UTP pro-chancellors, PETRONAS president and group chief executive officer Datuk Tengku Muhammad Taufik (sitting, centre) and PETRONAS board member Tan Sri Zaharah Ibrahim (third from left) as well as UTP management at the 20th convocation ceremony.
GRADUATING with first class honours in the engineering field helped Toh Jian Heng and Tan Tee Yin to secure their dream jobs.
But beyond paper qualifications, Toh, who graduated with a degree in chemical engineering, and Tan, in electrical and electronics engineering, feel strongly that their time at Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP) equipped them with critical life skills that enhanced their personal, intellectual and creative growth.
Being active participants in extracurricular activities, both agree that the experiences at UTP provided them with an excellent platform to develop their leadership abilities.
As UTP Performing Arts Group (UPAG) president, Toh not only had to raise the already well-established standard even higher, but also had the tough job of inspiring, supporting and guiding his team to success.
Representing the country through UPAG at the Cheonan World Dance Festival 2018 South Korea was a steep learning curve for him.
“From learning choreography, preparing the paperwork for sponsorship to press conferences, there were many firsts for us,” Toh shared.
Toh Jian Heng with his mother, Tay Siew Kiow and father, Toh Kong Sing at UTP’s 20th convocation ceremony.
For their efforts, the team received the silver award for International Street Dance Parade and bronze award in the International Folk Dance Competition.
More importantly for Toh, “it instilled a sense of responsibility in taking accountability for my members, with unquestionable integrity and total transparency," he said.
As a state basketball player, Tan was delighted that UTP was very supportive of sports activities. He led the team to the quarterfinals at the Malaysian Private Institutes of Higher Learning (MASISWA) 2018 competition – an unprecedented achievement in UTP’s history.
“UTP was considered the underdog, but we fought hard in every single game with all our heart. I consider this my biggest achievement because it ignited the spark for UTP juniors to strive for greatness,” Tan shared.
Tan Tee Yin with his father, Tan Yew Tiang and mother, Chua Siew Hong at UTP’s 20th convocation ceremony.
Both concurred that while a stellar CGPA might get graduates through the door of a corporate giant, it’s not enough to sustain them in the long run without the ability to communicate effectively.
In this respect, Tan feels indebted to UTP for its emphasis on presentation skills.
“Professional Presentation Skills, a compulsory course for UTP students, differentiates us from others and develops critical thinking skills,” he said.
This held him in good stead during a once-in-a-lifetime interview with Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, former chancellor of UTP.
"Even though I was talking to a veteran, I was able to design my interview questions by recording the ideas, thoughts and challenges that Tun Dr Mahathir encountered when he was prime minister. I was prepared for some expected answers, but Tun gave some unexpected ones, which was great!”
For Toh, presentation skills enabled him to engage effectively in high-level debates while undergoing his student industrial internship programme in Kumamoto University, Japan.
“There were various international conferences and symposiums where I was required to present my research findings before global experts, allowing me to position myself to develop a reputation as an expert.”
Neither of them will sugar-coat the fact that studying at UTP is no walk in the park, but they learned more about themselves by overcoming challenges and setbacks.
Toh, who recently won the IEM Gold Medal Award from Institute of Engineers Malaysia, shared: “UTP has helped me learn to practise self-discipline and manage my time optimally. Every night before I sleep, I would make sure to create a structured to-do list so I could focus on the most critical tasks first.
"For managing project deadlines, I split large projects into smaller, more manageable tasks.”
The experience in strategic planning, problem-solving and productivity was something he now brings to his work as an integrated production optimisation executive at Petronas Refinery and Petrochemical Corporation.
For Tan, his final year project – automatic recognition of white blood cells with deep learning technologies – enabled him to discover his passion in artificial intelligence (AI).
Not only has he leveraged this foundational knowledge into his job as an Edge AI engineer at Intel, Tan is actively sharing his learnings on AI in LinkedIn.
Besides learning new skills and expanding their knowledge, their time at UTP has helped them grow into all-rounders with broad-minded, balanced and holistic views.
“UTP is like a mini society where you will meet people that come from different cultures and ideologies from all around the world,” Tan noted.
“The exposure helps us to build a well-rounded personality.”
Participating in UTP’s CSR programmes, Toh learned ways of life that expanded his social flexibility and worldview.
“As a volunteer advocate, I learned that I now have a voice to raise awareness, educate people to do good in the world and help make a difference.”
UTP congratulates Toh and Tan on winning the chancellor bronze award and the vice chancellor gold award achievements in their respective degree courses with honours, in conjunction with UTP’s 20th convocation ceremony from Dec 18 to 22.
The varsity's management, fellow lecturers and staff are delighted that UTP has contributed to their personal development and can’t wait to see them take the world by storm!
