Friday, April 27, 2012

Congratulation: IEM Young Engineers Award 2012




IEM YOUNG ENGINEERS AWARD 2012 

ENGR. DR LEE TIN SIN


Dr Lee Tin Sin is currently an assistant professor in Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman. He has completed his PhD in two years time which was fastest graduation of PhD in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. His achievement has been reported by Sin Chew Daily on the 26 March 2011.

He involved in developing the biodegradable starch-based bio-plastic during his PhD study. The biodegradable bio-plastic is the blending of polyvinyl alcohol – a fully natural degradable polymer incorporation with tapioca starch. Such bio-plastic is a sustainable and environmental friendly material which can reduce the plastic wastes in landfill. Moreover, this material also can be applied as biomedical scaffolding material. He started his research of the bio-plastic right from the basis by conducting molecular simulation using quantum mechanics method and reached the finished products level. In other words, his findings can be easily adapted into the industrial with mass production ability.

The developed starch-based bio-plastic can be applied in many plastic industries without further modification of existing machineries. Again, this invention is recognized of its value through the winning of silver medal in Malaysia Technology Expo 2010 held in PWTC, Kuala Lumpur. Besides, Dr Lee Tin Sin has 30 publications in international journals, conference, book chapter and 3 patents in polymer field. One of these works has been published in international refereed journal POLYMER. [Lee Tin Sin, W. A. W. A. Rahman, A. R. Rahmat, A. A. Samad (2010). Computational modeling and experimental infrared spectroscopy of hydrogen bonding interactions in polyvinyl alcohol-starch blends. Polymer, 51, 1206-1211. (Impact Factor: 3.573)] which has been selected as the collection for the first VIRTUAL SPECIAL ISSUE of POLYMER (Published by Elsevier ScienceDirect). According to the Editorial of POLYMER, the collections were selected by POLYMER editors to present a set of excellent contributions to POLYMER. Moreover, he has filed three patents about the starch-based bio-plastic technology.

Historically, Dr Lee Tin Sin graduated with Bachelor of Engineering (Chemical-Polymer) with First Class Honours which his first degree was sponsored by Bursa Malaysia Foundation. After graduation, he works as a R&D process engineer in Superlon Worldwide Sdn. Bhd. In year 2008, he pursued PhD in Polymer Engineering under the sponsorship of National Science Fellowship of Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovations. During the 46th Convocation of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, he was honoured with two awards, i.e. Best Postgraduate Student with a gold medal and Publication Award which was conferred by the Her Majesty The Sultanah of Johor.

Dr Lee Tin Sin is currently serves as the committee member of Chemical Engineering Technical Division of IEM. He has delivered talks in IEM to share his experience on polymer field. He is an active reviewer for seven international journals. Early of this year, he was awarded a research grant from Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovations to develop antimicrobial plastic packaging films.

His working teams comprise of those with depth experience in polymer field, to name some Ir. Assoc. Prof. Dr Tee Tiam Ting, Dr Abdul Razak Rahmat, Dr Wan Aizan Wan Abdul Rahman and etc. His research group has involved international collaboration with Shenyang University of Chemical Technology, China to explore the researches in polymer composite field. Finally, he always believes that a good engineer should work ethnically, efficiently, generous with knowledge and time to contribute actively for the goodwill of society.

The IEM Council at its meeting on 19 March 2012 unanimously confer the Young Engineer Award upon Engr. Dr Lee Tin Sin.

 

Thursday, April 26, 2012

IEM Shout Out - Technical Visit to Sirim Berhad Bio-Cosmetics Facility, Shah Alam

This is a shout out for the IEM. My Technical Division will be hosting a visit on the 16th May, 2012. It'll start at 2:30pm and is worth 2 CPD hours.

This technical visit will provide participants insights to the bio-cosmetics research and testing conducted by SIRIM Berhad to ensure safety of the users. The visit will highlight the complete lab and facilities available at the Center to develop cosmetic and topical products starting from lab scale to pilot production. The facilities include the extraction and purification labs, the safety and biocompatibility lab, the product formulation lab, the extraction and fermentation pilot plant facilities and the Cosmetic GMP Pilot Plant.

Register here or download the form here.