UMP Students represent Asia-Pacific in the Falling Wall Labs Competition in Berlin Germany

Kuantan, 21 October – Winning the Asia-Pacific 3 Minute Thesis Competition is not an end for Ashwin Charles Benedict. Currently pursuing his doctorate studies at Faculty of Chemical & Natural Resources Engineering (FKKSA), he is now preparing himself to be competing in Falling Wall Labs 2017 in Berlin, Germany on 8 and 9 November 2017 with his research entitled Catalyzing Change: Light at the end of the Tunnel.

Ashwin were celebrated in an appreciation ceremony organized by Institute of Post Graduates Studies (IPS) held at Banquet Hall, UMP Gambang Campus. The event was attended by UMP Vice-Chancellor, Professor Dato’ Dr. Daing Nasir Ibrahim, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic & International), Prof. Dato’ Dr Rosli Mohd Yunus, Dean of IPS, Professor Dato’ Dr. Hasnah Haron and Registrar, Abd. Hamid Majid.

According to Dato’ Dr. Daing Nasir, Ashwin’s selection to represent Asia Pacific in Falling Wall Labs Competition brings the hope of not only 10,000 of campus community, but the hope of 30 million Malaysian and the whole of Asia Pacific.

“It is hope that with this winning, it will motivate other students to participate in such program and be able to share research with the community at large and their research findings can be presented in a simple, compact and easy-to-understand manner," he said.

Besides, this is the platform to expose and train the student to enhance their communication and presentation skill, either in writing or speaking. This requires not only talent, but it comes together with personality and maturity in intellectual thinking.

Meawhile, according to Ashwin, he needs to prepare and equipped himself for this competition. There are many challenges to be faced and new ideas to seek in order to succeed in this international competition.

He defeated 55 other contestants from Australia, New Zealand and Asia. What is more interesting, Ashwin also won the People's Choice Award, as he get the highest vote in the final competition held at Queensland University, recently.

The 3 Minute Thesis (3MT) is a research communication competition developed by University of Queensland to cultivate students’ academic, presentation, and research communication skills. Presenting in a 3MT competition increases their capacity to effectively explain their research in three minutes, in a language appropriate to a non-specialist audience.

UMP Vice-Chancellor also presented token of appreciation to the experienced trainer Dr. Chiam Kee Swan (Faculty of Chemical & Natural Resources Engineering) and Normala Samsudin (Centre for Modern Language & Human Sciences), who have helped a lot to ensure the winning of this competition.

Besides Ashwin, winner for Falling Walls Lab Malaysia Competition 2017, Dr. Jaysuman Pusppanathan from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, will also compete in this competition with his research entitled ‘Breaking the Wall of Unseen Flow Imaging’.