A research seminar on high voltage engineering was successfully organised by the Department of Electrical Power Engineering (POWER), Faculty of Electrical Engineering (FKE), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and co-organised by IEEE Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Society (DEIS) Malaysia Chapter on 27 April 2017 at FKE, UTM Johor Bahru.
Around 100 undergraduate students undertaking the course High Voltage Technology attended the talks delivered by Dr. Mona Riza Mohd Esa on lightning physics and Dr. Zulkarnain Ahmad Noorden on supercapacitors. Various interesting research topics and findings on high voltage engineering, particularly on lightning phenomena and supercapacitor materials, were discussed. The students also had an opportunity to have a glance at the high voltage research activities carried out by Dr. Mona and Dr. Zulkarnain at UTM.
During the seminar, the students were also introduced to the Institute of High Voltage and High Current (an institute at UTM that carries out research in addition to calibration, testing and training relevant to high voltage engineering) and Malaysian High Voltage Network (a networking group for high voltage engineering in Malaysia). The students were also introduced to IEEE DEIS (an international networking society that deals with all phenomena associated with dielectrics and with the insulation of electrical equipment), where the students had an opportunity to watch the IEEE DEIS educational video at the end of the seminar.
Through the seminar, it is hoped that the undergraduate students are aware of the latest research and networking relevant to high voltage engineering apart from obtaining their knowledge through classroom lectures and textbooks. This would allow the students to enhance learning through research information. This is in line with UTM’s effort to enrich the nexus between research, learning and teaching. On behalf of POWER and DEIS, Dr. Lau Kwan Yiew, the seminar coordinator, sincerely thanks Dr. Mona and Dr. Zulkarnain for voluntarily conducting the research seminar for the undergraduate students. The kind assistance from Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zolkafle Buntat and Dr. Noor Azlinda Ahmad for planning the seminar is also acknowledged.
by Dr. Lau Kwan Yiew, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia