KUCHING – Swinburne Sarawak’s IChemE Student Chapter has been awarded the “Highly commended Student Chapter Award” while the Young Researcher Award went to Chartered Engineer Dr. How Bing Shen for the IChemE Malaysia Awards 2021 virtual ceremony on 1 October.

The IChemE Malaysia Awards is an annual award that celebrates excellence and innovation in various fields of chemical engineering and is an excellent avenue for teams, companies, or individuals to have their projects recognised on a national platform. New for year 2021, all finalists of the IChemE Malaysia Awards had the opportunity to record a short video to share how they felt to be a finalist, as well as explain more about their project and how it is positively contributing to solutions to the Malaysian community. Videos of the winners were shown during the virtual ceremony.

Dr. How Bing Shen, our chemical engineering lecturer in Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak has bagged the Young Researcher Awards at the 2021 IChemE Malaysia Awards on 1st October 2021 for his marvellous research contributions to the chemical engineering society and academic community. By winning this award, Dr. How is selected to represent our country in the IChemE Global Award which will be held on 15th October 2021.

Dr. How graduated with a Ph.D. degree from the University of Nottingham Malaysia. He specializes in diverse research areas, ranging from sustainable supply chain management, process integration and optimization, circular economy, and etc. Despite being an early career researcher, Dr. How demonstrates a strong publication track record. To-date, he has published more than 50 articles, 13 of which were published within this year.

In addition, Dr. How also committed to transferring the research findings into actual industry contributions. For instance, he was leading a team in Swinburne Sarawak to evaluate the techno-economic feasibility for the development of a hydrogen production plant in Kuching. Such project serves as an essential guide for SEDC Energy in identifying the potential gaps to close prior to the actual deployment of the green hydrogen plant.

Given his research excellence, he has won multiple internal research awards in SUTS, has secured multiple state and national grants (accounted for MYR374,400), and has been appointed as the associate editor in Frontiers in Sustainability (Sustainable Chemical Process Design section).

Dr. How is grateful for all the opportunities given by Swinburne Sarawak and also by his research collaborators. “Research is never a one-man show, you can’t get far without the kind support given by your institutions and research partners,” said Dr. How.

Meanwhile, Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak has earned the Highly commended award in the Student Chapter category. Through an impressive range of mentoring activities, technical skills-focused workshops and careers events with industry leaders in various sectors such as wastewater management, quality management and solar energy, the Chapter are boosting their connections with industry and supporting the career development of their members. This achievement acknowledges the accomplishments and activities of all the Swinburne IChemE Student Chapters across Malaysia.

“I am truly honoured to be part of our student chapter that has grown so much in the past few years. To be awarded in the finals yet again is an outstanding achievement which is a testament to the consistent hard work from our advisors and committee. It would not have been possible without the tireless effort and commitment of our team members,” said Abdulqader Bin Sahl, President of SUTS IChemE Student Chapter.

“I am very pleased with their significant achievements and contribution to the success of the student chapter. Students participating in Student Chapter has allowed them to learn new skills that they might not learn in a classroom, including communication, leadership, teamwork and time management skills. I am sincerely grateful to IChemE Malaysia for recognising the student chapter’s effort in organising a wide range of activities,” said Dr. Elaine Yeu Yee Lee, an advisor of SUTS IChemE Student Chapter.

Established in 2015, Swinburne Sarawak IChemE Student Chapter provides students a platform to learn more about chemical engineering and opportunity to network with their peers through collaborations with regional chapters. To find out more about the chapter, visit their Facebook page at bit.ly/SUTSicheme.

For more information about Swinburne, visit www.swinburne.edu.my or its Facebook page (@swinburnesarawak), Instagram (@swinburnesarawak), Twitter (@Swinburne_Swk) or YouTube channel (Swinburne Sarawak).