Student Professional Development Conference 2013

Undercroft, 6^th April – For the first time ever, the Student Professional Development Conference (SPDC) was held in Malaysia, specifically in UTP. It was held from 5^th to 7^th April at Undercroft, UTP. SPDC, organized by the American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME), is a global event and has previously been held in many other countries. Participants are ASME members of ‘District G’, mainly Asian countries all the way to Australia.

SPDC 2013, focusing on the theme of “Developing and Practicing the Skills Required in the Engineering Workplace” included talks by senior members of ASME, as well as various competitions: Old Guard Technical Paper Presentation, Old Guard Oral Presentation, and Student Design Competition.

The first talk, entitled “Ocean Economy – Mankind’s Future Frontier”, was given by Dr. Fakhruldin bin Mohd, UTP’s HOD of Deep Water Technology. In his research, he has been studying new and more efficient ways to extract and utilize ocean resources. At the same time, the Old Guard Technical Paper Presentation was being judged.

The highlight of the day was the Student Design Competition (SDC), a robotics competition for students. The setting of the competition emulated the nuclear breakdown in Japan. Participants were required to build a robot, equipped with a camera, which will retrieve readings of radiation and move blocks within the game field. Unfortunately for both participating UTP teams, neither managed to finish the task because of unavoidable technical issues.

The event continued with another two talks, the first being “Project: Me!” by Mr. Omar Khorshed, founder of AIESEC UTP. He shared his experience about life and how he can become a well-rounded, successful individual. The last talk of the day was given by Dr. Desmond Chong, Chair of ASME Asia Pacific region, entitled “Research Life and How to Engage in it”, where he talked about how he became a researcher and the many benefits of being one.

The final day kicked-off with the Old Guard Oral Presentation for about 3 hours. Manish Pokhrel (University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan), a 21-year-old Nepali studying in Pakistan, was showered with praises after his energetic speech entitled ‘Ornithopter’ or flap-and-fly. It was an intriguing idea about aircrafts flapping their wings to fly. According to Manish, that would actually decrease the amount of energy needed for planes operate. It is to be noted that Manish eventually went on to grab the 1^st prize in this competition.

The event resumed after lunch with a talk by Miss Marian Heller (Senior Program Manager, Leadership Development and Recruitment, ASME)  (left). Titled ‘Faster than a Speeding Bullet’, her talk was mainly about her working experience accompanied by the usual nuggets of advice such as learning never stops, solve your problems, and make your boss look good for a promising career. The main highlight actually came as soon as the talk ended. The committee members requested Miss Heller to sing a song (which is also her hobby). The audience was totally stunned as they got not one, but two songs from Miss Heller namely ‘The Galaxy Song’ and ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’! We have to say that Miss Heller should be the role model for students dreaming of being an all-rounded engineer one day.

We later interview Mr. Usman bin Younos (Chair, Pakistan Section, ASME). Reviewing the event, Mr. Usman said that this was the first time ever the senior members of ASME are joining the students for SPDC. He also gave special thanks to the committee members for being very nice to all the senior members. His words for the students of UTP were “Aim high, score high. Don’t only think about graduating, being an engineer and settling down in life. Life is something more than that. We should think about something bigger”. It was his highest hope that SPDC will be held in UTP again for he feels the people and food here are “amazing.”

The talented Manish Pokhrel (left), posing with HOT reporter Munir Juman. 

By Munir Juman, PE, & Ibrahim Abu Talib, ICT.

Photographs by Mustafa Mohammed, PE.