UTM’s Quantity Surveying and Construction students attended the annual conference which is jointly organized by The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS,UK) and the Institution of Surveyors Malaysia (ISM), hosted by Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Penang on 18th -19th March 2011.
RICS is the leading organisation of its kind in the world for surveying professionals in property, land, construction and related environmental fields. The RICS accredits over 500 surveying programs all over the world. ISM is a national professional body incorporating four surveying disciplines, namely: Quantity Surveying, Building Surveying, Geomatic & Land Surveying and Property & Valuation Surveying.
With the theme “Surveyors of the Future: The Challanges of Change”, the conference aimed at accelerating networking amongst surveying students in the Asia region and provide an important platform for students to interact and exchange research findings and practical experience. The conference has grown over the years and at this year’s gathering, over 400 students participated. The universities involved include USM, UTM, UM, UiTM, UTAR (KL Campus), UTR (Kampar Campus), Taylor’s University College, Hong Kong Polytechnic University (Hong Kong), Chongqing University (China), Huazhong University of Science and Technology (China), Assumption University of Thailand (Thailand) and Thammasat University (Thailand). There were 18 papers presented by the undergraduate students in 5 parallel sessions. In addition, there were 5 papers presented by industry representatives and academicians during the plenary session. They were PP Sr Dato’ Mani Usilappan (RICS), Professor Mike Riley (Liverpool John Moores University, UK), Professor Roger Flanagan (University of Reading, UK), Sr Ahmad Suhaimi Abdul Majid (RICS) and Sr Dr. Adi Irfan Che Ani (ISM).
UTM was represented by 4 final year students of the Quantity Surveying program: Chong Yaw Fatt, Nur Farah Farhana Rasid, Tan Choon Boon and Joanna Tay Yuan Ju who presented their undergraduate projects at the conference. UTM won 3 out of 5 “Best Presenter Awards” and Joanna Tay Yuan Ju also won the “Special Mention Paper Award” with her paper entitled “Anticipating Issues Concerning Disputes in Statuotary Adjudication under Construction Industry Payment and Adjudication Act (CIPAA) in Malaysia”. The winners each received a trophy and certificate from the organizers. Besides that, UTM also won the “Best Performance Award” during the Pre-Conference Dinner through their ‘Kipas’ dance performance. It was a great achievement for UTM in this annual conference.
