For someone nicknamed “kecik" or small in English for his modest height, Lee Yeh Seng, 23, a Petroleum Engineering student at UTP has racked up quite a number of big achievements at such a tender age.
His soft spoken demeanor however belies the strong will of this former national volleyball player who hails from Johor Baharu.
He chose to join UTP in 2015 after a former volleyball teammate talked him into joining him at the university, Lee says candidly. He wanted us to form a strong team at UTP here he adds.
Despite his short spell as a national volleyball player, Lee has competed at numerous international volleyball tournaments, both for the national team and UTP's volleyball teams.
Representing Malaysia at the 2017 SEA games has been his career highlight. However, he recalls the years between 2015 and 2018 being the most hectic period of his life to date. All this paid off when the no 1 "libero" or receiver, won a gold medal at Sukan Malaysia 2018 Perak.
In addition, his UTP volleyball career too has been outstanding. In 2019, UTP's volleyball team went to Australia to compete at the 2019 Arafura volleyball tournament where they made it all the way to the semifinals.
Having to commute from Perak to KL every weekend for practice was a memorable yet exhausting experience. Of which he says, he was really proud to have represented Malaysia at Sri Lanka and Iran.
Meanwhile, at UTP, Lee is highly thought of as an exemplary student athlete. Thrice he was awarded UTP's Best Male Athlete for 2015, 2016 and 2018.
Apart from his volleyball career, Lee, the son of a taxi driver, took his dad's daily peril as a motivation to invent a product that helps keep cars cool when parked.
As a result, the product won at the Perodua Eco-Challenge Grand Finale in 2017. Subsequently, his solar powered temperature regulator that keeps car temperatures in check when parked went on to win a gold medal at the International Technical Exhibition 2018 held at KLCC.
Also, the invention won a gold medal at the 29TH International Invention, Innovation and Technology Exhibition, Malaysia 2018.
This courted the university of A&M in Texas, a leading oil and gas university to take him under their wings for an internship. Lee shares that he got support from Yayasan Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (YUTP) to go the states, something that he's really grateful for.
Ultimately, Lee says, the global exposure he has gained at UTP has helped him see the world from a broader perspective. Going forward, Lee aspires to become an engineer who brings people out of their daily problems in addition to becoming a first-rate petroleum engineer.
Indeed, Lee Yeh Seng is another prime example of UTP's profound career connected learning and industry collaboration. From the work we do, we foster long-term relationships with our global social-impact partners to prepare our students, people and researchers as global citizens.
As a leading university in engineering, science and technology, our graduates are driven to exceed their professional objectives and contribute towards overcoming capability deficit across all sectors and industries.
Published on 26 October 2020
