2nd International Symposium on Green and Sustainable Technology

The organising committee and some of the participants

UTAR Centre for Environment and Green Technology (CEGT) organised the 2^nd International Symposium on Green and Sustainable Technology (ISGST 2017) at Kampar Campus from 10 to 13 January 2017.

Held for the second time since 2014, the symposium has since provided a strategic platform for the dissemination of knowledge and up-to-date developments in green and sustainable technology across the international academic community.

Welcoming the participants, comprising UTAR academics and overseas participants from the United States, Germany, Australia, Taiwan, Japan and others, was Organising Chairperson Prof Ir Ong Kok Seng. Highlighting the pressing need for green technology and sustainable solutions to mitigate the negative impacts of climate change, Prof Ong said, “The ISGST allows researchers, scientists and engineers in Malaysia and the world to discuss the development, implementation, economics and potential outlook of green technologies in sectors such as biomass conversion, renewable energy and energy efficiency, environmental assessment and modeling, water and waste management, and green materials.”

Representing UTAR President Ir Prof Academician Dato’ Dr Chuah Hean Teik to deliver his opening remarks was Prof Ir Dr Lee Sze Wei, who thanked the organising committee for the invitation and also commended on their initiative in making the symposium a replicated success. “UTAR focuses on teaching and research excellence. There have been some successful researches on renewable energy which have earned recognition at various awards. These research accomplishments are testimonies to the university’s research excellence, further motivating us to continuously bring forth research and innovations to benefit the economy, environment and society in general,” mentioned Prof Lee. He also added that the university highly encourages cross-disciplinary researches, synergistic development of ideas, collaborative efforts and shared use of resources.   

Prof Lee representing UTAR President to deliver the opening address

Prof Lee (right) receiving a token of appreciation on behalf of UTAR President from Prof Ong

The four-day symposium consisted of four keynote lectures which saw erudite researchers sharing their insights of green and sustainable technology. Delivering the enriching keynote lectures were Universiti Sains Malaysia’s Prof Dr Ahmad Zuhairi Abdullah who spoke on biomass conversion through his findings titled “Glycerol Conversion to Value-Added Chemicals through Green Catalytic Processes towards More Sustainable Oleochemical Industries”, Kobe University’s Prof Dr Yusuke Uchiyama who spoke on environmental assessment and modeling through the “Evolution of High-Resolution Regional Ocean Modeling: Applications to Waste Water and Larval Dispersal in an Estuary” keynote lecture, Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP)’s Prof Dr Nasir Shafiq whose lecture was titled “Low-carbon Urbanisation: Way Forward for Sustainable Living” focusing on green materials, and Tamkang University’s Prof Dr Ho Chii-Dong on water and waste management via his lecture titled “Solar Thermal Membrane Distillation for Seawater Desalination”. Technical sessions were also held throughout the symposium, further intensifying the discussions and interaction amongst the 70 over participants.

“As an electrical engineering researcher, certain research findings shared by the keynote speakers were particularly useful for me. In this symposium, I’m able to interact and discuss with the researchers of certain papers immediately which enable me to understand the researches more effectively,” remarked Prof Dr Martin Schubert from Ostbayerische Technische Hochschule (OTH) Regensburg, Germany, who also presented a paper titled “System Contemplations for Precision Irrigation in Agriculture” in one of the technical sessions. Besides finding ISGST a good place to network with other researchers for international collaboration, the German academic also visited UTAR’s well-resourced laboratories and discovered the availability of certain equipment useful for his research, thus creating possibilities for him to team up with UTAR researchers on some research projects.

Present at the closing ceremony was Dean of UTAR Faculty of Engineering and Green Technology Assoc Prof Dr Yap Vooi Voon, who shared his concern over the critical need of green and sustainable technology in view of the growing world population. “There is a need to think out of the box and bring in new innovation. Here in ISGST, there are papers related to energy, water and others which offer good inexpensive solutions,” complimented Dr Yap, who also expressed his wish that ISGST 2017 will continue to inspire researchers to continue with their groundbreaking researches and come up with win-win solutions which can be shared in the following ISGST.

ISGST 2017 was sponsored by HOPPECKE Asia Pacific, ONE GOODEARTH Sdn Bhd, Institution of Mechanical Engineers – Malaysia, Top Glove Foundation; and supported by the Institution of Engineers Malaysia, Iranian Association of Chemical Engineers, UTP, CREST (Collaborative Research in Engineering, Science and Technology). 

Participants attending the keynote lectures and technical sessions throughout the symposium