Five of UTAR’s Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) Petrochemical Engineering final year students won Silver and Bronze medals at the Novel Research & Innovation Competition (NRIC) 2017. It was held at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) from 15 to 17 August 2017.

The winning research projects consisted of two teams, titled “Mimusops Elengi Seed Shell Powder as a New Bio-filler for Thermoplastic Composites” and “Form Stable Phase Change Material (FOSTPCM) for Photovoltaic Cooling” from the Department of Petrochemical Engineering parked under the Faculty of Engineering and Green Technology (FEGT). The teams bagged a silver medal and a bronze medal respectively.

The two research projects from UTAR stood out amongst a total of 82 research projects ranging from engineering to applied sciences by final year students from 61 local universities and 14 foreign universities.

Themed ‘Revolution through the Decade’s Novelty’, NRIC 2017 aimed to instil the importance of research and development among students and to give them a platform to put their talents and creativity in action to enable the next generation of innovators. It was also a golden opportunity for the participants to share their research knowledge and ideas. The competition was opened to all final year undergraduates and diploma students of local and international institutions of higher learning.