| Danial Norjidi |
THE 6th Brunei International Conference on Engineering and Technology (BICET 2016) and the 9th Asean Civil Engineering Conference (9th ACEC) were officially opened yesterday at Universiti Teknologi Brunei (UTB).
Attending the opening ceremony as the guest of honour and to launch BICET 2016 and ACEC was Dato Paduka Awang Haji Suhaimi bin Haji Gafar, the Acting Minister of Development.
BICET 2016 will be held for three days from November 14-16 with the theme ‘Recent Advances in Engineering Sciences and Technology’, while the 9th ACEC will be held in parallel with BICET 2016 from November 14-15.
BICET is a biennial event for academicians, researchers and engineers from industry, research laboratories and university to exchange information and engage each other.
Following the success of the last event, BICET 2016 will bring together state-of-the-art developments on all major topics of interest in engineering sciences and technology.
UTB is the organiser of the conference with The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and Oxford Business Group as technical co-sponsor and research partner respectively. Petrokon Utama Sdn Bhd and PTD Technology are the sponsors.
Meanwhile, 9th ACEC is co-organised by UTB and the AUN/SEED-Net, supported by the Japan Intentional Cooperation Agency (JICA). AUN/SEED-Net is a sub-network of the Asean University Network (AUN) with 26 member institutions from 10 Asean member countries selected from leading institutions in engineering in respective countries with support from 15 leading Japanese supporting universities. UTB is a member of AUN/SEED-Net.
At the opening ceremony, the Vice-Chancellor of UTB, Professor Dr Hajah Zohrah binti Haji Sulaiman delivered welcoming remarks, in which she said, “The conferences will provide a platform for mutually beneficial collaboration and knowledge sharing among participants, both locally and internationally, who are working on wider domains of engineering and technology. I am therefore proud for UTB to host both conferences.”
Acting Minister of Development Dato Paduka Awang Haji Suhaimi bin Haji Gafar launching BICET 2016 as UTB Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr Hajah Zohrah binti Haji Sulaiman looks on. – AZROL AZMI
Adding on, she said, “I hope BICET 2016 and 9th ACEC will bring new exciting experience, provide a good opportunity to learn from each other, a venue for new networking and an inspiration to continue with current and new research.”
The Acting Minister of Development also delivered a speech before officiating the opening of the two conferences.
Two presentations then followed, beginning with a keynote address for the 9th ACEC entitled ‘Long-term Management of Bridges – Fatigue Analysis of RC Bridge Deck Slabs’ delivered by Professor Takashi Matsumoto, Professor in Engineering and Policy for Sustainable Development at Hokkaido University, Japan.
Next was BICET keynote speaker Professor Chen Zhong, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Nanyang Technological University Singapore. His presentation was entitled, ‘Towards mechanically icephobic coatings: from the science to engineering.’
Another keynote presentation will be delivered today by Professor Won Yong-hyub, Professor in Electrical Engineering at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.
This year’s BICET 2016 will see 160 papers presented across five symposia and 35 sessions: Symposium A – bioresources, agricultural and mechanical systems; Symposium B – chemicals & materials, energy and environment; Symposium C – education & training and human safety in engineering; Symposium D – information &communications, computational and electrical engineering; and Symposium E – future built environment.
This year, the Civil Engineering component of BICET 2016, Symposium E, will also be held in conjunction with the 9th ACEC.
Paper presenters are from Australia, Brunei Darussalam, China, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Oman, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and the United Kingdom.
UTB is the only university in Brunei that offers comprehensive training in civil, mechanical, petroleum, chemical, mechatronic, electrical and electronic engineering.
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