The Lee Kong Chian Faculty of Engineering and Science (LKC FES) along with eleven research centres organised the LKC FES Postgraduate Colloquium 2019 on 11 October 2019 at UTAR Sungai Long Campus. The colloquium aimed to provide a platform for the postgraduate students to present their recent works or findings in their research fields as well as for the postgraduate students and academic staff to exchange ideas and gather feedback on their research works.

More than 40 postgraduates presented their research works at the colloquium. Present at the colloquium were LKC FES Dean Ir Prof Dr Goi Bok Min, Yuan Ze University, Taiwan Prof Dr Lin Kuen-Song, LKC FES lecturer Ir Dr Jeffrey Yap Boon Hui, students and staff.

Prof Goi said in his opening remark, “This is the second R&D postgraduate colloquium held by LKC FES with the aim to provide students the platform to share their research works as everyone’s research is different. From the diversified topics, we will be able to acquire new knowledge and improve ourselves. This would also be a good time to train up your presentation skills and to learn different techniques to conduct research while building human networks for future collaboration.”

Prof Lin presented his keynote address titled “Strategies, Development, and Application of AI/IoTs/Smart Manufacturing of Industry 4.0 on Communication, Engineering, Health Care, and Environmental Science”. He spoke about several pieces of research such as device-free localisation, group/individual trajectory prediction, air quality forecasting, voice disorders, automatic weld seam extraction using machine learning, Industry IoT (IIoT) system design with Bluetooth radio and (IIoT) system firmware design with Bluetooth radio.

The second keynote was presented by Dr Jeffrey Yap where he spoke about “Capability building towards improved project performance: Capitalising learning and communication in construction”. He said, “The construction industry is one of the fastest-growing industries in Malaysia which contributes about 4 to 5 per cent to the Malaysian Gross Domestic Product. It is also the main driver of the economy and a key driver for skilled jobs as the country progresses towards high-income status. The prevalent managerial issues undermining project performance include the lack of knowledge, deficient knowledge management, ineffective communication and fragmentation known as adversarial culture. Thus, Rework is a significant inhibitor for time, cost, safety and quality control in construction projects.”

The keynote session was followed by postgraduate students’ presentation, which was divided over eight groups based on their research areas. The research areas were Green Technology, Applied Engineering, Health Science; Applied Mathematics, Process Automation, Simulation and Computing; Energy and Intelligent Management, Project Management, Sustainable Development, Theoretical/experimental Sciences.