JAN-MAR 2010

Newsle t te rMalaysian Society for Engineering and Technology 2421-07-WKL OCT - DEC 20108th ISSUE

For Members Only

21st Century Professionals

Inside This Issue:Editor’s Note 2

2

5-8

5

Pengumuman

3-4Past Events

Future Events

mSET Interest Groups

8Contact

Opinion Column 1

No, the portal is not up yet. But it will soon be up to replace mSET’s existing website. So do stay tuned to our members’ mail group and newsletters for updates on the progress of the portal development.

As mentioned in the mSET Newsletter (July-Sep 2010), mSET received a grant from the Malaysian Industrial Development Authority (MIDA) to modernize its facilities under the mSET ICT Enabled Work Environment Program. The grant was awarded under the Services Sector Capacity Development Fund (SSCDF) which was established by the Govern-ment in 2009 to reduce the impact of liberalization by building capacity and strengthening the competitiveness of domestic service providers.

For the record, a number of other organizations and NGOs have also applied and received similar grants though the amounts vary at the discretion of MIDA.

In line with MIDA’s objective for the grant, we are targeting to have the portal to be a common platform for information exchange and sharing and for the organization of activities which enhance the overall e�ectiveness, knowledge sharing and professional development of mSET members covering the full spectrum of disciplines (Engineering, Architecture, Surveying, Quantity Surveying, Town Planning etc) irrespective of academic quali�cation levels.

The portal will be able to provide a completely paperless or electronic environment for member-ship application and membership renewal and payment of various activity participation fees and also the creation, storage and search of technical papers, minutes of meetings, proceedings and other documents. It will enable the online organiza-tion of meetings and also have online discussions. It will contain video clips of interest including confer-ence proceedings, talks and other materials of interest to mSET members.

However the key success and overall bene�t from the portal will only be realized when members fully utilize and adopt the mSET portal as a full environ-

ment for their development, information sharing and exchange, and synergise for providing profes-sional and competitive services to the nation and beyond. It will be a success if members contribute appropriate content and articles and audio and video clips to build up the resource base for other members to bene�t from.

Remember, liberalization means that the local markets, projects and services, are open or will be opened to foreign entities whether they be individuals or organizations. MIDA’s aim for the grant is to enable local entities to rise to be at least at the same level of competitiveness to the foreign entities.

Only mSET members can make this happen to ensure local professionals and technicians are competitive, not the portal technology. The portal is merely a platform to facilitate this objective.

The portal project started on September 15, 2010 following an RFP exercise and the company awarded to deliver the portal will release the portal features in stages over a period of 8 months. The initial delivery will be the main content pages and online membership application and processing.

Membership applicants will be able to apply for membership online, and they will have to upload their scanned quali�cation papers to the portal. A work�ow will enable the membership application to be veri�ed for completeness (via checklist) by mSET Secretariat before it goes to the members of mSET’s Admissions, Examinations, Accreditation and Certi�cations (AEAC) Committee for review and recommendation to Council for acceptance. The electronic work�ow enables these activities to be done online right through presentation to Council, without the need to generate paper.

Members will be invited to register or given logon IDs for them to use the portal. Members will be able to update their own personal information (address, phone and fax numbers, email address) online as and when such changes occur. Addition or modi�-

cation of academic quali�cations will however be controlled by Secretariat following veri�cation and providing of evidence of such quali�cations.

Electronic payments will be enabled for members to pay their fees and for people who are interested to attend mSET events (members and non members) to register online and pay their fees electronically through credit cards or via their bank accounts. Acknowledgement of payments will be made immediately upon con�rmation from the banks.

Speci�c to mSET’s own needs to organize confer-ences, the portal will enable presenters to propose their papers abstract online and submit their papers later for review and approval to be presented at conferences.

All documents will be centrally stored and contribu-tors and editors will be required to tag the documents with appropriate keywords to enable future document searches by members. The above are some of the initial features that will be made available in stages. More details will be provided as the project progresses.

Members who wish to provide contents, ideas and suggestions are welcomed to address their inputs to Engr A Fattah Yatim at fattahyatim@gmail.com. Please include the text ‘mSET Portal’ in the mail subject line for the mail to be appropriately channeled for attention.

Engr Abdul Fattah bin Mohamed YatimmSET Portal Project Manager

channeled for attention.

Engr Abdul Fattah bin Mohamed YatimmSET Portal Project Manager

Editor’s noteNewsletters

EDITORIAL BOARD

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2OCT-DEC 2010

Advisor :

Chief Editor :

Co - Editors :

Prof. Dato’ Abang Abdullah Abang Ali

Dr. Suraya Abdul Rashid

Mrs Nik Syazurawati Nik LahDr. Siti Mazlina binti Mustapa Kamal

Mr Safuan Ramlan

Dr. Suraya Abdul RashidChief Editor

Dear mSET members,

Welcome to the eighth issue of the mSET Newsletter.

We meet again as we are about to bid farewell to the year 2010. I hope this year has been a prosperous year for you both person-ally and professionally; it certainly has been for mSET. Year by year mSET is becoming physically and �iscally stronger, with this year being no exception. We are fast approaching the 1000 membership mark (excluding student members) and thanks to various activities both big and small alike, we are slowly but surely earning a substantial income to keep things up and running.

One of the major developments happening is regarding the new mSET portal. The portal is aimed to be a common platform for information exchange and for the organization of activities which will enhance the overall effectiveness, knowledge sharing and profes-sional development of mSET members. In this issue Engr. Abdul Fatah Mohamed Yatim, the portal Project Manager, updates us on the developments and also his hopes and aspirations for members to prepare for challenges in liberalization.

As usual we feature various past events that have been successfully organized these past few months as well as future events that will be held in 2011. In this issue we also feature three interest groups that have been formed by mSET this year, as an initiative to address and advocate various �ields of interest which are Green Technology and Renewable Energy, Ergonomics and Robotics and Automation. Members are greatly encouraged to participate and show support to these interest groups as well as to existing standing committees.

We appreciate your feedback on the Newsletter. Please continue to share your thoughts with us via publication.mset@gmail.com.

Warm regards,

Jawatankuasa Maklumat dan Penerbitan mengalu-alukan sumbangan artikel daripada warga mSET untuk ditampilkan dalam makalah mSET Newsletter bagi tahun 2011. Kami ingin menampilkan artikel-artikel menarik pada setiap isu yang berkaitan dengan Kejuruteraan dan Teknologi. Semua pembaca dengan hormatnya dijemput untuk menghantar artikel baik berbentuk akademik mahupun penulisan kreatif untuk diterbitkan. . Artikel sebaiknya sekitar 2 / 3 halaman A4 dengan foto atau rajah menarik samada dalam Bahasa Inggeris ataupun Bahasa Malaysia .

Ini adalah kesempatan bagi anda untuk menerbitkan karya / minat anda dan untuk menun-jukkan sokongan anda untuk mSET!

Jawatankuasa Maklumat dan Penerbitan mengalu-alukan sumbangan artikel daripada warga mSET untuk ditampilkan dalam makalah mSET Newsletter bagi tahun 2011. Kami ingin menampilkan artikel-artikel menarik pada setiap isu yang berkaitan dengan Kejuruteraan dan Teknologi. Semua pembaca dengan hormatnya dijemput untuk menghantar artikel baik berbentuk akademik mahupun penulisan kreatif untuk diterbitkan. . Artikel sebaiknya sekitar 2 / 3 halaman A4 dengan foto atau rajah menarik

Ini adalah kesempatan bagi anda untuk menerbitkan karya / minat anda dan untuk menun-

PENGUMUMAN

OCT-DEC 2010

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The Working Group on Green Technology and Renewable Energy (My-GTREG) under mSET was established this year to position mSET’s stand point and to support initiatives on the use of green technology and renewable energy in Malaysia. A one day seminar on Green Technology and Renewable Energy was successfully held on 21st October 2010 at the Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia to update members on current initiatives taken by the govern-ment on green technology and renewable energy as well as plan for utilization of nuclear technology.

Four invited speakers gave a presentation during the seminar, amongst the papers presented were “Nuclear technol-ogy as new source of economy” by Dr. Muhamad Lebai Juri, Deputy Director General of Malaysian Nuclear Agency; “Green technology and renewable energy initiatives under KeTTHA” by Mr. Mothi a/l sk. Kothandabhany, Green Tech-nology Policy Division Under Secretary of KeTTHA; “Green technology and renewable energy initiatives under MOSTI” by Mrs. Wan Zaharah Wan Mohamad, Industry Division Under Secretary of MOSTI and “Green building and green township initiatives under MGTC”, by Mr. Ahmad Zairin Ismail, Chief Operating Of�icer of Malaysian Green Technology Corporation. A discussion session chaired by Dr. Mustafa Din Subari, chairman of My-GTREG, was held at the end of the seminar. The seminar was attended by 50 participants from various sectors in academia, industries and government agencies.

Logical Framework Analysis (LFA) is a tool for planning and manag-ing development projects. The analysis is based on log frame (also known as Project Framework) that consists of a table or a framework to represent information about key components of a project in a clear, concise, logical and systematic way. It was developed in the United States around 1960’s and has since been adapted for use by many international donors as well as Non Government Organiza-tions.

1-Day Seminar on Green Technology and Re-newable Energy 21st October 2010, Dewan Taklimat, Fakulti Kejuruteraan, UPM Serdang, Selangor

23rd-24th October 2010, Marriott Hotel, Putrajaya

Logical Framework Analysis Workshop

PAST EVENTS

OCT-DEC 2010

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The workshop was conducted in the Penang Room, Marriott Hotel, Putrajaya on the 23rd – 24th October 2010. The facilitator for the workshop was Assoc. Prof. Dr Ainuddin Nuruddin from the Institute of Tropical Forestry and Forest Product, Universiti Putra Malaysia. In this workshop, participants were given a brief introduction followed by immediate implementation of the technique into two of the Federation of Engineering Institutions in Islamic Countries (FEIIC) projects namely:

Participants were divided into two groups; one project for each group and each project was presented and discussed thoroughly by all of the participants. The outcome of the workshop yielded success-fully planning of each project from problem analysis and objective tree to the construction of the log frame and budgeting for the projects.

2-day Intensive Workshop on Submission to EAC - 4th Edition2nd-3rd November 2010, Marriott Hotel, Putrajaya

A 2-day Intensive Workshop on Submission to EAC was successfully held on 2-3 November 2010 at Putrajaya Marriott Hotel. The speaker was Assoc. Prof. Ir. Megat Johari Megat Mohd Noor, the Director of the Engineering Accreditation Department at the Board of Engineers Malaysia, on secondment from Universiti Putra Malaysia. He is also engaged by the Ministry of Higher Education in auditing Research Universities. A total of 43 participants from local institutions of higher education attended this workshop.

This was a joint workshop organized by the Engineering Accredita-tion Department (EAD) of the Board of Engineers Malaysia and the mSET Standing Committee on Accreditation EAC (Examination, Accreditation and Certi�ication). The self assessment report is meant to provide the EAC evaluators with a detailed account of the programme, covering curriculum, staff, students, facilities and man-agement system.

Engineering Quali�ication, Accreditation & Professional System (EQAPS)

International Engineering Centre (IEC)

OCT-DEC 2010

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Malaysia Robotic and Automation Interest Group (myRAig)

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Malaysia is moving into a more knowledge-based economy. There have been many plans and initiatives by the govern-ment and private sector to help promote high technology to the production sector as well as in research and develop-ment. Robotics and Automation is an area that Malaysia needs to specialize in, in order to bene�it from the advancement of the technology worldwide. So far, international advancement in robotics and automation has been in the manufactur-ing industries, medical engineering, health-care, land-air-sea transports, services industry, security, agriculture, educa-tion and others, to name a few.

Regionally, Malaysia has been identi�ied as a technological country with good public and private infrastructure. Unfortu-nately, the �ield of robotics and automation has not been properly emphasized and managed in terms of contribution to the country and our global competitiveness. Maybe there is a lack of robotics and automation fraternity in the country that is missing. Professionally, there has been no credible body that is able to attract all our resources in helping to build strength in this highly demanding area. It has been proven elsewhere that robotics and automation can help strengthen a country in terms of the sectors that it has strong application experience in. Such countries are Korea, Ireland and Singa-pore, to name a few. It is hoped that with the development of the mSET Robotics and Automation Interest Group (myRAig), the idea of bringing in all the expertise and resources in the country to help build the nation will be an impact-ful one. We believe this will also put mSET in the limelight of the country in terms of its contribution to the nation and its quest to be come a developed nation by the year 2020.

FUTURE EVENTS

mSET INTEREST GROUPS

Events DatesOne Day Seminar On Ergonomics 20 December 2010

January 2010

January 2010

21-23February 2010

2-Day Workshop on EAC Assessment

2-Day Workshop on Outcome Based Education

International Workshop On Photonic, Processand Device Simulation

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ee The steering committee is formed from exist-

ing mSET members plus some other inter-ested individuals or potential members:

Engineering Faculty, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor

Marriott Hotel, Putrajaya

Marriott Hotel, Putrajaya

IC Microsystems Sdn Bhd, Cyberjaya, Selangor

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Objective

To be the professional platform where all engineers and technologist can meet and network to discuss about robotics and automation programs in the country

To establish network of robotics and automation clusters in terms of users, owners, policy makers, educationist, researchers, and hobbyist to help advance the �ield in the Malaysia

To conduct regular conferences, seminars, workshops, training programs, and competi-tions to help develop the technology and its application in the country

To conduct professional certi�ication programs that will be recognized by the industry and government sectors to help build competencies in the �ield, both nationally and globally, for Malaysia

Industry, 2

University, 2

mSETRepresentative, 2

OCT-DEC 2010

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Ergonomics Interest Group (MEIG)The �ield of Ergonomics or human factors is relatively new in Malaysia. With greater concern and awareness of safety and health in Malaysia, ergonomics play an important role towards this direction. The realization that when products, work-place, tasks and environment are designed and controlled to the limitations of human physical, physiological, cognitive and social abilities, productivity, ef�iciency, comfort, safety and health can be enhanced. Organizations stand to bene�it from the implementation of ergonomics.

In advanced countries like Japan, United States and in most European countries ergonomics is widely used and practiced in manufacturing industries, medicine, health care, agriculture and in many other organizations. There is a strong frater-nity of ergonomist that have existed since the 50’s. With greater industrialization and increasing technology, Malaysia can bene�it from the existence of a group of people who are interested in this �ield.

Currently in Malaysia, there are groups working on ergonomics independently, mostly from the academic institutions and some from industries. There is a need to bring together all the researchers and practitioners of ergonomics to provide synergy in the �ield and to make a bigger impact on its importance to the Malaysian public. Since there is no group that has addressed this need, it is hoped that the setting of mSET ergonomics interest group (MEIG), will �ill in the gap.

ActivitiesMaintenance of an active database of mSET members and other databases involved in the �ield of Robotics and Automation.To conduct regular meetings like conferences, seminars and training courses to help build competencies and awareness of robotics and automation in Malaysia.To organize competitions for the education sector and private compa-nies.To publish materials and electronic media to its members and general public.To conduct awareness programs in robotics and automation at the grass-root level.To develop competency-based education and training to industry users and education practitioners.To align with international bodies in the �ield of robotics and automation to network Malaysia with the international institutions.To provide inputs to policy makers and industry associations on the issues of robotics automation in Malaysia.

Membership DriveMembership is an important success story for the interest group. The more active members there are-, the more activities that can be undertaken by myRAig. As a start, the membership groups will be organized by regions. There will be a membership drive that will be launched by the steering com-mittee to help jump start the awareness campaign. The membership drive will be divided into 5 regions, which have strong industrial and educational pres-ence, namely:• Penang (Northern Region)• KL (Central Region)• Johor Bahru (Southern Region)• Kuantan (East Coast Region)• Kuching (East Malaysia Region)

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Ergonomics Interest Group (MEIG)Ergonomics Interest Group (MEIG)Ergonomics Interest Group (MEIG)Ergonomics Interest Group (MEIG)

issues of robotics automation in Malaysia.issues of robotics automation in Malaysia.

Ergonomics Interest Group (MEIG)Ergonomics Interest Group (MEIG)The �ield of Ergonomics or human factors is relatively new in Malaysia. With greater concern and awareness of safety and The �ield of Ergonomics or human factors is relatively new in Malaysia. With greater concern and awareness of safety and

• Kuantan (East Coast Region)• Kuching (East Malaysia Region)

Ergonomics Interest Group (MEIG)Ergonomics Interest Group (MEIG)

OCT-DEC 2010

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Green Technology & Renewable Energy Work-ing Group (My-GTREG)There is growing global concern on the issues of climate change and global warming. Nowadays, most of the countries have given serious thought towards the adoption of green technology and have taken intensive effort as well to encourage the growth of the green revolution.

In realization of this new trend, Malaysian government has taken proactive action to set up a new Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water (KeTTHA) on 9th April 2009 to play a role in implementing green technology and help stimu-late industries and institutions to become eco-technological innovators. “National Green Technology Policy” has been introduced as well for the purpose of promoting low-carbon technology and ensures sustainable development while conserving the natural resources. Prime Minster of Malaysia Y.A.B. Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak had deliv-ered Malaysia stand in United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 which to reduce carbon dioxide emission to 40 per cent by the year 2020 compared to 2005 levels subject to assistance from developed countries.

Meanwhile, there are numerous efforts also taken by the government in pursuit of the exploitation of renewable energy. Malaysia has approved a proposal recently to set up a nuclear power plant which will start operating from 2021 to reduce relying on fossil fuels and hydro-power to generate electricity.

mSET as a professional body needs to play an important role to ensure that government’s initiatives are effectively turn into wealth creation and societal well-being. Establishment of working group on Green Technology and Renewable Energy by assembling relevant mSET members, and representative of the academic research community to provide valuable ideas, comment and suggestions to the government. This will place mSET as an organization that look important on that issues as well.

Activities

Green Technology & Renewable Energy Work-Green Technology & Renewable Energy Work-Green Technology & Renewable Energy Work-

Develop and maintain an active database of mSET members and other databases

involved in the �eld of ergonomicTo conduct regular meetings, conferences, seminars and training courses to help

build competencies and awareness of ergonomics in MalaysiaTo publish materials and electronic media to its members and general publicTo conduct awareness programs in ergonomics

To develop competency-based education and training to industry users and

education practitioners

To align with international bodies in the �eld of ergonomics such as to network

Malaysia with the international institutionsTo provide inputs to policy makers and industry associations on the issues of

ergonomics in Malaysia

Other related activities

The group will function well with active participation of members. Strategies will be developed to increase membership, for the group and indirectly, mSET. The more active members there are the more activi-ties that can be undertaken by MEIG.

Membership DriveSteering committee be formed from existing mSET members plus some other interested individu-als or potential members:

Steering Committee

Industry, 5

Industry, 2

GovernmentBodies, 2

mSETRepresentative, 1

OCT-DEC 2010

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Steering Committee

Membership Drive

Several key individuals will have to be identi-�ied as a volunteer for this work. It is proposed that a steering committee will be formed from existing members plus some other interested individuals or potential members:

The group will function well with active participation of members. Strategies will be developed to increase membership, for the group and indirectly, mSET

Activities

To setup an active database of mSET members and other databases from the University professors and etc. in the field of green technology and renewable energy

To conduct regular meeting, conferences and seminar to monitor the international trend

To conduct awareness programs to all walks of local people

To provide input to the government via white paper and reports from time to time on the relevant issues

Other relevant activities

Membership DriveMembership Drive

Goverment, 5

University, 3

mSETRepresentative, 3

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Steering CommitteeSteering CommitteeSteering Committee Activities

Editor21st Century Professionals NewsletterMalaysian Society for Engineering & TechnologyLevel 2, Block A, Faculty of EngineeringUniversiti Putra Malaysia43400 UPM SerdangSelangor, MALAYSIA.

Tel : +603-8946 6451 Fax : +603-8946 6481Email : publication.mset@gmail.com Website: http://www.mset.org.my

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