KUCHING: A team representing Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus Chemical Engineering students emerged as champions at the recent National Chemical Engineering Symposium (NACES) 2022.
They designed a cumene production plant from biomass as the raw material, with a circular economy process so there would be no waste released throughout the plant. The outlet streams would either be reused or sold.
The winning group, PRISMANE Team, comprised Sareena Lim, Stephanie Wong Ying Lin, Gladys Tan Ru Qian and Saif Ahmed Jeon was supervised by Dr How Bing Shen, Chemical Engineering Senior Lecturer at Swinburne Sarawak.
“It is never an easy task to compete in a design project competition, given the tight timeline where students most likely need to rush for the submission due date while trying hard to maintain other academic performances.
“We are proud of them for being able to walk through these challenges and for making Swinburne Sarawak more visible to the wider community,” said Dr How.
NACES is an international event organised annually by universities across Malaysia.
Each year, NACES is conducted by a Malaysian university that offers a chemical engineering programme.
This year, the event was held from November 22 to 24 at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Shah Alam with the theme of ‘Elucidating Salient Sustainable Pillars in Technological Advancement’.
At NACES 2022, another student – Abdulqader Mohammed Alawi bin Sahl – also won the second runner-up spot in the Technical Essay Competition.
Meanwhile, the advisor who led the teams in the competitions at NACES, Faculty of Engineering, Computing and Science Lecturer Dr Elaine Yeu Yee Lee expressed gratitude to the faculty for its mindful care in making Swinburne students feel that they are seen, valued, and supported.
“Our students made us proud once again! I am grateful to our talented students for their hard work and for achieving excellent results at NACES 2022.
“The Plant Design Competition is very challenging because it involves many aspects of Chemical Engineering.
“This competition is a valuable experience for students to learn and discuss with industry practitioners.
“I love seeing my students treat the competition journey as a learning process and reward themselves intrinsically with self-pride,” said Dr Yeu.
