I am writing this as I sit in the President’s room on a Saturday morning, having just finished recording my congratulatory message for the special video to commemorate IEM’s 50th Anniversary. As you may know, IEM was founded on 1st May 1959 (which is why we get a public holiday on 1st May every year!) with 39 founder members electing Tan Sri Ir Hj Yusoff Hj Ibrahim as the first President and Ir Lau Foo San as the first Hon Secretary. Since that fateful day, IEM has grown by leaps and bounds and today we are the largest professional institution in the country with a membership of over 24,000.
To commemorate this historic event, the Council has approved a series of activities to include amongst others, the printing of commemorative stamps, international conferences and the setting up of the Sarawak International Centre for Renewable Energy that I wrote about in my last posting. This year-long programme was kicked-off during the opening ceremony of the recent International Conference for Engineering and Education in the 21st Century (ICEE) and one of the coming highlights will be our 50th Anniversary Banquet to be held in the One World Hotel next Saturday 18th April. Members should not miss this opportunity to join in on this once in 50 years banquet. After all, except for the young graduate members, the majority of Corporate Members are unlikely to be around to celebrate our 100th anniversary.
While we are all justifiably proud of IEM reaching the half century mark, I was brought back down to earth during the visit of Professor William Banks, President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers early this week, when he casually remarked that IMechE is 160 years old! IMechE sees its mission as “to inspire, prepare and support tomorrow’s engineers to respond to society’s challenges”. One of the measures they have taken to inspire more students into engineering is to start an Engineering Diploma at secondary school level where students undergo an engineering-based curriculum somewhat similar to the vocational schools in Malaysia. The major difference is that on completion of the course, the diploma is recognized as equivalent to 3 A-levels. This is food for thought especially for our Standing Committee on Qualifications and Admissions.
The very next day (7th March) we had Ir Gordon Holness, President-Elect of ASHRAE visiting IEM. During our discussion, he spoke of a web-based e-learning program that ASHRAE has developed together with Elsevier, a publishing house. Through such a program ASHRAE is now able to reach out to its members around the world. Over here, we often receive complaints from members that many of the activities in the Klang Valley is out of their reach. By working with ASHRAE (and Ir Holness has expressed their readiness to co-operate) we could develop a series of e-learning programs as part of our efforts in CPD - continuing professional development. Such a program could provide wider access for all our members, better evaluate the degree of comprehension, and electronically keep track of our CPD hours. Hopefully our Standing Committees on Activities and Examinations & Training would explore further the potential of this program.
Together with Ir Holness was Ms Irin Kang, the first lady President of the ASHRAE Malaysia Chapter. Last month I attended the Annual Dinner of the Malaysian Fire Protection Association and was introduced to their in-coming lady President. Increasingly it looks like IEM is becoming the last bastion of male exclusiveness in the posts of President and Deputy President, and we need to do something fast to redress our gender issue.
KA
To commemorate this historic event, the Council has approved a series of activities to include amongst others, the printing of commemorative stamps, international conferences and the setting up of the Sarawak International Centre for Renewable Energy that I wrote about in my last posting. This year-long programme was kicked-off during the opening ceremony of the recent International Conference for Engineering and Education in the 21st Century (ICEE) and one of the coming highlights will be our 50th Anniversary Banquet to be held in the One World Hotel next Saturday 18th April. Members should not miss this opportunity to join in on this once in 50 years banquet. After all, except for the young graduate members, the majority of Corporate Members are unlikely to be around to celebrate our 100th anniversary.
While we are all justifiably proud of IEM reaching the half century mark, I was brought back down to earth during the visit of Professor William Banks, President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers early this week, when he casually remarked that IMechE is 160 years old! IMechE sees its mission as “to inspire, prepare and support tomorrow’s engineers to respond to society’s challenges”. One of the measures they have taken to inspire more students into engineering is to start an Engineering Diploma at secondary school level where students undergo an engineering-based curriculum somewhat similar to the vocational schools in Malaysia. The major difference is that on completion of the course, the diploma is recognized as equivalent to 3 A-levels. This is food for thought especially for our Standing Committee on Qualifications and Admissions.
The very next day (7th March) we had Ir Gordon Holness, President-Elect of ASHRAE visiting IEM. During our discussion, he spoke of a web-based e-learning program that ASHRAE has developed together with Elsevier, a publishing house. Through such a program ASHRAE is now able to reach out to its members around the world. Over here, we often receive complaints from members that many of the activities in the Klang Valley is out of their reach. By working with ASHRAE (and Ir Holness has expressed their readiness to co-operate) we could develop a series of e-learning programs as part of our efforts in CPD - continuing professional development. Such a program could provide wider access for all our members, better evaluate the degree of comprehension, and electronically keep track of our CPD hours. Hopefully our Standing Committees on Activities and Examinations & Training would explore further the potential of this program.
Together with Ir Holness was Ms Irin Kang, the first lady President of the ASHRAE Malaysia Chapter. Last month I attended the Annual Dinner of the Malaysian Fire Protection Association and was introduced to their in-coming lady President. Increasingly it looks like IEM is becoming the last bastion of male exclusiveness in the posts of President and Deputy President, and we need to do something fast to redress our gender issue.
KA
Dear beloved immediate past president,
ReplyDeleteGood job in posting your thoughts on the blog to share with all the engineers not only in Malaysia but also all over the world, I am one of the members in G&S-YES who frequently listen to your speeches in the past two years, indeed you are really great speaker...very entertaining also inspirational...keep it up sir...would like to listen to your speeches more if have chance =)
IEM G&S-YES
Dear Past President,
ReplyDeleteI may not know you if i haven't join IEM. But from your speeches & the way you give your thought. YOU are definitely a born LEADER and I must say you are also a humble person..