GOP ACADEMIC VISIT: BEIJING UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

Global Outreach Programme

PM Dr. Nor Aziah Buang and students

 

 

On 9 March 2010, we visited Beijing University of Technology (BJUT).  The purpose of the visit was to see the technologies available in the university for possible future collaborations. BJUT is the key university under the administration of the Beijing municipal government, which has established a multi-disciplinary academic structure and been ranked as one of the 100 key universities for the 21st century.  The university currently has 1486 full-time teaching staff, including 296 Professors (among which 197 are supervisors for PhD candidates), 770 Associate Professor or Senior Engineers, 8 academicians，3‘Chang Jiang Scholar Program’ scholar, 5 National Outstanding Contribution specialists,36 specialists enjoying Government Special Allowance and about 21 international teachers. Currently there are 12435 undergraduate students and 4352 postgraduate students.

We visited Faculty of Material Sciences and Engineering and their staffs were very friendly and ready to answer any questions from us. The labs visited were X-ray Diffratogram  Lab, Spark Plasma Sintering Lab (SPS), Nano Rare Earth  Material preparation Lab (also having SPS system), and Scanning Microscopic Emission (SEM) Lab. At the X-Ray Diffratogram Lab, the instrument XRD that been used is MAXima-X series. The XRD instrument gives information about the crystallographic structure, chemical composition, and physical properties of materials.

The second lab is Spark Plasma Sintering Lab (SPS), which also called as field assisted sintering technique (FAST) or pulsed electric current sintering (PECS). This instrument applied a sintering technique. This laboratory usually involved with carbon material.

 

 

After that, we move to visit Nano Rare Earth Material preparation Lab (also having SPS system). In this lab, the process involved is more complicated compared to other labs.

The last lab that we visit is Scanning Microscopic Emission (SEM) Lab. This instrument gives information about the sample's surface topography, composition, and other properties such as electrical conductivity. Each lab is under the supervision of 1 lecturer and assisted by more than one staff to handle the instrument. Even the lecturers also run their sample by themselves. The situation is different in Malaysia, the instrument job handling is only done by lab technician. In BJUT, the handlings of some instrument are also allowed for post graduate student. This permission gives opportunities to their student to enhance their knowledge. These shows that, this university are preparing their student to be more independent on their own research starting from the preparation of their sample until handling the instrument to get their result. Thus, UTM should apply their style of work to prepare the students to fulfill the UTM motto towards Research University.