Campus Life as a PhD Student in UKM

By: Mr Salvinder

Phd Student in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering

Hye ya!!! To all the great guys and gals reading this article, please do be advised to hold on to your seats as I’m gonna take you all on a ride about my campus life in UKM in general and in KIZ in specific.  I was actually given the task by Ain (I actually call her BOSS) to write about my campus life in UKM for nearly 3 years. There is actually a reason for that!!! Well, as usual, when I received something out of the usual, first thing I did was……. Yes, yes, keep guessing….. You’re getting closer….. That’s right… I freak out for a moment and also had big GULP on what should I write or what I should not write.  That’s right, I was caught in two minds: YES I should just agree to write something and get her of my back, or just say NOOO but end up being bugged for the rest of my final year here…we I guess you all knew what I picked as your all reading this…cheer up guys, I not gonna take you all on a long winding road down memory lane with boring stories but would like to just enlighten your day by just sharing a few great moments in KIZ and the department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering UKM.

Hmmmm….let’s see where should I begin…well, for starters, I joined the KIZ family in Feb 2012 (I guess our beloved college master can vouch for thatJ)… Being new in UKM and not knowing what to expect as in accommodations I was first registered in Kolej Pendeta Zaa’ba for a couple of months… along the way, besides doing my research at the Engineering Faculty, I did a small study on the various accommodations in UKM…naturally the easiest was to catch hold of any undergraduate student and post a few questions to them about the residential college that they lived in…being a PhD. candidate, it’s easy to intimidate the younger students… but please, don’t try this as I’m not responsible for you trying it!! Well out of this, most of them mentioned IZISH (Kolej Antarabangsa Ibu Zain)  as being the most coolest place to stay…by having a curious mind, I had to check it out first hand… seriously, the moment I took that right turn up the hill, I was kind of mesmerized with the warmth feeling of the surrounding and thought to myself, what the heck, I shall try get a room here… as usual, the desk officers in their stern voices (TAKDE BILIK KOSONG)…just kidding…We all do love you En. Danny, Kak Azmah and Kak Timah…finally after 2 months, I manage to get a room after being turned down 2 times…what else, masuk la cepat-cepat before they say no rooms…. And that’s where I started by campus life in IZISH or now known as KIZ…

Many interesting things a few of us manage to do during our IZISH/KIZ life…the best and still unforgettable incident was actually when Heng (Ngan Eng Heng) asked me whether I wanted do monkey feeding…YES, that’s right, monkey feeding…I totally agreed and jumped on to the wagon…we went up to the balcony of 18A and observed some monkeys fooling around a the jungle area…Heng, had his stock or old and hard bun (I don’t know where he got it from and he haven’t told me about that until today) and started throwing at the monkeys…and obviously monkeys being monkeys, the grabbed every single piece of the bun…but soon, things took a turn when they decided to come up to the first floor and grab the entire box of buns by themselves…what else, cabut la as fast as possible and only return to the crime scene during the night to investigate the damage by the monkey…Thank God, nothing was scattered if not we would have a hard time explaining to the cleaner…That was first when our friendship grew…. 

During one evening, Heng approached me and Norazwa with a crazy idea to start of a bicycle rental service…the first thing that ran through my mind was “ lu gila ka…siapa mau main basikal naik bukit kat UKM”…well we kept quiet as we listen to his detailed (and I mean detail) explanation… it took us practically 3 days to draw up the plans and modulus operandi for the bicycle rental service…and finally we launch I-Bicycle KIZ in April 2012 with 3 bicycles..i guess you all might be wondering why 3… well the secret was, 1 bicycle for each of us and if the plan fails we can use it as mode of transport in UKM… with the strong backing from the College Master and the Deputy College Master after long hours of discussion after discussion after discussion we got 13 extra 

bicycles from the college that was donated from YAWA … then as time went by, we bought all the remaining bicycles from KTHO and repaired it for rental service… our bicycle rental service began from under the stairs leading to the surau for nearly 1 year…and today, WE stand tall by saying we have 23 bicycles to cater for the daily needs for students and staff at affordable prices at Pusanika…moral of the story, you too can achieve what you want if you put your heart and soul into it….

Besides college life, I had to perform my duties as PhD. candidate by doing research in the field of Mechanical and Material Engineering…I’m not going to bore you with what I do, but would like to provide you with a perspective of a research student in UKM…its seriously fun at times, and at time it sucks, especially when you don’t get things the way you want it to be…or better still after visiting your supervisor J …

I’ve travelled a fair share during my first 2 years in UKM, been to Universitat Stuttgart , University of Adelaide for conferences…by the icing on the cherry was being nominated for “Best Post Graduate paper 2012” at the Australasian Congress of Applied Mechanics 7… sorry guys,  I didn’t win, but the pride of having your name and your universities name mentioned during the conference dinner gala was a whole new experience… besides that, I one of to do list was to go to the Porsche museum and I actually did it in 2012 during my stay in Stuttgart…sorry guys could not bring one back and lack of funds … and yes I did post with the kangaroo’s and wallabies…

as time grew, I became stronger mentally and see the perspective of other and also mine…as we mingle around with people of great minds, we tend to observe the issue related to studies in a different perspective…and being a research student, I’m always motived by the 4W (what, where, who, when) and 1H (how)..I would recommend that dose to anyone in order to broaden your mind…as for next year; I would be leading a team of student’s on a special invitation to Tokyo University of Science for research collaboration… and by sept 2015 I would bid farewell to KIZ and 

JKMB UKM as I would be completing my studies and would be exploring new frontiers ahead…

Small piece of advice…IMPOSSIBLE IS NOTHING and NO ONE CAN SAY YOU ARE NOT AS GOOD AS YOU THINK….cheers….