Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS

[holmes]

A Personal View of PETRONAS Scholarship for Studies at UTP from an ex-scholar

From what I know, PETRONAS offers the best sponsorship scheme for studies at local IPTA and IPTS. We have more than enough money for food, books etc... and if you are thrifty, you can save a lot. There is a 10 year bond to PETRONAS if you enter UTP under the scholarship after SPM (you will study for 5 years to get the BEng degree). Depending on your desired career path and area of technical interest, this may be a good thing.

The medium of instruction here is fully English. There is also a sizeable foreign student community here (i.e. you would meet friends from Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Phillipines, Turkmenistan, Sudan, South Africa, Equator Guinea, Iran and Egypt). About 2 years back, the construction of our new building was completed. Its really a marvellous piece of architecture and we are using the new building for almost all of our labs and lectures.

Tronoh is quite out of the way. It is about 40-50km away from Ipoh (about 40mins drive). That can be good because there are no unnecessary distractions. From my personal opinion, I think UTP has one of the best facilities among all the universities in M'sia presently (I speak only for Electrical Engineering as I'm not in a position to comment about the rest). A key strength of our program is the 8-month internship training which you will undertake in your 4th year of study here. It really helps you mature and gives you a great idea about working life.

As for food, if you possess your own transport, Tronoh town offers a good choice of cheap Chinese food. Its mostly economy rice. You may get a tasty meal with 3 dishes for RM2.30. Tronoh is a 5 minutes drive away from UTP. No need to worry about housing, all students stay on campus.

Let me know if you need more info. Check out UTP's URL at

www.utp.edu.my

for some nice pictures and an overview of the engineering programs.

Best regards,
Tatt Wei

[el_empty]

thanks tatt wei

say, could you post some pics of upetronas up? thanks

[holmes]

Hi everybody,

Here are some pictures of UTP. Enjoy!

This is a night view of the Chancellor's complex where the graduation hall, library and administration is located
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This is an inside view of the Graduation Hall


The following 2 pics are views of the New Academic Blocks from different angles. We have 14 new blocks




Here are some images of the EE Labs

This one shows the helipad trainer in the control sys lab


This is a robotic arm we have in the Robotics and Automation Lab


Here's a pic of the Power Systems Lab. The yellow 'box' is a trainer that simulates all components in a power tx sys i.e. tx line, generator, loads


This last one is a pic of the analog electronics lab. You can see the oscilloscopes, function generators and power supply stacked neatly.


Most of the pics I have are for the big stuff. We do have small electronic stuff as well like development kits for DSPs, FPGAs and microprocessors.

One more bit that I should add about the lecturing staff here. We have a community of expatriate lecturers from India, Pakistan, South Africa, Vietnam, Sudan etc.. The profs from India mostly come from the reknowned Indian Institute of Technology (IITs). Of course, the majority of the teaching staff are locals but almost everyone has had some study experience overseas i.e. a degree from UK, US or Australia

To maintain quality, our exam papers are vetted by an international panel of experts. Few of these external examiners, as they are called, for this year are:

Prof David James Murray-Smith (EE)
Univ of Glasgow

Prof Colin D Grant (Chem E)
Univ of Strathclyde

Prof Halim Gurgenci (Mech E)
Univ of Queensland

Prof Kuniaki Uehara (IT)
Kobe Univ

The university also has an Academic Advisory Council consisting of several profs again:

Prof Gregory Farrington
President of Lehigh Univ, US

Prof Sung-Kee Chung
Former President of Pohang Univ, Korea

Prof. Otto C.C Lin
VP, R&D, Hong Kong Univ of Science & Tech.

Prof Armin Seiler
Chair of Business Mngment, ETH Zurich

Prof. Gordon Moore
Univ of Calgary, Canada

UTP has very strong links to PETRONAS so if anyone is interested to work for PETRONAS, this is a good place to study. A petroleum engineering specialization for BEng and MSc has just been introduced within the past 2 years: it is partly taught by former PETRONAS engineers who have 15 to 20 years experience in the Oil & Gas Industry, all very experienced and hands-on lecturers.

Best rgds,
Tatt Wei

[widagdo]

Work for PETRONAS for 10 years?

[holmes]

Yup, if you're under the undergrad scholarship scheme.

Cheers!

[bachok83]

hehe.. luke and me used to be UTPian.. so sad we couldnt be under those pentagon-like roof...

sob sob

[nerdook]

hmm came across this post and found it really amusing to see a mention of my uni in recom. haha. so hey, decided to join up and drop a line here since i'm currently studying in utp (on hols actually) and already in the fourth year (DSP is fun! ;P)

personally for me, utp is great... once you get used to it. i honestly found it enjoyable since i started (once you get used to the heat of tronoh. man, kuching is like the rainiest place in d world, and tronoh is realllly hot n dry), but 1st years start off in the older hostels without a network connection (so far). so find your own entertainment. but once you've survived long enough to get into the better hostels, it gets REALLY fun, trust me! nothing beats a super fast network connection + mIRC! haha...

for anyone interested (i've had ppl ask me abt the place so i presume there are ppl who've heard of it. i know i didnt, right until i moved in), UTP facilities are (as mr. tatt wei has pointed out) really good. i've been to several local unis and i've yet to see any one of them top utp in terms of facilities. it helps to have wheels, but u wont lose THAT much without a car... and anyway there are too many cars as it is!! dont risk a saman for parking illegally, it's RM30 now and rising... ;)

so yea, do apply for it if you have the chance. don't let first impressions turn you off if you do come, you'll grow to love the place... and ask around if you need more info, it's a friendly community there and im sure most of us would be glad to fill you in.

cheers.

[topdog]

utp's campus has certainly come a long way from the usm campus sharing days. i still don't know how we managed to survive living in those temporary dorms (propana etc).

i remember seeing a monorail system in an artist rendition of the utp campus. is it still in the masterplan? what percentage of the campus has been completed so far?

[holmes]

Hi topdog,

Hehe, those 'old' dorms are still in use but for more junior students. I think 2nd or 3rd years and above get to move into the new dorms with internet connection. However, there are connections in public places elsewhere on campus too i.e. in the library. (You should visit it someday!)

1st phase of the campus is completed and fully operational. That means 3/5 of the pentagon has been built and is in use.

I don't think the monorail system is in the master plan anymore. But I have seen golf buggies being used to ferry the more important visitors on few occasions.

Best rgds

[el_empty]

holy cow are those photos that you took or are they lifted from some brochure? eitherway they're great pics. perhaps i'll visit utp this summer.

overall, did you guys enjoy the life at utp? what's the teaching style like? tell us more!

also, do you have pics of the dorms? exterior and interior?