Brunei hosts the Institution's South East Asia Regional meeting

This month saw the South East Asia Region holding their annual Regional meeting in Brunei, in conjunction with the Region's Speak Out for Engineering Finals.

The Southeast Asia Regional (SEAR) meeting was held for the first time in Brunei on October 3rd-4th by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) under the Brunei Darussalam Protem volunteer group at the Institut Technologi Brunei (ITB).

The 3rd SEAR meeting was attended by the IMechE Southeast Asia Chairman Ir Pe Chong, the Malaysian Branch Chairman Ir Mathew Thomas, the Singapore Branch Chairman Professor Dr John Heng and Protem Chairman of Brunei’s IMechE Ir Chin Lee Tuck.

According to a statement by IMechE, the meeting also conducted a world-renowned competition titled “Speak out for Engineering (SOFE)”.

The competition was for the members of IMechE aimed at promoting the ability to communicate mechanical engineering subjects effectively, specifically verbal and visual communication in describing and explaining technical subjects.

The competition has been held annually by IMechE under the UK Volunteer Network since 1964 to challenge young engineers to prove that they can “communicate effectively”, which is an important skill even for today’s developing engineers, according to IMechE.

Though it has been adapted over the course of time, allowing for greater participation, the original theme of “communicating effectively” has been kept and is still the emphasis of the competition after its name changed in 2004 to ”Speak Out for Engineering” presentation competition.

This year the competition was won by Yohan Ian from Malaysia beating finalists from Singapore and Brunei. The Bruneian representatives - Nur Bazilah Rasyiqah Abu Bakar and Md Faris Talif - were the winner and runner-up respectively of the local SOFE competition organised by ITB.

The above photo shows teams from Brunei, Singapore and Malaysia posing for a picture with the IMechE Southeast Asia Chairman  IR. P E CHONG FIMechE (Centre), the Malaysian Branch Chairman Ir. Mathew Thomas FIMechE (3rd L), the Singapore Branch Chairman Professor Dr John Heng, MIMechE (3rd R) and Protem Chairman of Brunei's IMechE Ir Chin Lee Tuck IR. CHIN Lee Tuck FIMechE,  (2nd R).