Research & Development
Annual Report 2018

Research Talk
Speaker: Professor Bhaskar Sen Gupta,
Date: 4 January 2018
Venue: Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh, UK

The research talk was presented by Professor Bhaskar Sen Gupta with the title of “Arsenic Crisis in Asia – A Chemical Engineering Challenge”. Professor Sen Gupta has introduced and shared the arsenic contamination in groundwater in the world and current emerging technology/innovation by him in overcoming this issue to produce arsenic free groundwater for potable use.

Visited Smart Railway Research Laboratory and Speciality Optical Fibre Fabrication Laboratory,
Date: 16 May 2018
Venue: Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Meeting and laboratory tour with Professor Hwa-Yaw Tam, Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Visited and presented in City University Hong Kong
Date: 17 May 2018
Venue: City University Hong Kong

Technical presentation in SEEM department organized by Professor Peter Tse.

Visited Ranhill Water Services (MoU partner), Visit and Collaboration Meeting
Date: 1 July 2018
Venue: Johor

Site visit for RWS Smart DMZ to view their setup

Meeting with RWS management and technical team

Organized UTAR-NTHU Symposium on Environmental Mitigation Collaboration
Date: 1st October 2018
Time: 8.30am – 12.30pm

Seven topics were presented in the symposium. 4 presentations were delivered by UTAR DCL staff members and 3 presentations were delivered by professors from NTHU, Taiwan. (Refer to the schedule below) Research works carried out in both universities were discussed among all participants.

After the presentations, we had a roundtable discussion of possible research collaborations between UTAR and NTHU in terms of the following matters:

1. Joint research grant application.
2. Joint supervision of postgraduate students from both universities.
3. Research attachment for postgraduate students.
4. Internship program for undergraduate programs.
5. Exchange of lecturers from both universities.
6. Mutual Credit Transfer for postgraduate programs.

Organized UTAR-UTM Symposium on Membrane Characterization and Separation Process
Date: 4 October 2018

Eight topics were later presented in the symposium. Among all the eight topics, five of the topics were delivered by academic staff from higher institutions including Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), while other three topics were delivered by industrial speakers including KenEp Resources (Asia) Sdn Bhd, Shimadzu Malaysia Sdn Bhd and GAT Scientific Sdn Bhd. The topics covered in this symposium were mainly related to advanced characterization of nanomaterials for membrane fabrication, membrane fouling, and measurement to characterize the quality of treated samples, emerging membrane technologies for water and air separation and most importantly, the implementation of membrane process for local industries. Additionally, a fruitful networking session was held during the lunch whereby idea and information were exchanged between the academicians and industry experts to further fortify the possible research collaboration between the universities and industries.

Visited City University of London
Date: 29 November 2018

Meeting up and having laboratory tour with Professor Kenneth Grattan FREng (Royal Academy of Engineering) in City University of London.

Visited Limerick University, Ireland
Date: 4 December 2018

Meeting and laboratory tour in Limerick University, Ireland

Visited James Watt Nanofabrication Centre in Glasgow University, Institute of Photonics in Strathclyde University, and Fraunhofer Centre for Applied Photonics in Glasgow, United Kingdom
Date: 11 December 2018