Two teams from Taylor’s School of Engineering were among the 10 teams that made it to the finals of The International CDIO Conference 2010 held from the 15th to 18th of June 2010 at École Polytechnique de Montréal, Québec, Canada. This conference emphasised on curriculum improvements as addressed by its theme; “Making Change Last: Sustaining and Globalizing Engineering Educational Reform”.

The students who participated in the conference brought back not just memories but also pride, self-recognition, experience and motivation.

“People were amazed with our project because we’re only first year students. The rest of the participants are currently in either their third or fourth year of their degree. We felt very proud that we could come up with a project that’s equally good and competent as our seniors. We thank Dr. Mushtak for his guidance”, Hua Chern and Kah Kit shared. Besides the students, their projects were also recognised for being outstanding among the others for its originality and market value.

“Some of the many professors and lecturers who were at the conference encouraged us to modify our project and “sell” it to the market in the near future. They felt that our project has a good future because it’s original, based on research, unlike the rest of the other projects which were merely modified to produce desired results,” Jia Joon mentioned.

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Taylor’s School of Engineering

June 2010Taylor’s Engineering Students made it to the Top 10 in the International CDIO Conference 2010

Team members: (L-R) Loo Wan Ji, Liang Hua Chern, Ng Kah Kit, Chin Jia Joon andOoi Ferng Lin

Synthetic Jet Mixer

A device that uses a synthetic jet to mix fluid in a bounded volume and made to operate by an electrical oscillating motor that moves a diaphragm via mechanical energy. Such a movement generates an artificial jet stream which is characterised by a series of successive vortices that serves as the “key” to the mixing process.

Students taking a break at Niagara Falls, Canada after the conference.

Team members: (L-R) Bashir Beikzadeh, Si Seng Yong

Impedance Pump

A valveless device consisting of an elastic tube connected at both ends to a more rigid tube. Pinching one end of the elastic tube causes liquid to flow in one direction and pinching the other end causes it to flow in reverse. The highlight of this device is that it produces less noise and requires low amount of power for operation.

A mini Engineering Fair was organised for the second year second semester Mechanical and Chemical Engineering students on the 7th of June 2010. Dr. Ray Eaton, Director of Academic Studies from The University of New South Wales, Australia and five lecturers from Taylor’s School of Engineering played roles as judges for the eight mechanical and six chemical projects exhibited at the fair.

These are the description about the eight outstanding projects by the students:

Mini Engineering Fair Exhibited More Outstanding Projects by Students

A system developed to reduce the surrounding temperature using condensed water as medium. Condensed water is used as an alternative coolant to replace other conventional chemical substances such as refrigerant (HFC), which are harmful to the environment.

Team members: May Kuan Yik Siew, Kor Chun Weng, Lim Jiunn Yih and Tan Yen Ling

Recycling Air Conditioning Condensate

This device combines water jet and wave energy to produce hydroelectric power. Water jet impacts the turbine blades and later on produces waves as it dumps into reservoir which can be a river in real-world condition. These waves will move blades of wave turbines located under water and produce electricity. Hence, this device combines two types of energy sources (water jet and wave), enhances electricity generation and reduces water usage simultaneously.

Team members: Chiew Chern Kwang, Toh Chin Beng, Leon Goh Hui Keat and Ong Zhi Hui

Hydroelectric Power Plant

This project functions as a model to visualise the fluid flow in the left part of human heart for research purposes. The novelty of this project is that it has been successful in fabricating an idealised transparent three-dimension heart model for the visualisation purpose.

Team members: Tay Ren Shen, Ng Wei Keat, Afpendi bin Sulaiman, Mitchell Tan Hock Hsiang, Muhammad Afiq bin Makmon

Visualisation of the Blood Flow through Left Ventricle

This project was aimed to fabricate and test a mechanism that would be used to detect Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS). This device tests the nerves and muscle through common interactions and reflexes. A person with CTS usually has slow reflexes because impulses from the fingers are minimised when going through the median nerve around the wrist region. This device also detects muscle deterioration that causes weaknesses as the patient finds it difficult to push a button. Carpal are the bones surrounding the wrist. CTS is caused by rapid or repetitive activities involving bending of wrist to form a right angle.

Team members: Chai Kang Shen, Proshonjit Das, James Wang, Johnny Kong

Device to Test Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

A lighting device was designed that uses sunlight to light up areas with poor lightings during the day. A parabolic shiny disk reflects all the incoming rays of light to a focus point. A round reflective mirror is placed between the focus point and a bundle of optic fibers to reflect the light into the fibers. Then, the light will be transferred to areas with poor lightings. A stepper motor is placed below the parabolic dish to move it according to the sun movement to increase the efficiency of the device.

Team members: Boo Jia Jun, Teh Kai Liang, Huan Yew Sing, Lai Yoong Chong

Corridor Lighting Device

Minister of Higher Education of Malaysia Visits the School of Engineering

This device harnesses the sun's energy to either use it to produce electricity or for heating purposes. This system is called Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) system which uses lenses or mirrors and a tracking system to focus a large portion of sunlight onto a certain water source to heat it up till steam is produced. Thus, either solar energy can be collected and converted to heat or heat energy can be collected and converted to electricity.

Team members: Yohen Sukumaran, Lai Chen Khong, Lee Yew Leong, Goh Shu Theng, Tham Sook Yan

Concentrated Solar Power

This device was created to explore the Plug Flow Reactor (PFR) as a possible alternative to Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor (CSTR). This is achieved by implementing a static mixer for conventional biodiesel production and also to immobilise enzyme packing when enzymatic process is required.

Team members: Teh Kok Shen, Joseph Ko, Yap Hoo Wei

Biodiesel Production in Plug Flow Reactor

This project proved that optimum conditions for production of methane from waste products can be achieved through an anaerobic digestion process. Often, biogas is produced through fermentation of waste kitchen materials and used as a source of fuel for domestic cooking processes.

Team members: Desmond Lee Weng Shen, Francis Yun Shi You, Hii Shiau Jiun, Soh Eng Kiat, Choo Wei Hong

Y.B Dato’ Seri Mohamed Khaled bin Nordin, Minister of Higher Education of Malaysia visited the School of Engineering on the 9th of July, 2010.

The minister was briefed by Dr. Mushtak, Dean of the School of Engineering about the students’ projects that made it to the finals of the International CDIO Conference 2010. Y.B Dato’ Seri Mohamed Khaled was also brought for a campus tour around Taylor’s University College’s new lakeside campus and saw the various world class facilities and equipments provided at the campus.

Domestic Biogas Plant

Taylor’s University College, Lakeside CampusNo.1, Jalan Taylor’s, 47500 Subang Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia

(603) 5629 5000 admissions@taylors.edu.my www.taylors.edu.my(603) 5629 5001

Taylor’s School of Engineering’s CO2 Car Competition

School of Engineering Praised for its Programme Structure

The CO2 Car Competition by Taylor’s School of Engineering saw participation of 33 teams from 18 schools in the Klang Valley this year. The Form Five students were required to come up with their own car models, powered by CO2 and the model that was able to carry a load of 100 ml of water to the longest distance was chosen as the champion.

The competition aimed to provide a platform for the students to test their Physics and Chemistry knowledge by putting them into reality by coming up with car models to prove their ability in the field of engineering.

The winner of the competition was Hin Hua High School, Klang with their car model being able to move as far as 27.39 metres from the starting point. The first and second runner ups were SMK Taman Sea, Petaling Jaya and SMK SS17, Subang Jaya with their models going as far as 26.85 metres and 8.05 metres, respectively.

“I highly encourage competitions like this to be held often because it is important for students to understand that besides scoring well in their exams, it is also important to get some form of “real” life experiences like this”, said Edward, teacher advisor of the winning team from Hin Hua High School, who also acknowledged Taylor’s University College for their continuous effort in organising the competition.

Professor Eliathamby Ambikairajah, External Examiner and Head of the School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunication from The University of New South Wales, Australia visited the School of Engineering on the 7th and 8th of June, 2010.

At the end of the visit, a review report was prepared by Professor Eliathamby in which he congratulated Taylor’s School of Engineering for ensuring that their students are involved in a multidisciplinary project work, a feature that Professor Eliathamby found to be unique for Taylor’s Engineering programmes.