KUCHING – A student from Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus will represent Malaysia at an international engineering competition in Singapore next month.
Ivan Ling Ting Yang emerged champion in the national level of the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s (IET) Present around the World (PATW) Competition which was held in Kuala Lumpur recently, securing him the spot to represent the country in the Asia-Pacific regional round.
The other regional rounds are grouped as Great Britain and Ireland, the Americas, South Asia, Europe and the Middle East and Africa. Winners of these finals will compete in the global finals in London in November.
The PATW focuses on presentation skills where individual competitors are required to present on a subject related to engineering and technology in front of the audience and three judges for 10 minutes. They also have to answer questions for a further five minutes.
Open to members and non-members of IET, engineers and technicians who may be students, recent graduates, apprentices and young professionals aged from 18 to 26 are eligible to take part.
“It was tough and I did not expect to win but I’m happy I did and certainly proud to represent Malaysia,” said Ling, a second-year electrical and electronics engineering student at Swinburne Sarawak.
“Having to present and answer questions from judges in front of a large audience is a new experience for me since most academic presentations I have done were in tutorial rooms (at university) with familiar faces around me,” said the 20-year-old from Kuching.
He added that the judges were knowledgeable in a wide range of areas but he managed to calm his nerves.
“Overall, it was a pleasant experience to be able to present and share my knowledge with people from other universities.”
Ling, who takes over as the 2012-2013 president of the Swinburne Sarawak IET Student Chapter in September, said he owed the win to the many presentations he had to conduct as part of his studies at university.
“I believe the education at Swinburne (Sarawak) helped me a lot. Ever since my foundation studies at the university I had lots of opportunities to present, whether in group presentations or as an individual presenter. The feedback from all my lecturers played a vital role in my success in the competition.”
Ling also said he appreciated the support of his family, lecturers and the university’s student IET chapter.
On the Asia-Pacific finals, he said: “There will be champions from Australia, Brunei, China, Japan, Pakistan, New Zealand and Singapore but I will do my very best. Hopefully I can represent Asia-Pacific in the finals.”
The IET is one of the world’s leading professional societies for the engineering and technology community. It provides a global knowledge network to facilitate the exchange of ideas and promote the positive role of science, engineering and technology.