Evolving with the future
A LOT of trust is placed on infrastructure to keep humans safe, especially in the event of disasters such as earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis and heavy storms. In areas prone to natural disasters, countries and cultures have worked to improve their infrastructure to both protect lives and reduce damage costs.
An article titled Creating earthquakeresistant buildings published in University of Tokyo’s official magazine Tansei describes how Japan uses seismic engineering to ensure its buildings stay upright even during devastating earthquakes, protecting its occupants while reducing the modern costs of rebuilding.
The engineering field has advanced vastly over the centuries. However, preventable disasters still occur. On the local radar are events such as the well-known Highland Towers disaster of old as well as the Bukit Kukus landslide that happened just last year.
While the building of a certain structure requires the teamwork of many professionals, including architects, consultant specialists and contractors, a big chunk of responsibility is placed on the engineer to ensure the safety of their structures. They are the ones in charge of making sure everything structural, electrical and mechanical is working soundly before a structure is considered safe for occupants.
As such, focus has to be placed on ensuring the current crop of engineering graduates are not only knowledgeable, but know how to use the tools available to them.
Getting to the root
According to Dr Tang Fu Ee, associate dean of learning and teaching at the Faculty of Engineering and Science at Curtin Malaysia, there are various issues that occur together that cause construction failures.
“In regard to old buildings, common issues include poor construction quality, which was probably because of less stringent quality control, and lack of site supervision. As older buildings age, their integrity can be compromised by natural means such as soil subsidence.
“Other common issues that continue to affect buildings during construction can generally be attributed to a lack of quality control, improper sequence of works and, perhaps, lack of attention to health and safety issues,” he adds.
He shares that industrial training has become more structured because of the regulations of the Washington Accord, an international accreditation agreement for professional academic degrees, of which Malaysia is a signatory.
“Industrial training is now mandatory in civil engineering curricula. Students are required to report what they do during training, and feedback from their employers is sought in order for students to pass industry training,” says Dr Tang.
“In addition, input from the industry is incorporated into civil engineering curricula, including the use of standards and design codes. This indicates the close link between civil engineering programmes and the corresponding industry.”
Legislation governing the construction industry has also increased.
“It is mandatory for graduate engineers to register with engineering statutory bodies (Board of Engineers Malaysia, for graduates of our country), under the Registration of Engineers Act, and this is enforced stringently. Another example is how, by law, construction supervision is to be carried out by civil engineers with a recognised degree,” says Dr Tang.
Faster, higher, stronger, greener
Dr Tang thinks that these are exciting times for engineering in Malaysia.
“There are new advancements with regards to software. There are numerous programs available for specific purposes, safeguarding the integrity and safety of civil engineering projects. There are also advances in building and construction project management software such as Industrialised Building System and Building Information Modelling. Construction techniques have also advanced with the usage of more sophisticated machinery. In general, the aim is to build faster, higher and stronger,” he says.
Furthermore, with the influx of global environmental issues, the field of engineering has turned to more sustainable options.
An article titled How is the engineering industry changing as the digital age surges? published on E&T stated that engineering is no longer seen as a purely industrial or manufacturing world, but is focused on using adaptive technologies to combat our impact on the environment.