World Engineering, Science and Technology Congress (15 - 17 June 2010)
Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP) with the support of the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE), Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) and PETRONAS, gathered 1,200 experts from the science and engineering fraternity for a gathering of presentations, lectures, panel discussions and debates on research and innovation in the inaugural World Engineering, Science and Technology Congress (ESTCON2010). The opening of the congress, which was held from 15-17 June 2010 at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, was officiated by PETRONAS’ Executive Vice President of Downstream Business, Datuk Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin, on behalf of PETRONAS President and CEO, Dato’ Shamsul Azhar Abbas.
Delivering the Welcoming remarks on behalf of Dato’ Shamsul, Datuk Wan Zulkiflee said, “The sustainable energy challenge needs concerted and coordinated efforts across a broad range of sectors and not only the energy industry. Among others, increases in computing power have made it possible to run complex algorithms that vastly improve the ability to manage lengthier supply chains, creating savings not only in processing time but also fuel consumption”.
He also added that improvements in process engineering and plant equipment efficiencies could also help reduce the energy consumption in manufacturing.
During the ceremony, UTP Chancellor Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad delivered the keynote address on the theme of the Congress entitled ‘Towards Sustainability: Bridging Engineering, Technology and Humanities’. In his speech, Dr Mahathir said, “There is a need for us to be guided by better value - more human values on why we teach science and technology and how we can prevent its abuse.”
The second keynote entitled ‘Gearing Malaysian Higher Education towards Sustainable Development of Future Engineers, Technologists and Scientists’ was delivered by Mohd Anuar Mohd Zainun, Director, Governance Division (Private Higher Institutions), Ministry of Higher Education, on behalf of the Director General of Ministry of Higher Education Professor Dato’ Ir Dr Radin Umar B Radin Sohadi.
This is the first time that Malaysia is hosting a congress during which, other international conferences were also held simultaneously. Organised by UTP, the conferences are:
(i) International Symposium on Information Technology (ITSIM’10) which was organised by the Computer and Information Sciences Department in partnership with Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and 18 local universities. This conference provided an excellent opportunity for professionals, engineers, academics and industrial experts from all over the world to share and exchange technologies and applications in the information technology and communication fields.
(ii) International Conference on Chemical Engineering and Advanced Materials (ICPEAM2010) which was organised by the Chemical Engineering Department in partnership with the Institute of Chemical Engineers Malaysia through the annual Symposium of Malaysian Chemical Engineers (SOMCHE). The conference provided an international platform for participants to present and discuss recent progress in both fundamentals and applications for a wide range of interdisciplinary domains which include material science and engineering, nanotechnology, environmental technologies, process system engineering, reaction and separation engineering.
(iii) International Conference on Intelligent and Advanced System (ICIAS2010) which was organised by the Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department. This conference brought together experts and researchers in the field of advanced and intelligent systems to discuss their research work and development activities. This conference was also a platform for the participants to communicate, network and possibly create opportunities for product commercialisation.
(iv) International Conference on Plant Equipment and Reliability (ICPER2010) which was organised by the Mechanical Engineering Department. This conference aimed to bring together researchers and industrial practitioners under one roof to share knowledge and experience in the development of plant equipment, reliability and other related areas.
(v) International Conference on Sustainable Building and Infrastructure (ICSBI2010) which was organised by the Civil Engineering Department. This conference brought together professionals from the domains of building and infrastructure; oil and gas; built environment; energy policy and legislature; and business and investment to share knowledge and input on green technology and current practices in the industry. In view of the current concerns in carbon emissions during material preparation and building operations, this conference was indeed timely to discuss good practices of sustainable building and infrastructure to increase the efficiency of resources such as energy, water and materials.
(vi) International Conference on Fundamental and Applied Science (ICFAS2010) which was organised by the Fundamental and Applied Sciences Department. This conference aimed to bring together academics, researchers and industrialists for knowledge sharing in technology areas related to Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics.
(vii) International Conference on Integrated Petroleum Engineering and Geosciences (ICIPEG2010) which was organised by the Geoscience and Petroleum Engineering Department. This conference brought together Petroleum Engineers and Geoscientists and focused on contacts and collaboration between disciplines to improve approaches to reservoir knowledge, reservoir management and EOR.
In total, this three-day congress had put together 7 international conferences, with 21 parallel sessions and more than 1,200 research papers. The congress also received 1282 papers from 58 countries. From the total number of papers received, 992 papers were selected for oral presentation and 216 papers were selected for poster presentation. Thirty-four plenary speakers including 16 from abroad, delivered their presentations at the respective conferences.
ESTCON 2010 had also embarked on a special Carbon Offset Project (COP) called ‘Save the Earth’, which helped to reduce the carbon footprint that was generated in the process of organising ESTCON2010. This was done by planting 260 trees at the ESTCON Park in Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP) campus recently.
In order to meet the objective of this project, UTP focused on reducing and reworking strategies to minimise carbon footprint in three key areas involved in organising the congress, namely air travel, paper usage and electricity consumption. Trees were planted to counter back the carbon emission level. Some of these trees were sponsored by the staff of the university. The sponsorship received for this congress had also been channeled to fund the tree planting activities.
The main sponsors for the congress are as below:
Platinum Sponsors
i) PETRONAS
Diamond Sponsors
i) MOHE
ii) MOSTI
Gold Sponsors
i) Shell Limited Malaysia (Shell)
ii) KPerak Implementation and Coordination Corporation (KPerak)
iii) Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC)
iv) Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM)
v) Telekom Malaysia (TM)
During the closing ceremony of the congress, the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation Datuk Madinah Mohamad, in her speech delivered by SIRIM Berhad President and Chief Executive Officer Ir Haji Yahaya Bin Ahmad said,” The congress was relevant to the government’s aim of making research and development and technological innovations one of the main drivers of growth. This is a major boost to Malaysia’s move towards a high-income economy and developed nation status by 2020.” Later, he presented certificates to the 15 best presenters of the congress.
Earlier, the speakers and delegates were treated to a delightful dinner and cultural performances by the Malaysia Convention and Exhibition Bureau (MyCEB) and UTP students on the evening of 17 June 2010. After the dinner, the delegates also had the opportunity to experience ‘batik chanting’, pewter smithing and weaving of mengkuang leaves. The delegates who signed up for technical visits were brought to UTP and Putrajaya on 18 June 2010.
ESTCON is organised once every two years. The next congress is scheduled to be held from 12 to 14 June 2012.
