*UPDATED on 5th September 2009*
Hi guys! I am back again. Haha. Sorry for missing out lately. I involved in so many activities until I lost track of time. And suddenly, it’s almost the end of 2009. Gosh. Where does the time fly?
First of all, I have been juggling the time between my design project and my final year project. My team and I had to design a chemical plant for the production of nitric acid. We proposed the plant to be built in Bintulu Sarawak due to the availability of our raw material; ammonia. We had to plant everything from the scratch; do the market analysis, cost estimation, production capacity and so on.
On the other hand, I just started my final year project. The title of my final year project is “Taming the Wild Type of xxx (the name of enzyme) on the Bioreduction of 1, 4-bromophenyl-ethanone into (R)-1,4-bromorphenyl ethanol in the Production of Angiotensin Receptor Blocker (ARB) Chiral Drug Precursor”. Don’t worry if you couldn’t understand what the heck I just said. I couldn’t understand it either when I first heard it. But in the layman words, I am trying to produce a drug to dilate blood vessel that hopefully will reduce the possibility of heart failure, treating high blood pressure and preventing kidney failure.
As Nobel as the project may sound, I cannot expose the name of enzyme that I use and the detailed procedures of the research done. If this project successfully conducted, there is a possibility of selling the product. I am not so good hearted after all.
Next, I also participated in National Chemical Engineering Symposium (NACES) 2009, held in Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) last weekend.
Yes, this is the same competition where I won the second runner up in Technical Writing competition last year. But this time around, I am in the Technical Presentation team. And guess what? We won the first place! Yeah! Congrats to all the presenters. Even though my university only sent six participants (one of the fewest among other universities) – four Indians, one Chinese girl and one Malay, we actually won something there. Of course, when all the chemical engineering students’ representatives of universities in Malaysia gathered around, the environment is very formal yet educative.
Young students with their bubbling and innovative ideas are more than keen to share their opinion on this year theme; “Water Crisis: What Can We Do?”. I was impressed with some of the ideas and at the end of the three days event, I somehow feel a little bit smarter than before. Well, at least I have the opportunity to have an in depth knowledge on that particular topic. By the way, rest assured, I am sure if Malaysia is having water crisis in the near future, we, as the budding chemical engineers will come out with the best solution for the country. *crossing fingers*
On Monday night, we flew back to the college and then I have to attend Annual General Meeting of Chemical Engineering Student Society on Wednesday. After the meeting, I went straight back to Kuala Lumpur and will be back in Johor tomorrow (on Friday) to celebrate the first day of fasting in my hometown. I can’t wait to rejuvenate (and washing my clothes) as soon as I arrive home. It has been hectic few weeks for me and not having enough sleep is very tiring. Have a great weekend everyone! And for Muslim, Happy Fasting!
By the way, since I upgraded my firefox browser, I cannot find my Entrecard toolbar. They said that it’s not compatible with this current version of firefox. Am I the only one who noticed this?
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OMG! We were featured in the front page of Universiti Sains Malaysia Engineering Campus front page! No wonder strangers keep congratulating me :)
xxxxx
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Bluecrystaldude
