Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Eleventh Convocation Ceremony on 16 October 2011
Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP) celebrated its 11th Convocation Ceremony on Sunday, 16 October 2011.
This year, UTP witnessed a total of 1470 of its students graduating in their respective fields of studies. Out of this figure, 41 was for PhD, 80 for MSc and 1349 were undergraduates from various programmes i.e Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Electrical & Electronics Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Business Information Systems and Information and Communication Technology. 121 were postgraduates from Civil Engineering, Electrical & Electronics Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Information Technology Engineering, Petroleum Engineering and Petroleum Geoscience. All graduates received their scrolls from UTP’s Chancellor, Tun Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad and the Pro Chancellor, Dato’ Shamsul Azhar Abbas at the University’s Chancellor Hall.
The ceremony was also attended by Puan Juniwati Rahmat Hussin, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Institut Teknologi PETRONAS Sdn Bhd (ITPSB), Vice Chancellor / Chief Executive Officer of the University, Datuk Dr Zainal Abidin Haji Kasim, the representatives of the various local universities, members of the University’s board of directors and PETRONAS Management Committee members.
This year’s Chancellor Awards were presented to Lai Chin Leong (Civil Engineering Programme) for Gold, Muhamad Aiman Bin Jamaludin (Petroleum Engineering Programme) for Silver and Kuhanesapathy A/L Thavaras Pathy (Chemical Engineering Programme) for Bronze. Earlier, on Saturday, 8 October 2011, as a Convofair kick-off event, UTP MTB Jamboree 2011 which is a 42km cycling event was held involving more than 400 riders from all over Malaysia including riders/teams from as far as Terengganu and Melaka.
Parallel to the jamboree, a CSR programme was also carried out involving the surrounding community. 20 new mountain bikes which was donated by individuals and various departments in UTP were handed over to selected less fortunate students who had achieved academic excellence in their respective schools. The selected schools were Sekolah Rendah Kebangsaan Tronoh, Sekolah Rendah Jenis Kebangsaan (Cina) Tronoh, Sekolah Rendah Jenis Kebangsaan (Tamil) Tronoh and Sekolah Rendah Kebangsaan Sri Tronoh.
Later on Friday, 14 October 2011, UTP was highlighted in Malaysia Hari Ini on TV3. The 2 hours and 30 minutes live programme involved the interviews with the Vice Chancellor and Deputy Vice Chancellors, Academic and Research Exhibition (AcadRex2011), Anugerah PENCIPTA Muda 2011 which was participated by more than 20 primary and secondary schools, performances by UTP students and many more. On Saturday, 15 October 2011, a new Centralized Analytical Lab (CAL) was officiated by Puan Juniwati Rahmat Hussin. CAL is equipped with the state-of-the-art analytical instrumentation and it was set up to serve the research needs of UTP researchers as well as service requirements by external parties.
In the evening, a convocation dinner was held and attended by Tun Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad as the guest of honour, PETRONAS and UTP Management members and the graduates. The audiences were presented with exciting performances by UTP Performing Arts Group (UPAG), Tronoh Theater Shop (TTS), UTP Virtuoso Group, UTP Bhangra Group and UTP International Cultural Group. It was an emotional yet a memorable event to the graduates when they were presented with a special montage from their first day in the university until a day before their convocation.
UTP and the Student’s Representative Council had also organised a three-day festivity at its campus in Bandar Seri Iskandar. The ConvoFair, held since Friday, 14 October until 16 October 2011, was officiated by Dr.Saharuddin Ismail, Setiausaha (Sukan), Kementerian Pengajian Tinggi Malaysia representing Secretary General of MOHE. Various activities took place during the ConvoFair which included activities like performances by the guest artistes, Mirwana and Muzzy Band.
