ICHEMTECH'11 IS A SUCCESS

On March 9, 2011, seminar IChemTech'11 was successfully organized by the third year students of Industrial Chemical Technology (IChemTech) program.  Alhamdulillah, the participation was not only from the three batches of IChemTech students but also by students from three other universities namely UKM, UM and UiTM. The opening ceremony was officiated by Deputy Vice Chancellor of Students Affair and Alumni, Prof Dato' Dr  Mohamed Asin Dollah. The opening ceremony was made more meaningful by the gimmick performed as to symbolize us as the chemistry students by showing a chemical reaction between dry ice and detergent in water. In fact the seminar was made much more interesting with  a video presentation prepared by our Promotion and Publicity committee members. It was really a blast. The main lecture hall was echoed with the big applause from the audiences.

There were four speakers who had been invited to give the participants the broad perspectives of career prospects and challenges in the very demanding chemical industrial world. The speakers were Prof Dr Musa Ahmad, Deputy Vice Chancellor of Academic and Alumni, who presented on Chemical Industry and Career Prospects. For the second speaker, we got Prof Basharuddin from Malaysia Genome Institute. Prof Basha was delivering a speech on the Chemists at the Forefront of Industrial Development : from Petroleum to Personalized Medicine. He was a very excellent scientist. The most outstanding fact is that he had completed his PhD at the age of 26. Moreover, he had done double degree, taking Computer Science and a chemistry-related program at the same time. Indeed, Prof Basha is a very creative person. This can be proven from his very interactive slides.  

Next, we got Prof Emeritus Ikram M Said from InBiosis UKM. He was giving a talk on Research in Chemistry : Priorities& Directions. Actually, the organizing committees had suggested on another topic but since the title didn't interest him much, he changed it. He talked more on how to carry out successful research and what the purposes of research are. Lastly, we got Dr Abdul Aziz bin Omar, senior fellow-cum-lecturer of USIM as our speaker. Dr Aziz has diverse experience in petroleum industry for he had been with Petronas for more than 20 years as a Principle Researcher. The interesting stories he had told us made us enthralled to be working in the very demanding petroleum industry. The last session with him was so interactive as the students had asked several provoking questions. 

Before ending the seminar, we had carried out a photography session. All students from different universities seemed delighted to be captured by our cameramen. It was a wonderful event because we can mingle around with each other. Also we got to invite students from other universities to join the seminar and this is a very positive feedback since they finally got an eye for the new program offered by USIM under FST. 

Registration unit

Goodie bags for the participants

Prof Dato' Dr Asin Dollah, Deputy Vice Chancellor of Students' Affair and Alumni USIM giving the opening speech hence officiating the ceremony

Gimmick: Chemical reaction between dry ice and detergent in water. Prof Dato' Dr Asin Dollah pouring the liquid detergent into the big conical flask added with dry ice and water beforehand. Looking on are our scientists, Izah and Qayum with our one of ushers, Farah Azmi

Our first speaker, Prof Dr Musa Ahmad, Deputy Vice Chancellor of Academic and International

Prof Dr Basharuddin from Malaysia Genome Institute

Emeritus Prof Dr Ikram M. Said from InBiosis UKM

Students listening to the speakers very attentively

Dr Abdul Aziz bin Omar giving the talk on his industrial experience in petroleum industry

UKM

UM

UiTM

First batch of IChemTech USIM, third year students

Second batch of IChemTech, second year students

Three batches combined

credit: Athirah Amran

written by: Nor Jannah Mohd Sebri, Director of IChemTech'11