Tunku Abdul Rahman University College (‘TAR University College’), represented by the lecturers and students from the Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment (‘FEBE’), scored another unprecedented achievement by winning two Gold Medal awards at the recent 25th International Invention, Innovation and Technology Exhibition (‘ITEX’) held on 8-10 May 2014 at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre.

  

Organised by the Malaysian Invention and Design Society (‘MINDS’), ITEX is an international platform for local and international inventors and research scientists to present their inventions and innovations to a business community keen on commercialising unique inventions. The awards given will maximise recognition and attract more business opportunities for the winning products.

In this year’s exhibition, there were over 650 inventions being showcased and categorised under more than 24 industry categories. TAR University College teams competed against other teams from Malaysia, Asia and Europe to win the awards under the categories of Manufacturing Process and Personal-Care Products.

The first gold was for the invention in the Manufacturing Process category called “Development of Natural Bio-Plantation Waste as Pulp for Paper-Making” which is an environmentally-friendly pulping method. It was created by Ms Ng Chui Kim, a lecturer from the Department of Materials Engineering in FEBE and Ng Guo Tong, a student from the Advanced Diploma in Technology (Materials and Manufacturing Engineering).

Ms Ng Chui Kim mentioned that the period of development and experimentation for the project lasted for 6 months. “It was through trial and error that we finally produced a type of paper that is ‘green’ in terms of biodegradability, with no harmful chemicals.” The paper is created from pineapple leaf and banana stem with a mixture of corn husk, making it possible to have a high water absorption rate. The finished product is planned to be used for industrial cleaning purposes.     

The second gold was for an invention for a personal-care product called “Lower Extremities Exoskeleton”, a device designed to improve general human physical capabilities. It was developed by Dr Yip Mum Wai, Assoc. Dean for Department of Mechanical Engineering together with students, Tan Yong Li and Yen Foo Soon, both from the Advanced Diploma in Technology (Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering). 

“The idea was simple. We wanted to create a mechanism to help the elderly to walk easily with the help of an exoskeletal frame.  We were very inspired by the use of TRIZ (a Romanized acronym for a Russian term meaning, “The theory of inventive problem solving”) which guided us in our thought process and problem solving when working on this project,” said Tan Yong Li.

This particular project was further modified over a period of two years until they arrived at the current prototype. The other team member, Yen Foo Soon, added that the whole prototype was entirely created in the Mechanical Engineering workshop at TAR University College as the workshop has the highly-specialised machines and tools needed for the fabrication of the prototype for the competition.  “We revised the model that we made last year to something more adaptive and advanced, thus providing better performance.”  

Datuk Dr Tan Chik Heok, President of TAR University College, said: “This certainly demonstrates the quality of our engineering programmes, where our students are taught how to put into application the knowledge and skills learnt, by adding a dose of creative and innovative thinking.”

TAR University College will be having an upcoming Info Day for the September intake on 22-24 August 2014 at the Kuala Lumpur Main Campus, Penang, Perak, Johor branch campuses as well as Pahang and Sabah faculty branches. For more information on the Info Day, do visit our website at www.tarc.edu.my.