Background

My name is Mohd Hashim Hassan. I was born at Kg. Jenderam, Sepang, Selangor. Out of four siblings I was the second children of my parents, Mr. Hassan Darus and Mrs. Mainar Harun. I have an older sister, a younger brother and also a younger sister. We have resided at Kg. Jenderam since I was born until now, that is about 23 years .

My primary education started on 1992 when I entered Sekolah kebangsaan Jenderam as a year one student until I complete six years there on year six with Ujian Penilaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) result of 5 A’s. Then I was offered to one of the Sekolah Berasrama Penuh (SBP) with religious stream, Sekolah Menengah Agama Persekutuan Kajang (SMAPK), Kajang, Selangor. Following a lot of hard work and gaining much knowledge from 1998 until 2002, I obtained 9A’s in my Penilaian Menengah Rendah(PMR), and afterward I continued to study at SMAPK until my Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examination. My SPM result is 7A’s, 3B’s and 1C. After I obtained my SPM result, I then was offered to continue my study at Malacca Matriculation College at Londang, Melaka. I took the opportunity to study there in Physical Science Stream for one year. Subsequently, when I completed my study there with CPA 3.23 my plan was to pursue my education to degree level in chemical engineering. My dream come true when I was accepted to enroll in one of the leading university in technology in Malaysia, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Johor Bahru, Johor. I was offered to enroll in Bachelor of Chemical-Gas and now I am in the third year of my study.

Personal

Due to my early education that requires me to stay at hostel with other student, it moulds me to be independent and responsible person. Early live in hostels with other students including junior and senior brings out cooperative and resilient attribute from one human being as my personal view, I reckon that beside acquiring knowledge during school hour that is important the way we conduct our lifestyle during stay at hostel play equally important role too. Being away from parent, it inculcates responsibility in a person thus make them think wisely before doing every task. Nevertheless, cooperative skills and also communication skills is the living skills that I brush up during my five years at SMAPK hostels. Many activities during that time necessitate us to work as a team whether it is a small activity such as “gotong-royong” or cleaning our room to as difficult as organizing ceremony for retired principle and to execute a grand Teacher’s Day. As a whole, my first hand experiences as a teenager at hostels prepare me the basic foundation for the live to come.

Fast forward to recent time, I am grateful that I have the opportunity to study and also stay at hostel. All the attribute and experience that I gain from that duration of time eventually make me easy to adapt to surrounding full of obligation and task whether during in my matriculation year or during my study at UTM. The basis of foundation that I build earlier, slowly but steadily growth even better and stronger with the knowledge that I gain along the this life timeline. I hope with all these knowledge and awareness it can make me a better student specifically and good human being generally.

Co-Curricular Activity

“All work no play, make Jack a dull boy”. Co-curricular activity is equally important as education. During my secondary education I come across with archery. Archery is a type of sport that calls for calmness and patient combine with fast thinking and accuracy. I started to heavily involve in this sport during form three until form five. During that three year period my team and I managed to represent the state of Selangor in Majlis Sukan Sekolah-Sekolah Malaysia (MSSM) three years in row from 2001 until 2003. We also have been chose to stand for Selangor in Sukan Selangor (Sukses) in 2001. As other sport, archery requires a lot of practice and we spend most of our evening daily to improve our accuracy in aiming for the target. On the other hand archery taught us to remain calm and stay focus to the target no matter what obstacles or problem lying upon us. With archery also, I gather a lot of friends from other schools during tournament and besides exchanging few tips and skills, it also improve my communication skills.

Subsequently, in my tertiary education in search of new interest I stumble upon scuba diving. Although it is a part of UTM degree program that require us to take 4 credits of co-curricular activities, I found that scuba diving is rather interesting compare to others. As a new learner we required to take 10 weeks of theoretical classes before we continue with practical classes for one week. In theoretical classes we learn about underwater communication technique, the do’s and don’ts when scuba diving, the body coordination skills to scuba diving, the gears and gadgets of scuba and also how to use it while we underwater. According to my instructor, by scuba diving especially deep water scuba diving, one can see rare environment particularly all the living things deep under the sea. That include the weird sea plants, beautiful corals and also amazing sea creature that we usually sea in the National Geographic or Discovery Channels. All in all I hope I can manage the time required to continue scuba diving in order to obtain professional scuba diving license.

Chemical Engineering

In the field of engineering, a chemical engineer is the profession in which one works principally in the chemical industry to convert basic raw materials into a variety of products, and deals with the design and operation of plants and equipment to perform such work. In general, a chemical engineer is one who applies and uses principles of chemical engineering in any of various practical applications; primarily with respect to the study of the design, manufacture, and operation of plant and machinery in industrial chemical and related processes. However, modern chemical engineers are becoming more heavily involved in the development of new technologies such as fuel cells, hydrogen power and nanotechnology, as well as working in fields such as polymer engineering and biomedical engineering. The term appeared in print in 1839, though from the context it suggests a person with mechanical engineering knowledge working in the chemical industry. In 1880, George E. Davis wrote in a letter to Chemical News 'A Chemical Engineer is a person who possesses chemical and mechanical knowledge, and who applies that knowledge to the utilisation, on a manufacturing scale, of chemical action.' He proposed the name Society of Chemical Engineers, for what was in fact constituted as the Society of Chemical Industry. At the first General Meeting of the Society in 1882, some 15 of the 300 members described themselves as chemical engineers, but the Society's formation of a Chemical Engineering Group in 1918 attracted 400 members. In 1924 the Institution of Chemical Engineers adopted the following definition 'A chemical engineer is a professional man experienced in the design, construction and operation of plant and works in which matter undergoes a change of state and composition. (The first female member joined in 1942.) As can be seen from the later definition, the occupation is not limited to the chemical industry, but more generally the process industries, or other situations in which complex physical and/or chemical processes are to be managed. In 1951 the President of the Institution of Chemical Engineers said in his Presidential Address "I believe most of us would be willing to regard Edward Charles Howard (1774-1816) as the first chemical engineer of any eminence". Others have suggested Johann Rudolf Glauber (1604-1670) for his development of processes for the manufacture of the major industrial acids.

Faculty of Chemical and Natural Resources Engineering (FKKKSA) was established on 15th. March 1983 comprising of the Chemical Engineering and Petroleum Engineering departments. However, the Petroleum Engineering department was established much earlier in 1975 under the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering . In 1989, the faculty offered two new undergraduate courses, Polymer Engineering and Gas Engineering. A year later in 1980, Bioprocess Engineering course was introduced. Postgraduate program (Master and Doctor of Philosophy) were offered in 1998.

FKKKSA is led by a Dean and assisted by two Deputy Deans, seven Head of Departments, an IT Manager, a Deputy Registrar and an Assistant Registrar. At the moment, academic staff in this faculty are divided into five different department:

Bioprocess Engineering Department
Chemical Engineering Department
Gas Engineering Department
Petroleum Engineering Department
Polymer Engineering Department


Transmission and Distribution

On the other hand we also learn all the rules and regulation connecting to all the process in between the transmission and distribution line. It include ASME Code for pressure piping (B31.8), Malaysian Standard MS 1086:1987 for specification of buried polyethylene (PE) pipes for the supply of gaseous fuels, Malaysian Standard MS 830 for code of practice for the storage, handling and transportation of LPG, Malaysian Standard MS 930 for code of practice of the installation of fuel gas piping system and appliances. All of these act and regulation is important in order to choose the correct technique for pipe jointing, the appropriate material of pipe, all the licenses required to manage the pipe construction, the technique of transportation and installing natural gas appliance and last but not least the requirement for examination, inspection and testing. Gas supply legislation also includes Gas Supply Act 1993, Gas Supply regulation 1997, Petroleum Development Act 1974, Environmental Quality Act 1974, Petroleum Safety Measure Act 1984, Factories and Machinery Act 1967 and also Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994.

And lastly, I also learn how to perform network analysis in order to determine the necessary data for the natural gas piping system. Using the correct technique of calculation I can determine the data that include pressure of gas, length of pipe, flow rate of gas, and also the temperature of the gas. This entire variable is important in order to maintain the operation and safety of natural gas transmission and distribution piping system.

Others

As I continue my study especially in UTM, my friend and I like to travel around the Johor initially but lately we have expand our area of travel to islands in Malaysia and most recently to Singapore. Among the places that I have visited in Johor such as Air Terjun Kota Tinggi, Tanjung Piai(the most southern tip of mainland Asia) and also Gunung Ledang. These places remain us to be grateful to natural environment and also find ways or at least think about it on how to preserve this beautiful and also resourceful location. Besides that, we will also aware of other places cultures, theirs do’s and don’ts and especially recently when we arranged visit to Singapore. They really take serious consideration on cleanliness of their country environment. This information is invaluable and also we can adapt all the good behavior of other country citizen to our own country, Malaysia. For the future, my colleagues and I are planning for the ASEAN countries and then take off to around the world for the good cause.

And to sustain this quite costly interest, I have an experience on part time job. During last semester holiday I got a part time job as a sales coordinator at a spectacles shop, Danish Optical at Bandar Baru Bangi, Selangor. In addition of earning money, I also gain much invaluable experience as the company also about to kick start their business. Therefore, I learn more from how to create the form such as invoice form, delivery order form, and also some of the company proposal. Besides that, the branch manager also teaches the techniques to approach and react to different type of customer and how to persuade them to buy our product. I also learn much on the information of type of spectacles available to accommodate each customer face shape, type of lens such as photo chromic, single vision, multifocal, and also type of sunglasses. All in all my time at Danish Optical, teach me some basics of business management I am grateful for that.