USM's Chemical Engineering Alumni: Between Campus Life and the Real World

19 October 2016, the School of Chemical Engineering is very proud to welcome two of its alumni back to the campus for the event "Bicara Ilmu & Pameran Latihan Industri 2016", which was held at the Lecture Hall 6, Engineering Campus.

Mr. Ahmad Zarief Sufaat, a Process Engineer of Petronas Refinery and Petrochemical Corporation, (PRPC) based in Kuala Lumpur and Mr. Mohd Zulfahmi Mohamad, a Process Manager for Lafarge Malaysia Bhd., in Rawang, Selangor were the panels in the sharing experience session moderated by Dr. Suhairi Abd Sata.

Graduated in 2008, Zarief was a proactive student while in the campus and once headed the Majlis Penghuni Desasiswa Jaya, MPDJ as the YDP of the organisation in 2006. He was also part of the MTDC's Ibuprofen project as a contract engineer to develop a pilot-scale plant for the production of the chiral drug right after his graduation. Nevertheless, he left the project for a more challenging task when he was called up by Petronas for a permanent job and attached with Petronas Refinery Terengganu, (PPT) for the period of 5 years. The years at PPT was a learning curve for him and the time was properly used to fully understand each and every operation in the petrochemical refinery process. Zarief then left PPT to move to Kuala Lumpur and currently, he is part of the team to develop the Petronas Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development, (RAPID) project in Pengerang, Johor.

A 2009 Chemical Engineering alumnus, Mr. Mohd Zulfahmi Mohamad has a different experience during his undergraduate years. A rather quiet but committed and visionary student, Zulfahmi started his career as a Plant Engineer at an oleochemical industry in Kapar, Selangor, where he has to manage an oil palm refinery plant for the Southern Acids Industries, (SAI). During his stay in SAI, he had the opportunity to take charge in every section of the plant, from the milling site right to the packaging section. However, after 5 years at SAI, the routine tasks have become a "comfort zone" for Zulfahmi and he needs to challenge himself elsewhere. He then moved to Lafarge Malaysia in 2014 to take up a Process Engineer post and later been promoted to Process Manager within a period of 2 years. That would be a huge challenge to Zulfahmi to move from an oil-based industry to a powder processing plant.

With these achievements and success, the School of Chemical Engineering is very proud of its alumni and such an opportunity is taken to inculcate the current chemical engineering undergraduates with the skills and knowledge required for them to even undergo an interview session. When these skills are aligned with the requirements of the industries, then they will probably be part of the team.

The event continues with the Industrial Training, (LI) presentation by the Final Year students as part of the requirements for the grading of the course.

The School is also very honored to have the USM's Deputy Vice Chancellor, Industry & Community Network, Professor Abdul Rahman Mohamed in the event and he later presented the consolation prizes to the 10 best poster presentations of the event.

To all Chemical Engineering alumni out there, the School is always welcome you to contribute and help our future engineers to fly high, because USM will always LEAD!

Text : A.P Dr. Mohamad Hekarl Uzir
Photo : Hisyam Adnan