chian Faculty of Engineering and Science (LKC FES) academics Ts Dr Chin Ren Jie, Mr Loh Wing Son,  Assoc Prof Ir Dr Ling Lloyd and their team members, namely postdoctoral researcher attached under UTAR Centre for Disaster Risk Reduction (CDRR) Dr Eugene Soo Zhen Xiang and University of Malaya (UM) Department of Civil Engineering Ir Dr Lai Sai Hin for winning the Best Conference Paper Award at the 4th 2022 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) International Conference on Architecture, Construction, Environment and Hydraulics (ICACEH), organised by IEEE, Taiwan Society of Construction Engineers, International Institute of Knowledge Innovation and Invention, and Chaoyang University of Technology from 9 December 2022 to 11 December 2022. 

The winning research paper was titled “Assessment of inverse distance weighting and local polynomial interpolation for annual rainfall: case study in Peninsular Malaysia”. “Rainfall is a climate element that can be quantified via rain gauge. Meanwhile, rainfall data is crucial in hydrology models since it aids in climate prediction and the alleviation of disasters. Consequently, it is critical to have complete rain-fall data for a region,” Dr Chin explained and added, “Aligned with SDG 13 Climate Action, this project study took in the assessment of the two spatial interpolation approaches Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) and Local Polynomial Interpolation (LPI) for annual, monthly, and seasonal rainfall in Peninsular Malaysia.”

He continued, “The daily precipitation for 515 rainfall stations across Peninsular Malaysia from 2011-2020 was utilised as reference data. This study attempted to compare IDW and LPI methods to spot the interpolation methods with pinpoint accuracy. The interpolation was done by comparing the calculated output with ground-based rainfall data. The performance of IDW and LPI was evaluated by computing the coefficient of determination ((R²), mean absolute error (MAE) and root mean square error (RMSE). From the outcome, it shows that LPI methods surpass the IDW methods on the annual scale for rainfall interpolations in Peninsular Malaysia by revealing better statistical evaluation.”

“The output of the project is applicable while dealing with rainfall datasets with missing data. It also gives a better understanding of the rainfall trend in the Peninsular Malaysia,” added Dr Chin.

He enthused, “This conference gave me the platform to explore and sharpen my knowledge in the field of hydrology and environmental engineering. It also allowed me to meet with other researchers and scholars worldwide; i.e., Singapore, German, China, Peru, Nepal, Laos, Japan and Taiwan and et cetera for ideas exchange and research experiences sharing.”

Finally, on behalf of his team Dr Chin expressed his gratitude, saying, “Our team appreciates the full support from UTAR. UTAR aided us in terms of providing us with research grant and facility to conduct the research activities smoothly. UTAR also hold us up financially to attend this conference.” He added, “Through the participation in this conference, more new knowledge and current development in the field of hydrology and environmental engineering were explored.”

The conference aimed to provide a unified communication platform for researchers in the topics of architecture, construction, environment and hydraulics and bring together leading researchers, architects, engineers, design professionals, product manufacturers, builders and developers in various disciplines of construction engineering and built environment around the world. It also worked towards highlighting a wide range of issues to enhance knowledge exchange, increase practical awareness and explore new ideas and thinking related to construction engineering, management, technology and the environment.