JOHOR BARU: The Institution of Engineers Malaysia, Southern Branch (IEMSB) will host the 21st Asean Federation of Engineering Organisation (AFEO) mid-term governing board meeting from Aug 25 to 27.
This is the first time IEMSB will host this event in Johor. A welcome dinner will be hosted by the Johor Tourism and Yayasan Warisan Johor on Aug 25 for over 100 Engineers from Asean and 49 engineers across Malaysia, which will see the attendance of women engineers and young engineers.
The three-day meeting covers engineering guidelines and strategies in common areas and engineering cooperation in developing guidelines such as emergency preparedness, engineering mobility, energy, transportation, education, sustainable cities, safety guidelines on boilers, manufacturing and buildings.
Event organising chairman Thayala R. Selvaduray said the event not only involves brainstorming and meetings, but includes some sightseeing for the spouses of participants hosted by Johor Tourism.
IEMSB, established in 1973, will celebrate its annual dinner with the Asean Engineers at Trove Hotel on Aug 27.
Thayala said IEMSB has over 4,700 members in Johor and 50,000 members in the country.
He said IEMSB has continuous development programmes to make engineers better engineers, collaboration with government agencies, develop engineering guidelines and carry out awareness programmes on route to becoming professional engineers.
He added that IEMSB was working with the state government to set up an Engineering and Incubation Centre (IEM EpIC) in the Iskandar Malaysia region. IEMSB will work closely with the state government towards becoming a developed state by 2030, he added.
Thayala said IEMSB also plans to collaborate with higher learning institutions, industrial players and government agencies.
Meanwhile, IEM EpIC is also proposing to become a training centre to transform engineers, technologists and technicians to become more skilful.
"The Industry Revolution 4.0 (IR 4.0), Data Engineering and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are new playing fields for engineers, technologists and technicians. Engineers have to rise to the challenge," said Thayala, who is also IEM Southern Branch chairman.
In today's competitive world, he said, engineers can be the key players in ensuring Johor becomes a major economic hub in the region.
"They are not only tasked to deliver sound engineering but also utilise forefront technology in building a better and more sustainable development," he said.
He said engineers, including women engineers, should be given more management roles as their mind was trained to look from the start to accomplishment of a task.
Meanwhile, IEM president Professor Norlida Buniyamin and Thayala met with Johor Menteri Besar Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi to realise the state government's vision to establish an Engineering and Incubation Centre (IEM EpIC) that would serve for all technical skills upgrading and encourage innovation and engineering start-ups.
"There will be collaborations with government agencies, stakeholders and dialogues with the industries and educational institutions to meet the technical skills required for the future needs with the aim of better technical competencies and professionalism," he said.
He added that there was a great need to educate the youth on the importance of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Experienced engineers understand the importance of this and can play a key role in ensuring the realisation of this vision.