Three Curtin students win award in design competition
MIRI: Three Curtin University Malaysia fi nal year electrical and electronic engineering students won the Keysight Track category of the 2017 Innovate Malaysia Design Competition ( IMDC) in Cyberjaya recently.
A press release said Kong Sheng How, Desmond Ting Zhong Xuan andBongChuJunreceivedRM5,000 for their project ‘Development of XLPE Cable Diagnosis Platform for Offline Partial Discharge Detection’.
The team invented a handy and affordable product to detect early symptoms of cable breakdown, instrument failure, or eventual power outage known as partial discharge ( PD), which is often a major cause of power outages.
Conventional methods of detection usually involve very costly and bulky devices.
Electrical and computer engineering lecturer Dr Law Kah Haw supervised the project, which involved devising a high-voltage direct- current ( HVDC) source converted from a 9-volt battery via a blocking oscillator to detect online and offline PD activity.
The method can apparently be further enhanced to determine PD fault locations, which would be a boon to cable manufacturers and power transmission and
Curtin Malaysia has a very good track record in this competition and this outstanding win, as well as that of another team of ours in the Fusionex Track, will definitely encourage other students to compete in future competitions.
distribution companies, as well as end-users of electric power.
“Curtin Malaysia has a very good track record in this competition and this outstanding win, as well as that of another team of ours in the Fusionex Track, will encourage other students to compete in future competitions,” said Law.
Team leader Kong said the competition was an unforgettable experience and was good exposure to the latest industrial technologies through the training and instruments provided by Keysight.
He encouraged more electrical and electronic engineering students to take part in upcoming competitions.
First-timer Bong said the prestigious competition also gave them exposure to the companies involved and she had the opportunity to be interviewed for industrial training with Innovate Malaysia.
Ting said the competition helped enhance his technical, presentation and communication skills, as well as allowed him to meet other aspiring innovators.
Kong is Curtin Malaysia’s Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers ( IEEE) Student branch president, while Bong and Ting are vicepresidents.
IMDC is the largest and most prestigious undergraduate engineering design competition in Malaysia, open to all finalyear undergraduate engineering, computer science and science/ mathematics students.
Technology companies including Fusionex, Intel, Keysight, MathWorks, Microsoft, Motorola Solutions, National Instruments, SilTerra and ViTrox, co- organised the competition with the support of the Ministry of Higher Education, TalentCorp Malaysia, Dream Catcher and MDeC.
Dr Law Kah Haw, electrical and computer engineering lecturer