Cooperative learning in process dynamics & control course for undergraduate chemical engineering students

titute in the country, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) is aggressively encouraging teaching staff to enhance teaching and learning to produce graduates who are relevant in today’s highly competitive world. To achieve this goal, grassroots awareness and training campaign, followed by encouragements are rigorously made. Active learning techniques, especially the Cooperative Learning (CL) and Problem Based Learning (PBL) are currently being promoted across all disciplines as well as levels of studies. This effort which was initiated by a group of enthusiastic teaching staff received a welcome endorsement from the highest level of university administrative key personnel. A special task force called CL-PBL Support Group was then set up to facilitate the promotion of CL and PBL practices across the board. At implementation level, faculty-based core groups were set up and trained to acquire and apply the necessary knowledge and teaching skills pertaining to these active learning approaches. This paper describes strategies and efforts to convince and encourage the implementation of active learning techniques among teaching staff and administrators, especially those in the engineering and engineering-related faculties. Training and support provided to academic staff are also discussed. Finally, factors that influence the success of university-wide implementation will be included

Promoting active learning in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia: A bottom-up, top-down approach

Being a leading technological higher education institute in the country, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) is aggressively encouraging teaching staff to enhance teaching and learning to produce graduates who are relevant in today’s highly competitive world. To achieve this goal, grassroots awareness and training campaign, followed by encouragements are rigorously made. Active learning techniques, especially the Cooperative Learning (CL) and Problem Based Learning (PBL) are currently being promoted across all disciplines as well as levels of studies. This effort which was initiated by a group of enthusiastic teaching staff received a welcome endorsement from the highest level of university administrative key personnel. A special task force called CL-PBL Support Group was then set up to facilitate the promotion of CL and PBL practices across the board. At implementation level, faculty-based core groups were set up and trained to acquire and apply the necessary knowledge and teaching skills pertaining to these active learning approaches. This paper describes strategies and efforts to convince and encourage the implementation of active learning techniques among teaching staff and administrators, especially those in the engineering and engineering-related faculties. Training and support provided to academic staff are also discussed. Finally, factors that influence the success of university-wide implementation will be included

A comparative investigation on the effect of thermal treatments on the mechanical properties of oil palm fruitlet components

An assessment of the mechanical properties was employed as the principal yardstick to quantify the physical attributes of oil palm fruitlet components before and after being subjected to thermal treatment process. Two industrial-scale thermal treatment methods were considered; horizontal sterilisation (being the most common) and vertical sterilisation (recently implemented). The exocarp and mesocarp layers of thermally-treated fruitlets, as attested by texture profile analysis, compression test, and tensile test, have a significantly low value of fracturability, hardness, firmness, and strength as opposed to untreated fruitlets. Micrographs of the mesocarp slices have provided plausible explanation for the observed decline in the mechanical properties of the sterilised fruitlets. The oil which was initially contained within the fruitlets tends to leach out during the sterilisation process due to the resulting structural disintegration within the layers of the fruitlets. On another related enquiry, the required cracking force to break palm nuts in order to extract the kernel was found to be influenced by the moisture content

The tendency of Nature towards Hexagon Shape Formation due to Minimizing Surface Energy

Nature, for instance, bubble and honeycomb, tend to form a hexagon shape naturally. The array of bubbles and honeycomb is formed by merging and sharing the common wall with the adjacent unit. Even though each of the unit shapes size may vary, the noticeable elements that built up the array are hexagons. There are many regular and irregular shapes available in nature, but the shape formation still leads to hexagon at the end of the shape evolving due to surface tension. Based on the phenomenon, this study was carried out to investigate the effect of surface tension, energy, and geometry features, which affect the tendency of hexagon formation.  The study was carried out by comparing hexagon with triangle, trapezium, and square. From the result, it is found that the reduction of surface energy ranged from 10-23 percent from the initial shape. As expected, the hexagon shape is packed with the lowest surface parameter and very stable in single unit or array form by showing the lowest energy reduction. The energy content is a reflection to structure equilibrium and its stability for nature tendency.   &nbsp

EZ Enterprise / Mohd Danial... [et al.]

This Business Plan is specifically designed on the purpose of obtaining a loan for developing a new venture in our area. To support our proposal, we had to do many researches regarding what we really want to implement on. In this case, we are to build on a project of electrical device and innovation. We selling a wireless switch which can replace any manual switch on the wall to remote switch (wireless). This Business Plan do contain lots of information on our entire plan that are the administrative plan, marketing plan, operational plan as well as the financial plan. It also consists wholly of data and information that has been collected and then analyzed with the proposed project in mind. Designing a Business Plan does bring hopes that we can actually get working on this project by receiving the source of capital that we are eager for. We had really stated on all necessities in the Business Plan just to have the attention of our evaluators. We do have the willingness to personally present or furnish any additional materials to facilitate better understanding of the proposed project

Preliminary studies on hydrothermal synthesis of zeolite from Malaysian kaolinite clays

The use of kaolin as a source of silica and alumina for synthesis of zeolite has been widely reported with various compositions and processing routes. However, since kaolin is highly influenced by geological origin and geographical formation, coupled with the processing method, two different crude kaolin were obtained at various locations in Peninsular Malaysia to serve as precursor for synthesis of zeolite. Hydrothermal treatments were made at reasonable low temperature of 90°C in an oven. The synthesized product was then analyzed using X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy, to evaluate the potentials of the process and the product. The outcome of the analysis suggested that the breaking down of the clay structure and the armophization process can improve raw material reactivity. However, the crystallinity and composition of the crude kaolin together with appropriate incubation time can greatly influence the synthesis process and the product

Penganggaran impak pelaksanaan CBP ke atas kos pengeluaran dan kos sara hidup di Malaysia

Pelaksanaan Cukai Barangan dan Perkhidmatan (CBP) seringkali dikaitkan sebagai punca utama kepada kenaikan harga barangan dan perkhidmatan. Objektif utama kajian ini ialah menganggar sejauhmana pelaksanaan CBP memberi impak kepada kos pengeluaran yang seterusnya memberi implikasi kepada kos sara hidup isi rumah. Untuk mencapai objektif tersebut, model harga input-output telah dibangunkan dengan pengubahsuaian bagi mengambil kira tiga kadar cukai yang berbeza iaitu pembekalan berkadar standard, pembekalan berkadar sifar dan pembekalan dikecualikan. Dapatan kajian mendapati bahawa pelaksanaan CBP cenderung memberi faedah kepada ekonomi. CBP berpotensi untuk menurunkan harga barangan dan perkhidmatan sebanyak 7.4% berbanding hanya 2.0% peningkatan harga yang dijangka. Kesan penurunan tingkat harga sebanyak 5.4% ini bukan sahaja meningkatkan kuasa beli perbelanjaan isi rumah malah berpotensi untuk merapatkan jurang penggunaan di antara kumpulan etnik dan kelas pendapatan. Walaubagaimanapun, faedah sebenar kepada ekonomi bergantung kepada kadar pematuhan industri kepada sistem percukaian CBP

Konsep kecekapan komunikasi antara budaya dari perspektif pelajar

Banyak kajian telah dijalankan dalam bidang kecekapan komunikasi antara budaya namun kebanyakannya berasaskan pengalaman di negara barat.Bagaimanapun, perspektif kecekapan komunikasi antara budaya dari barat dikatakan kurang relevan untuk menggambarkan persekitaran di tempat lain. Justeru, perlu ada kajian yang meneliti konsep kecekapan komunikasi antara budaya dalam konteks Malaysia. Data kajian diperoleh menggunakan kaedah kumpulan fokus dengan pelajar sarjana muda yang terpilih dari tiga buah universiti di bahagian utara Malaysia. Hasil kajian menunjukkan kecekapan komunikasi antara budaya memerlukan tiga tema utama iaitu pembelajaran norma budaya, sensitiviti budaya dan keupayaan bahasa. Kajian ini memberikan perspektif yang dapat menyumbang kepada penelitian semula konsep kecekapan komunikasi antara budaya baharu dari konteks Malaysia

A Critical Review of Commercial Property Financing: The Potential of Islamic Financing

The construction sector in Malaysia grew at 8.1% from 2013 to 2016 supported by the growth in commercial property and the residential sectors at 12.5% and 9.8% respectively and has been on an increasing trend since the last four years (2013: 10.9%, 2014: 11.6%, 2015: 12.1 %, 2016: 10.3%) (Department of Statistics Malaysia, 2016). The Knight and Frank survey 2015 reported that commercial property financing comprised of 60% of properties priced at more than RM2 million and another 40% for properties priced below RM2 million. Commercial property prices have been on an increasing trend due to increased cost and interest rates as well as uncertain economic fundamentals. For Malaysia, interest rates (BLR) differ across banks ranging from 6.6% to 6.9% and the base rate (BR) ranges from 3.0% to 4.1% due to economic bubbles. Commercial property financing remains a vital issue for borrowers of both conventional and Islamic banks. For borrowers of conventional banks, an increase in interest rates means higher monthly installments which in turns may increase the default risk particularly in times of economic uncertainties. For borrowers of Islamic banks, although the financing is interest-free, the pricing of commercial property financing is still benchmarked against the conventional interest rates. This study highlights the problems that arise when Islamic financing still relies on the interest rates. In macroeconomic theory, financing strongly depends on the movement of the interest rates. In contrast, Islam prohibits interest due to the existence of price manipulations by some parties, considered as unfair, and the lack of risk- sharing mechanism. Therefore, this study seeks to gather opinions from Islamic scholars on the acceptability of using interest rates in determining commercial property rentals as well as identifying a potential Islamic financing model where the features of the potential Islamic financing model are discussed

Exploring intercultural competence among students in Malaysian campuses

Much has been written about intercultural competence in the academic literature, yet our present knowledge of the subject matter was vastly drawn from the most prominent views of the Western scholars. Accordingly, many calls have been made to reconsider the predominantly defined concept in different cultural contexts, particularly in the Southeast Asia region such as Malaysia. Therefore, this study aims to explore how the local undergraduate students of various ethnicities reflect on their everyday experience within the context of Malaysian campuses. In this study, the pyramid model of intercultural competence developed by Deardorff in 2006 is used to examine the students’ experiences with their foreign friends and their sensemaking of intercultural competence. Data were collected from in-depth interviews with selected undergraduate students from three universities in the Northern part of Peninsular Malaysia. The research identified two important themes: establishing connection and developing communicative skills. The findings contribute into re-consideration of Deardorff’s model. While the model emphasizes more on psychological factors, the findings indicate that language proficiency is viewed as an important factor in the process of interaction between local students and their foreign counterparts. The implication of this study highlights the idea that students’ ability to develop language and communication skills will allow them to be more intercultural competent. This study adds Malaysian perspective to the current understanding of intercultural competence