KUCHING – More than 200 Swinburne students and staff as well as invited guests attended the Swinburne Student Final Year Research Project (FYRP) Conference recently where the final-year students had the opportunity to showcase their year-long research projects to industry representatives.
The conference that was first organised in 2015 was held virtually due to the pandemic. Industry representatives from all over Malaysia were invited to the conference to provide their feedback and insights to all the aspiring engineers. The representatives were from Jurutera Jasa Sdn. Bhd. Consulting Engineers, Sarawak Energy, Epsilon Jurutera Perunding Sarawak Sdn. Bhd., Perunding SL, Department of Irrigation and Drainage Sarawak, Civil & Structural Consulting Engineers, Public Works Department (JKR Sarawak), ZF Friedrichshafen AG, IME Technology, GTG Green Technologies Sdn. Bhd. (Selangor), and James Dyson Foundation (JDF) Johor.
The conference opening address was delivered by Professor Su Hieng Tiong, Dean of Faculty of Engineering, Computing and Science of Swinburne Sarawak. This was followed by a Plenary Session facilitated by Claims Manager of Group Commercial Malaysia, James Dyson Foundation, Azmi Ariffin who shared about the ‘Dyson Design Process’, and students’ oral presentations and project showcase. A total of 109 individual student projects were presented covering disciplines such as civil engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical and electronic engineering, robotic and mechatronics engineering, and science – biotechnology.
During the conference, students were also encouraged to participate in the annual James Dyson Award (JDA) to enable them to develop their inventions commercially. Open to graduate and current engineering and design university students, the JDA is an international design competition that challenges the participants to ‘Design something that solves a problem’.
Awangku and project supervisor Dr Chai.
Two outstanding projects by Swinburne students were nominated by the Foundation for the JDF Bursary. The students were robotic and mechatronics engineering student Awangku Muhammad Syazwan bin Awangku Sazali and mechanical engineering student Shanty anak Chandi. Both students were supervised by senior lecturer of robotics and mechatronics engineering Dr Almon Chai Wei-Yen, and senior lecturer of mechanical engineering Dr Saravana Kannan Thangavelu respectively.
With his project titled ‘Portable Multi-Position Vibration Data Acquisition Device’, Awangku’s project started with the idea of visualising data in the time‐series domain, guided by a formulated set of heuristics that pinpoints the key requirements in the design of the sensor‐based modular system architecture throughout the iterative design processes in a transducer‐to‐terminal planning and development.
The outcome of the project was set out, and revised over time, to address a knowledge gap of how a truly wireless data acquisition, or DAQ system, could be applied in a workshop, testing circuit or on‐the‐road setting for automobiles and two-wheels to feed data for telemetry. Such output is seen to have great potential in data build-up for use on performance, design and even health.
Shanty and project supervisor Dr Saravana.
Meanwhile, Shanty’s project titled ‘Optimisation of Building Roof Using Phase Change Materials (PCM) Towards Energy Performance Improvement’ aimed to improve energy performance of an existing building by simulating Phase Change Materials (PCM) that would enhance insulation inside the roof and create sustainable indoor and outdoor environment for building occupants.
PCM is a material that changes phases mainly from solid to liquid and vice versa where it is used to store and release energy for heating and cooling purposes. Utilising the interoperability of BIM design software (Revit), SketchUp, OpenStudio, and thermal simulation application of EnergyPlus in building, the project used PCM for passive cooling in building to reduce its thermal load and dependency on active cooling.
The FYRP Conference provides a platform to foster an effective industrial partnership with the objective to challenge engineering students in solving real-world problems. The upcoming virtual FYRP conference for semester 1, 2021 will be held on 3 June 2021.
For more information about Swinburne, visit its website www.swinburne.edu.my, Facebook page (@swinburnesarawak), Instagram (@swinburnesarawak), Twitter page (@Swinburne_Swk) or YouTube channel (Swinburne Sarawak).