| The University of Malaya Civil Engineering Competition (UMCEC) is an annual event organised by the Department of Civil Engineering since 2017 and endorsed by the Institution of Civil Engineers Student Chapter (UMICESC) and Civil and Environmental Engineering Club (CEEC). The theme of UMCEC-2021 was focused on the geotechnical field which diverged from the previous themes such as structural and material aspects. The competition was striving to promote the Learning Beyond Classroom concept by equipping students with the ability to apply their critical thinking skills and engineering knowledge to solve civil engineering problems. In order to enable students to integrate with real-world problems, participants had studied the causes and repercussions of the Highland Tower tragedy in 1993. The competition prizes which worth RM3,100, had attracted eight teams of participants from public and private institutions of higher education. To embrace the new norm in conjunction with the COVID-19 pandemic, participants had to interact and participate in the exhibition virtually via Mozilla Hub. Meanwhile, the presentation of solutions was conducted via an online platform, Zoom. The panel of professional judges consisted of several experts in the geotechnical field were also invited to provide constructive feedback towards the solutions proposed by the participants. The panel of judges had included Ir. Neoh Cheng Aik from E-Geo Consultant Sdn. Bhd., Ir. Dr. Chan Swee Huat from Geo-Excel Consultants Sdn. Bhd., Ir. Lee Peir Tien from IEM Geotechnical Engineering Technical Division (GETD) and Dr. Ng Soon Min from School of Energy, GeoScience, Infrastructure and Society (EGIS) Heriot-Watt University Malaysia. The Geohorians from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) have been awarded the overall champion for the outstanding presentation and proposal in this national competition. They had fulfilled the objectives of the competition which was to apply their engineering knowledge in proposing cost-effective, practical, and sustainable solutions towards the slope failure of Highland Towers Condominium in Kuala Lumpur though some limitations were set. Below are some of the scenes of the activities throughout the program. Source: Kek Hong Yee |
