Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Leather Kindle Covers
Kindle covers (inside) Saturday, August 27, 2011
Charlie "deconstructed" with recycled scraps(folded clutch)
Charlie "deconstructed"
Charlie "deconstructed"(full view with strap)
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Charlie "erosion style"(opalo umber with fire treated romeo grey and blue details)
available at AOT
My IChemE Chartered Engineer Interview
After the previous Professional Interview (PI) and writing examination conducted by Institution of Engineers Malaysia (IEM) last April, I sat for another interview which is the Chartered Engineering interview by IChemE. The interview was carried out by 2 Fellow IChemE members yesterday morning in Dayabumi, Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. I was accompanied by my beloved wife to drive to Kuala Lumpur as early as 4.30 am.
The purpose of this interview is to assess my training and experience whether I am fit to be a member of IChemE and chartered engineer. Before this, under IChemE, I am an Associate Member (which I can use the AMIChemE designation after my name). If my interview yesterday is successful, I will be upgraded to Member and Chartered engineer. With that after my name, I can use the designation of MIChemE and CEng.
This is the meeting room where my chartered engineer interview was held (at level 5 Dayabumi building)The interview was scheduled at 9.30 am but it actually started at 9.50am. The interview was relatively tougher compared to my IEM previous interview (which took about 50 minutes). Among the points that the interviewers were seeking for are some proof of chemical engineering application that I practiced in my previous jobs. They also look for some elements on creativity, innovation, leadership and contribution to society. The interview hoovers around discussing the information that I had provided earlier in Form C - Competence and Commitment Report.
Myself before the interview. Luckily we arrived early in KL and the building. I can relaxed and stabilized myself before the interview. Do I look nervous? haha....The interview ended after about 2 hours. It was really a mental challenge to answer all the questions threw by the lead interview who is a very experienced lady chemical engineer. Nevertheless I'm glad that the interview went smooth and I believed I managed to answer all the questions. For now, I just hope to receive a favourable result. From the information that I have, the result is very fast which is about roughly 10 days.
After the interview, we immediately travel south back to Johor Bahru. Yes, we purposely drove to KL for my interview. It was very tiring but at the same time, I'm glad that I managed to complete both IEM and IChemE interviews this year.
What about you? If you are not yet a member of IChemE, you can begin now. Seek for more information on how and why to get chartered from IChemE website.
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Some of my experimental problems
Friday, July 29, 2011
As some of you know, I am currently a Ph.D student in my final year and at this moment I can say I am working very hard running my experiments. Why do I say so? Well, part of the reason is because I'm the earliest person to reach the lab and the last person to leave the lab for any single day (accept if I have something urgent going on). I run 1 to 3 experiments per day depending on the situation that day. Why I say this, you'll know when I list down some of the problems I face when I run my experiments.
The experiments that I or other Ph.D students run are no ordinary experiments. The experiments are not at all similar to those that the undergraduates carry out in the lab. We are running our own individual experiments for research and discovery purpose. We are seeking for new information, new knowledge, new theory, new discovery. We want to find out about something. We want to see whether this and this works or not. We want to see what will happen when we do this and this and so on. Of course, this will be based on our literature review and hypothesis. Our experimental set-up is in most case unique and not similar to others. If it is similar though, there will be perhaps 2, 3 or 4 almost similar experimental set-up. I'm referring to the experimental set-up that we create ourselves.OK, the main thing I want to share here is the list of problems, challenges, hurdles that interrupt the process of me running my experiment. Some of the problems are as stated below.
- process tubing leaks
- fitting leaks
- o-ring burst
- gas suddenly finish
- furnace suddenly cannot operate
- heating tape spoil
- heating tape controller spoil
- reactor easily broken (quartz)
- support for catalyst broken
- Not enough or no liquid to collect for analysis
- Gas that is collected in a container could not be analyzed
- Dirty GC column
- Column not suitable for our products
- GC need to be calibrated
- No gaseous available, need to order gaseous from company
- Rota flow meter not reliable, cannot control flow of carrier gas
- No mass flow controller
- Vacuum fitting cannot be tightened
- Data logger for temperature monitoring software has problem
- thermocouple seal leak and fluid penetrate through wire and flooded the data logger
- Quartz tube after experiment are very dirty and difficult to clean
- No water bath, so I have to used my own condenser.
- Sabotage (this happen to my colleague. Her gas tank tubings were cut).
Please be informed that I'm not listing all these problems to discourage or demotivate some of you who may consider to pursue your Ph.D with experimental work. What I'm trying to highlight here is that if you are running experiments for your research work, you will face with tonnes of challenges. You need to stay strong and motivated. You need to focus at the end result. Of course there will be some obstacles, problems, delays and many other things that will result to you feeling down. I will be lying if I say I'm always motivated. I faced numerous expected and unexpected challenges. It's really up to me to react on the problem and overcome those challenges.
In addition, during this critical time, we need to always be positive and pray to God for assistance. On top of that, when ever we have experimental problems or delays, we need to have plan A, B, C and so on which means we can do other things such as drafting technical papers, search for latest literature review, learn related softwares etc.
If any of you have some good experience to share, feel free to contact me. I would love to hear from you as well. Cheers...
OK, that's enough for now. I'll share later updates with you soon. For my fellow Muslim chemical engineers (student or practicing), I wish you Happy Ramadhan and hope all of us can be fasting with peace.
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In addition, during this critical time, we need to always be positive and pray to God for assistance. On top of that, when ever we have experimental problems or delays, we need to have plan A, B, C and so on which means we can do other things such as drafting technical papers, search for latest literature review, learn related softwares etc.
If any of you have some good experience to share, feel free to contact me. I would love to hear from you as well. Cheers...
OK, that's enough for now. I'll share later updates with you soon. For my fellow Muslim chemical engineers (student or practicing), I wish you Happy Ramadhan and hope all of us can be fasting with peace.
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FREE Recommended magazines to get you updated with current engineering news
Have you downloaded my free "Choosing Alternative Fuel" Ebook? If not, then please download it here. It's Free and on top of getting the free ebook, you'll get eCourse on Alternative Fuel. It's a good and easy way to add more valuable information to yourself.
Benefits of becoming a Professional Engineer
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
After writing the previous post, somebody asked me at Facebook this question: What are the benefits of becoming a PE (professional engineer)?
Well, there are many benefits if we look at it. I will provide my version of the benefits.
A PE will be respected for its ethics, skills and professionalism. Many will look up to them for solutions etc. Some will prefer those having PE status to assist them or work together. They are trusted engineers to handle/manage projects/contracts because a PE is well known for his/her credibility. A PE have the respect from its peers and community.
In my country, if we are a PE, we have some level of advantage compared to the others who are not a PE. A PE can have the authority to certify/approve drawings etc. While this is true for mechanical, civil and electrical engineers, it is scarcely heard that a chemical engineer PE have such similar authority. This is because for example, a vessel's drawing will be designed/certified normally by a mechanical engineer PE. An electrical circuit drawing or wiring in a plant or building will be designed/certified by an electrical engineer PE. A road/bridge construction drawing will be designed/certified by a civil engineer PE. A chemical engineer PE will design/draw/approve certain chemical process. This is very much related to the rules and regulation in a country.Being a PE, we can also associate with other PE and engineers, thus increasing our networking and connections. On top of that, most engineering organizations have their own publication and this is an area which we can contribute it either as editor or contributor. Well, of course this apply if you love to write. We can also get involved in the activities, courses, trainings, talks etc that are organized for our own continues learning process. This will enable us to get properly informed of any new technologies, knowledge or policy updates. There are also subject group that we can involve in such as available in IChemE. You can choose to participate in any subject group(s) related to your expertise/field.
The benefit and importance of being a PE can be seen from the statement of Craig Durham, CEng MIMMM. He is a Senior Completion Engineer working in the UK upstream oil industry. What he had highlighted (UK context) is interesting...
Unlike most doctors, solicitors, civil and mining engineers, petroleum engineers are not required to be Chartered, in the UK at least. Historically, competence has been checked by reliance on a CV, interview and annual appraisal, although it is increasingly common to have company-specific competency assessment schemes in place. While these are welcome developments, only CEng status indicates that your competence has been assessed by other engineering professionals and is comparable with internationally recognised standards.What Craig Durham attempted to highlight in the last sentence is very clear. If you are a PE, chances of you getting hired are more compared to those without PE status. The market value for a PE is also higher and very much in demand.
So why bother, particularly as, like me, I am sure that you work with many good engineers who are not Chartered, and being Chartered is not a guarantee of competence or ability? Perhaps the best reason is that it demonstrates a desire to take responsibility for your professional development, of taking pride in your professional achievements, of going the extra mile. Faced with a choice between similar candidates, one Chartered, one not, which one would you choose? (source)
Well, those are some points that can be highlighted. For academician, with PE status, it is a huge plus point to his/her career development. An academician with a PE status can normally cruise the career ladder faster than those who aren't. This is a scenario that I observed in universities in my country. On top of that, an engineering faculty requires a fix number of PE in order to be accredited by engineering accreditation council.
Well, those are some advantages that I can think of for now. If you have anything to add, feel free to mentioned it in the comment section. I'll add up some more when something struck my mind.
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