The Future of One with Scholarship for the Civil Engineering Discipline

Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline whereby qualified individuals deal with the design, construction, and maintenance of the man-made and naturally built environment, ranging from roads, bridges, airports and dams to even the sewerage system. Generally, civil engineers can be distinguished into two key categories known as consulting engineers and contracting engineers. Consultants are mainly responsible for the designing aspect of the projects and work predominantly in an office. Contractors then take these designs and implement them at the construction site. Civil engineering takes place in the public sector from the local municipal council through to national government agencies, and in the private sector from individual homeowners through to multinational companies. In simple words, it is safe to say that every single one of us have benefitted from the civil engineering field in our daily life.

Civil engineering plays a wide range of roles in the development of our country. Infrastructural development can be said to be an integral part of a growing country like ours whereby it will spur and expedite the economic growth especially in the rural areas. Indirectly, job opportunities for those in the interiors will sky-rocket which will then act as a catalyst in reducing the income inequality and also attenuate poverty. The inclusive growth will also inhibit urbanization and obviate the mass movement of people to the cities.This will in return bring about a significant increase in foreign investments without which our economy will not grow nor develop. Apart from that, civil engineers also do have an imperative part in preserving the environment. It is no longer a doubt that extensive development has lead us to global warming and all sorts of pollution. I believe civil engineers are trained to be in the front seat in the endeavour to protect the God’s greatest gift to mankind by coming up with designs that maximize the social value and minimize environmental impacts.

I see this field of study as a way of giving back to society and leaving a legacy in this fast-paced world as my future works will hopefully serve others for an extended time. My fascination with roads, buildings, and bridges that led me to delve into Civil Engineering also made me ponder about the innovation that could be done to present day engineering. It was then when I came across a problem that really caught my attention: the enormous global financial outlays for constructing and maintaining roadways. I feel bitumen, currently widely used as a binder in road construction, has a number of issues, the worst being it is environmentally hazardous. I took this as a main idea into a college innovation project and started scouring resources to craft a solution. I learnt that microalgae residues can be used as an alternative to binders by converting them to bioasphalt through the process called subcritical hydrothermal liquefaction, and I also had a notion of reinforcing it with plastic waste. The only setback faced was the lack of clarity on the chemical composition of this material, so I redoubled my effort to refine this concept, as it would solve two of our greatest problems at one go. However, no matter how much I dug into information, all these ideas seemed very foreign to me as I lacked access to proper facilities - namely, a fully equipped research laboratory - needed to study them. Therefore, I believe pursuing my studies in the United Kingdom will definitely provide a platform for me to work on these ideas and hopefully see them through.

I am a worthy recipient for this scholarship because I am someone who constantly strives to develop and better myself. I also believe I am an all-rounder as I have been performing well in both academic and extra-curricular activities throughout my schooling and college days. Being a state level badminton player, I was able to juggle my time effectually between studies and training. This not only shows that I am a self- motivated individual who works efficiently and effectively even when under pressure but also good in managing my time which helps me in completing a task expeditiously. I am also accountable and dedicated to whatever I set my mind to. I believe my perseverance and innate nature of looking at something as half full and not half empty sets me apart from the application pool. I also believe I am someone who completely understands the importance of transparency in a growth of a company and I want to uphold that ethos. Furthermore, being the Head of Disciplinary Executive in the Board of Prefects, I am someone who has a flair for organization and believes teamwork is vital to leverage each other’s strengths regardless of their race and religion which I think will come in handy in promoting a work culture of the highest standard of professionalism, integrity and teamwork that values synonymously with the principles of Khazanah Nasional Berhad. I believe these are the attributes the Khazanah Nasional Berhad are looking for in a scholar.

On top of that, I believe this scholarship will be the ideal launch pad for me to aid my dreams of becoming a renowned person in the engineering field. I also see this scholarship as the perfect opportunity to ease my parents’ financial burden who had spent most of their savings to fund my brother’s education. Furthermore, I believe studying abroad will give me a wonderful platform to gain more knowledge by taking up international internships and widen my networking before returning to serve the Khazanah Nasional Berhad. I am conversant of the large number of applicants that you will receive for this scholarship but I believe my determination, strong work ethics and innate interest in engineering will comply the needs of your organization to ensure that Malaysia continues to improve its competitiveness on the global stage.