KUCHING – Engineers Australia Malaysia Chapter (EAMC) recently signed a MoU with Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus pledging more support for its student chapter at the university.
Signing for EAMC was its president, Ir Dennis Ong, while Swinburne Sarawak was represented by Professor Anthony Cahalan, the Pro Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive.
“Today’s (MoU) signing is quite a big milestone for us in terms of putting in writing our relationship with Swinburne,” Ong said, adding that the memorandum of understanding signifies the commitment of the EAMC to support the Engineers Australia Swinburne Sarawak Student Section (EASS), in terms of finance, advice and guidance.
“We are looking at the projects the students are working on which we can contribute to, not only financial contribution but more in terms of resources, guidance and so on,” he said.
Another area the EAMC could help, Ong said, is to create awareness of EASS activities such as conferences and forums, via its Facebook page, website and circulars to members.
It also pledged an annual financial contribution to EASS activities. Set up in 2012, the EASS organises activities such as site visits, study trips, talks and competitions for the benefit of its members.
“The newly established engineering student chapter and its counterpart are seen as ideal platforms for the (engineering) faculty (at Swinburne Sarawak) to develop future leaders for the engineering community within Malaysia and throughout the world,” said Professor Jennelle Kyd, Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost of Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne.
Kyd, who was on a visit to the campus, said Swinburne Sarawak engineering students had achieved a number of accolades including winning second place at the Global Freescale Intelligent Car Cup Challenge in China, and fourth place at the IEEE-IBM Smarter Planet Challenge.
On research collaboration between Swinburne Sarawak and its home campus, Kyd said, “It’s really nice to see the nature of the relationship between the academics here is not just around teaching but is now moving very strongly into the research area, lead quite significantly by the academics within the Faculty of Engineering, Computing and Science (FECS).”
The FECS currently has more than 1500 undergraduates and research higher degree students and about 100 fulltime academic staff who come from 11 countries.
Also present at the MoU signing were Ir Liew Choon Kong, EAMC Deputy Chairman; Ir Matthew Thomas, EAMC Honorary Secretary; Professor Alex Baitch, National President of Engineers Australia; Stephen Durkin, CEO of Engineers Australia; and Ben Leaver, Executive General Manager-Member Delivery, at Engineers Australia.