Volvo S90, a limelight display during the event.

Opening remarks by Dr. Sivajothi.

Ashaary Kusni, Assistant Director, Technical Development & Facilitation Division from SEDA explained about the Sustainable Energy in Malaysia context.

During the Robotic Challenge.

By Faresa Azmi

School of Engineering, UOW Malaysia KDU University College organised 2019 Engineering Day with a theme “Sustainable Energy”; creating a platform where academicians, students, and engineers from academia, industry, and relevant government agencies brought together to exchange views and share experiences on one of the main current challenges nationwide which are, without doubt, the sustainable energy outlook.

Acutely aware of the growing crisis and the huge potential associated with sustainable energy; the day features four main moments: 1. Guest speaker on Sustainable Energy: Demand and it Challenges in Malaysia by En. Ashaary Kusni, Assistant Director, Sustainable Energy Development Authority (SEDA), 2. Talk by Mr Adrian Tang, The Institution of Engineering and Technology-Hong Kong) on Engineers – Global Professional outlook 3. Product exhibitions representing well-known organizations namely- Volvo Malaysia, Bistanika, Luminance and TechSource Systems and 4. Robotic Challenge – “Assault-bots” for students.

This event, dedicated to raising interest and awareness on matters relating to energy efficiency and renewable energy; also gained support from National Water Services Commission (SPAN) as well as Energy Commission Malaysia (EC) as these agencies are to play pivotal roles in supporting and deploying new clean energy projects; in line with the Government’s master plan to increase energy efficiency by 15% in 2030. In this connection, the School of Engineering being one of the energy grant recipient of RM55, 000 from SEDA under its RMK -11 framework forms an alliance as a long-term academia driven partner on this accelerating journey.

Meanwhile, this exciting interdisciplinary engineering event showcased the School of Engineering’s signature event – the robotic competition. It was envisage that competition of such would bring together academics, students, and enthusiasts in the pursuit of a technological challenge. Students taking degrees in electrical and mechatronics engineering, designed and fabricated robust, programme-coded and remotely controlled assault fighter robots to outclass and oppress robots of their peers. The time bound competition was divided into two categories namely; Combat Mission and Obstacle Mission. The obstacle mission involves robots to navigate over elevated structure, obstacle blocks on path and synthetic material paved roadway. In fact, many robots were designed from scratch by the teams. As the performance of the robots increases, the competition rules are made more demanding by decreasing the deviations by the jury of panels; thus heightening the pressure on these budding engineers. The cause–effect of this action resulted in very different approaches for robot construction, perception, and behavior control adopted by these players. Ultimately, the 8 teams were ready for battle to win cash prizes from industrial sponsors namely QQ-Online Trading, Kuala Lumpur and Connectronics Trading, Selangor.

The 1^st prize for Combat Mission challenge was won by Killer Whale team with the line-up of Teoh Jiehan, Lee Wei Hou and Chan Lap Foong. The Second place won by team Plus -150 comprising of Seow Zin Jian, Lee Pui Jyn and Low Chee Fung while the third prize went to team PUTA namely- Chang Seong Hong, Yaoson Tay Yao Sheng, Lay Zhong Meng and Tan Chung Hang. Meanwhile for the Obstacle mission, the 1^st prize goes to Killer Whale team with the line-up of Teoh Jiehan, Lee Wei Hou and Chan Lap Foong, Secondly place by team PUTA namely- Chang Seong Hong, Yaoson Tay Yao Sheng, Lay Zhong Meng and Tan Chung Hang and Thong Shu Hui of team Unknown V2 captured third place.

The Engineering Day 2019 gave the impact to all of us about sustainable energy should be widely encouraged as it do not cause any harm to the environment and is available widely free of cost. At this juncture, the School would like to thank all of the students, sponsors, judges, and organizations that made Engineers Day 2019 an incredibly successful event.