An industrial talk on the roles of electrical engineers at the Ministry of Health Malaysia was successfully conducted by the Ministry of Health Malaysia and the School of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), on 28 November 2021 for electrical engineering students of UTM. The live event, delivered by Electrical Engineer Ir. Ts. Lailatul Akmal Abdul Rauf, was attended by more than 100 students.
The talk began with an introduction about Ir. Ts. Lailatul, having more than 10 years of working experience as an electrical engineer at the Ministry of Health Malaysia. Graduated with a Master of Engineering degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Imperial College London, UK, in 2009, Ir. Ts. Lailatul embarked on her journey as an electrical engineer and undertook various portfolios at the Ministry of Health Malaysia. She later enhanced her knowledge in electrical engineering by completing her Master of Engineering degree in Electrical Power Engineering at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in 2017. She is now a Principle Assistant Director (Electrical Engineer) at the Ministry of Health Malaysia.
During the talk, Ir. Ts. Lailatul shared her invaluable experience as an electrical engineer. She explained about her knowledge in dealing with electrical equipment including generators, uninterruptible power supplies, switchgears, wiring, and lightning protection. Her job scope also includes producing guidelines on engineering standards relevant to healthcare facilities. More recently, her diversified roles were required at her workplace, where she had to adapt her working environment with changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Not forgotten, she also emphasised on the importance of grasping academic knowledge in undertaking her daily tasks as an electrical engineer, where she related her work with some of the important courses learned at the university. To her, lifelong learning is of paramount importance in ensuring every success as an electrical engineer.
At the end of the talk, the students had the opportunity to engage in a live questions-and answers session with Ir. Ts. Lailatul. Many questions about electrical engineers were asked by the students and well addressed by Ir. Ts. Lailatul. In addressing one of the questions, she highlighted the necessity for electrical engineers to possess adequate soft skills in addition to having competent knowledge in carrying out their duties smoothly.
The industrial talk was truly inspiring for the students, where they were exposed to real-life working environment as an electrical engineer. UTM School of Electrical Engineering sincerely thanks Ir. Ts. Lailatul for sharing her working experience with their students and looks forward to conducting more similar industrial-related events for their students in the future.