Summer Internship Experience in Malaysia by Lucas L

I spent the summer of 2016 on the forefronts of development in the Malaysian construction industry, as I practiced on a futuristic tool that has revolutionized global construction. This is my story …

Dawn…

A tranquil ambiance blanketed the massive 34-acre site, sitting at the edge of Peninsular Malaysia’s administrative capital, Putrajaya. Early birds arriving on site enjoyed the cool morning climate, coupled with the scent of fresh earth and concrete around the bare land. Welcoming workers entering the site was a giant sign naming the “Parcel F” site while banners of Sunway Construction fluttered proudly along the perimeter fence.

30 minutes later…

The silence was replaced with blaring sirens, signaling the start of the workday. Trucks, rollers, and bulldozers roared to life; towering cranes recovered from their dormant states, controlled by their puppeteers. Site engineers took their places around the 10-office-block site, skillfully directing workers in mending steel and casting concrete. I, had the privilege of being assigned to the company’s pioneering Building Information Modeling (BIM) department. I headed to the satellite office at the edge of the site, ready to start my day as an intern BIM engineer.

Just for your information, BIM was a budding piece of tech in the historical construction industry. The system utilizes a series of computer programs to generate an accurate digital representation of a structure, allowing also the effective management and optimization  of various aspects throughout the construction supply line from design, coordination, and delivery.

The Malaysian construction industry had only begun to embrace this newfangled system. Design works are typically conducted using conventional methods (sketches, 2D CAD, human calculations etc). Sunway Construction, being an innovative player within the local construction industry, had recently begun to integrate this technology recently into their supply line.  

Armed with a computer and a plethora of plans given by design consultants, my job comes in in the early stages of the BIM supply chain, in which I produce/amend structural and

architectural models. ‘Accuracy’ and ‘buildability', are the two words that summarize the critical aspects of my job. An accurate representation of the actual structures was vital as the models will be used for analysis throughout the production line. In order to deliver a high level of  accuracy, I had to dig through a trove of design plans and detailed drawings. A ‘buildable’ structure was ensured through a critical analysis of the model, i.e. there was a need to be able to identify and report design failures or discrepancies, between the design detail of all trades as the models are being made (architecture, structural, mechanical and electrical) to ensure the structure could be delivered smoothly on site.

The true effectiveness of BIM becomes apparent down the supply chain. Utilizing the delivered models, experienced engineers will then conduct further checks such as clashes with services, plan construction phases and conduct precise estimates of material volumes required for construction. The final product will then be a model that integrates the complete set of information of the true structure being built. From then on, plans are shipped out to site engineers for casting.

The main advantage of my industrial experience was witnessing the deviation of the engineering field from the conventional tedious calculations and field labour to a more effective technocentric path. I have to admit that the emphasis placed on technological fluency at the University in structuring their course, runs parallel to industrial requirements, allowing me a quick transition into my placement role. Just writing this article brings back memories of  recent  MATLAB programming coursework, which prompted students to figure out the most effective algorithm to analyze parameters and determine the most effective method of training a baseball player (slightly unorthodox for civil engineers, but a fun topic nonetheless). The principles of optimization using technology highlighted by such coursework from the underlying principles of which BIM is established for.

At the end of the 12 weeks, my industrial training program came to an end and so did a chapter of my student life. But with this experience, I now possess an insight which will be helpful in my preparation for the future as the global construction industry treads down this technocentric path.

Civil and Structural Engineering Internship

My three month vacation this year was not at all like any other I have ever had before. Usually when I have vacation from school, it means you stay home and watch a lot of movies, catch up on all the shows that you've missed during the year. But this year, although I had planned for the same, I was greeted by something very different.

My name is Balgovind Ranjith, a second year student of The University of Sheffield studying Bachelors in Civil and Structural Engineering. Click on my name to view my profile! After witnessing a lot of my seniors going around town working for the university or businesses in the city, and hearing of what they've done over their vacations, I had decided that an internship was best for me to gain a sort of real world experience is what I need to learn and increase my employability. I had worked up an opportunity to work at a construction site through my dad's contacts (my dad who conveniently works in the same field as I study!).

Bouygues Construction, a French contracting firm, starting their first construction project in India and I was part of it for a month! There wasn't a lot that the firm could allow me to do as an intern, but I still got to do odd jobs here and there. The first week, I found a database that they were using that could be refined. I asked for it, and I got the work. Using excel skills that most students nowadays would have and a lot of 'Googling', I transformed that database into a program effortlessly does exactly what you want. Other than that, I got the opportunity to work shadow a site engineer, follow him down into raft excavations to witness how work is done there, what it means to be a site engineer, their responsibilities and difficulties. Towards the latter half of my month there, I was responsible in handling a steel bar fabrication yard! I was kept in charge of a team of fabricators to make sure the work being done was correct, to address any issues in the yard and most importantly, to make sure work was being at all!

After a month there, to get a feel of both halves of my structural engineering world, I worked in a consulting firm. Buro Happold, a consulting firm based in Bath with an office in Mumbai. The engineers after being incredibly surprised of all the content that I've already learnt in my first year in Sheffield, gave me a whole building to design. Although that may seem daunting to a first year engineering student, it honestly wasn't. The engineers there were incredibly friendly, and appreciated me going there to learn. They pointed me in the right directions as long as I was willing to google the rest. In the end of a month working there, I completed the design of 23 storied building, including earthquake design and wind loads (which are really complicated stuff! Just saying). Also, a little trivia I found out while working there, Buro Happold was the firm that designed the structures of the Winter Gardens in Sheffield and also played a role in renovating the infrastructure in Endcliffe and Ranmoor. I can't tell you why exactly, but I got very excited when I found that out.

Overall, the decision taken to work over my vacations was one of the best in my life. I've learned an incredibly vast amount over the short duration of just two months. Content that would put me at an advantage during my course and even later on. The other benefits of this being that in the short term, I didn't waste my vacation away and in the long term this would be a significant boost to my career. An internship is something I would recommend to any ambitious student, be it work you get through your connections or by applying formally, work in Sheffield or at home. It will be worth it.

Summer Placement Experience

By Jannah Shaffie

Last summer, I travelled back to my home country, Malaysia.  During my 3 months summer break, I worked for the Faber Company for one and a half months. The company generally maintained facilities, usually engineering-related, required by local governmental hospitals. There were few main engineering departments, like mechanical, electrical, civil and one that I’m working in, the biomedical department. I worked in one of the Faber regional offices in Ipoh (the capital city of the Perak district) which maintained facilities in the biggest hospital in the area called Raja Permaisuri Bainun Hospital.

               Generally, there were few things I did during my internship. One the main things was to learn about biomedical machines, with hand on experience. On my first day as an intern, I was given a timetable with the sub-departmental visit schedule. There were many sub departments, each having its own members and machine specialists. Amongst the units were, hemodialysis, imaging, laboratory, operational theater (OT), ICU, and ‘general’ (represent all areas other than mentioned former) which cover machines from various departments like daily clinic e.g. eye clinic, neonatal wards, casualty, maternity hall, and many more. I also learned about a testing and commissioning (TnC) process which was generally a simulation of purchased product conducted by the vendor and the contract-signing between the vendor and the hospital officers. On top of that, I was taught how to do the annual machine checkup called PPM which stood for Plan Preventive Measurement. PPM generally included the Electric Safety Test (EST), calibration (applicable on some machines), physical cleaning, and other tasks. In order to ensure longer lifespans of machines, PPM was considered vital, apart from ensuring the machines were safe to be used onto patients. Besides, I also learned how to do asset filing which was important to ensure governmental assets data was well documented and easily retrieved.

Light Slit

During the early phase of my internship, I did feel a bit nervous and anxious. Fortunately, the staff there were very nice, pleasant and generous in sharing their expertise and knowledge. My first sub departmental visit was to the hemodialysis (HD) center. For three days, I would visit the HD outpatient’s center at the hospital learning on HD machines. The HD specialist also taught me the whole support system to the HD center including the RO water system which supply the fundamental RO water to the HD machines all over the ward. Apart from that, he also showed me an alternative to HD as kidney failure therapy, the peritoneal dialysis machine and set up. After that, I visited the imaging department where I was introduced to the X-ray machines, fluoroscopy, CT scan, MRI and mammogram. The specialist also explained on the safety aspects of the machines operation and on the safety design of the room itself (e.g. presence of ferrous detector at the entrance of MRI room).

Soon after that, I followed another departmental visit which was the ‘general’. During this time I had the chance to see and learn about the light slit machine (a normal eye checking device in every eye clinic) and OCT which stands for Optical Coherence Tomography, at the eye clinic. Besides, I also had the chance to visit the casualty or emergency section, where all emergency cases were first diagnosed and treated upon arrival at the hospital before they were sent to wards and the ICU. I was later brought to the neonatal ward to check on the incubators on a floor full of babies, mature and premature. I was also introduced to the camera devices used during operations i.e. laparoscope and telescope. The laparoscope, a long wire-like cable, was attached to the monitor, light machine (to produce light) and camera processor. Each cable required proper use and care since the fibre glass cable was susceptible to break and the camera was very sensitive to scratches. Getting the experience of watching surgery in the maternity wing was definitely something I will not forget.

MRI Room

My next departmental visit was to the operational theatre (OT). The procedure of getting into the OT was rather strict with only permissible individuals i.e. doctors and working nurses, allowed in. That’s why getting the opportunity to visit OT was something that I really appreciated. The OT was generally the place where you’d get to see many complex biomedical machines apart from the ICU. In there, I was introduced to the ventilator, operational table, LED surgical light, electrosurgical unit (ESU) used for slicing open tissue, large microscope to assist miniature operations, laparoscope and many more! Usually, machines common to other departments were also readily available in the OT i.e. hemodialysis, ultrasound and mobile x ray machines. Later, I was escorted to the ICU department. In there, lots of biomedical machines were attached to only one patient proving how crucial the machines are to help them stay alive. There were a great number of ventilator machines in ICU due to its vitality for the patients in the departments.

The practical experience will definitely serve as a stepping stone for my career with all the skills and values I learned there. It was such a great feeling to work on the machines that I had learned about in class, plus getting to know many others that I had never encountered. Also, there were definitely many fond memories I made, especially with my fellow officemates. The days when we had breakfast together, stressed about to fix machines and laugh at each other’s jokes were some of the unforgettable memories I will cherish for life.

In a nutshell, doing an internship is definitely something that I will not regret and I highly encourage all the undergrads out there to grab the chance to do internship in any company you like, for the priceless experience that will help you grow gain a lot of new personnel skills. All the best!

Last day at the biomedical engineering department with officemates. 

What to do with my Mechanical Engineering Degree?

What to do with my Mechanical Engineering Degree?

Written by: Birju Galaiya

In this blog I will explore the career paths a Mechanical Engineering Student can follow once they have finished their degree. Apart from the degree the University offers you, they support you in every possible way they can to perhaps help you find a part-time job, build your skills or apply for a graduate scheme.

Have you ever thought about what you’re really going to do once you have gained a degree? Which would be your ideal company? What you want to specialize in and what is going to be the future trends in the engineering industry? Well, most of you wouldn’t have given deep thoughts but I don’t blame you- you have enough on your plate at the moment focusing on passing exams. I was the same.

But I think it’s really important to have a plan on what your aspirations are. Yes, you will study for 3

or maybe 4 years. Then you need to look for a job. This I believe is the hard part. Mechanical Engineering is the broadest kind of engineering where you could end up working in the aerospace industry, building services, energy sector or in the transport and automotive sector. It’s really up to you which industry you are interested in! Personally, I am keen in joining the energy sector and the rail industry. In the end whichever industry you want to join- they want the same thing from you: a good set of skills that supplement your degree. In order for you to do this you need to create a CV- a profile of your achievements and the type of skills you possess.

The Careers Service at the University of Sheffield supports students in their quests for jobs in a number of ways. They help you develop and perfect your CV by facilitating a one-on-one session with a careers advisor who guides you through the process. Furthermore, throughout the year, they have talks and workshops targeting a particular group of students. For example they would have a talk about how international students can get part-time jobs and what they need to do in terms of visa restrictions. The talks are very helpful, especially for international students. Other talks include ways on improving the way students fill in job application forms. Also, you can undertake workshops where you can, including others, improve on your communication, presentation and interpersonal skills.

When it comes to the tests and interviews most companies now have, it is important for you to be prepared for them thoroughly to increase your chances of success in a competitive job market. The Careers Service frequently carries out mock tests and interviews which you can use to prepare yourself. I have taken few of these tests and I can say that they build up your confidence and give you hints about what you need to put more effort in.

Once you graduate, you have to apply for a job. Without much industrial experience this becomes much harder and for that reason many students now try supplement their studies with real industry work experiences such as a summer internship and a year out in industry. The university makes it a bit easier for you as they advertise many internship opportunities available for students rather than you having to search online (hassle!). Every semester, the university hosts a careers fair for all types of courses (not only engineering) where employers come into campus and advertise their vacancies. These fairs are important as you not only make good contacts with the recruiters but you can ask them whether the job would suit you or any other job related queries. These fairs are really popular and the number of students that turn up for them is incredible.

Recently, the Careers Service introduced a mentoring scheme where current students are put in contact with Alumni in industry. I just finished this scheme and having a former student talk to you about how you can develop your career is really helpful especially because they have been in your shoes so they can advise you on what you can do.

I hope I have not scared you guys by talking about your future careers but it’s a worth a thought. The University has been very supportive in this regards and has made it much easier for students like me to explore their potential. If you want to know more about a career in Mechanical Engineering, please feel free to ask me. J