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30 June 2023, 11:28 PM

I can't believe this Mass Balance course is almost over. Time goes by so quickly. I remember vividly my first lecture for this course, in which my lecturer, Dr. Azizul Azri bin Mustaffa, introduced himself and explained why the Mass Balance course is so crucial for an engineer. Seniors said Dr. Azizul is quite strict, which made me nervous on the first day of class. However, at the end of the first class, I realized that if we behave well and obey his instructions, he'll be nice to us because he wanted to train us to be a professional and ethical engineer. My first impression of Dr. Azizul was that he is very systematic. It is because, prior to attending his class, we were informed through E-Learning on what we would learn during that period of class. No other lecturer has done it before, and I find that being prepared before the class can be very useful.

Not only that, but Dr. Azizul outlined the course overview and what we will generally learn in this course, which is clearly indicated in the course name, Mass Balance. Dr. Azizul teaches us proper etiquette from the first class. For example, he stated that we must respond in the class group not only by reacting to his messages, but also by text, and that we must arrive early for class. If we are going to be late for class, we must notify in the group ahead of time with reason. When I initially entered the class, I was startled since just myself and my friend Jeevaa were Indian students, the others were all Chinese, and there were no Malay students at all except for one international Muslim student. I already knew this course was going to be very challenging, but I was ready to give my full efforts.

I learned how to do unit conversion in a systematic manner at the start of this course. Then, I learned about processes and process equipment that can be found in chemical industry, but mainly focusing on separation processes such as evaporation, distillation, liquid-liquid extraction, absorption, adsorption, and mixing. This improved my understanding of the role of a chemical engineer in a chemical plant. The main objective of leaning this course was to be able to balance mass going inside and outside of a process, and I was exposed to a degree of freedom analysis to bookkeep the unknowns, material balancing equations, and process specifications to help with the calculations. I knew that whatever I learned in this course will be extremely useful to me in the future. Everyone in my class was divided into teams during the second week. My team consists of four people: Lai Yong Xuan, Lee Wan Ning, Soh Fui Yuan, and myself. It was a pleasure to meet them. They were very smart and were always willing to assist me when I had questions. We even formed a WhatsApp group called "Mass Balance Group 4" where we discussed our first group project, which was to present a question given to our team to the entire class in a Webex Meeting and create a video for another question to put on YouTube. To complete the group project, my teammates and I set up an online discussion using Google Meet to compare and discuss our solutions. Most importantly, we needed to comprehend the question well so that we could explain it to others. We worked hard on the presentation slides and the video. This assignment taught me not only how to work on Mass Balance problems, but also how to explain my ideas to my peers, which helped me acquire confidence in my presentation skills. It was an important lesson for me since I feel that engineers must have solid communication skills to present or offer ideas during meetings.

The lecture and tasks became more challenging as the weeks passed. We have progressed from single-unit processes to multiple-unit processes, recycle and bypass streams, reactive processes, and single and multi-phase systems. Personally, I thought the multiple-unit process with recycling and bypass stream was the most difficult. Because the questions can be very confusing and difficult. However, thanks to Dr. Azizul's excellent teaching methods and exercises, I was able to answer questions on the topic.

Another special thing about this Mass Balance course is that up until now only for this course we have 3 tests. The first test is focused on the single-unit process. I did a lot of exercises and past year questions before the test. However, I was very upset with my test 1 results because I only received 48 out of 60. Personally, I thought the first test questions were simple, but due to so many careless mistakes, I lost so much time during the test and lost many marks because I did not complete all the questions. I've realized that my biggest issue is timing. The second test covers chapter multiple units with recycle and bypass streams, as well as reactive processes. I did many past year questions as exercises before the test to ensure that I was prepared. However, I was also disappointed by the second test. I didn't have enough time to answer all the questions. I felt depressed and stressed. But I refused to give up. I began to work harder. Multiple-phase and single-condensable process questions were included in Test 3. In test 3, I gave it my all. I'm hoping to get good results in test 3 and in finals. However, even if I fail to get good results, I believe it won't be the end for me. I remember Dr. Azizul once marks are important, but it is not the end for anybody. So, whatever the outcome I will keep on improving myself and move forward.

Dr. Azizul has given us weekly quizzes since the first week. Although it was often difficult to revise the chapters for the quiz before every lesson due to an intense schedule and exam preparation, I acknowledged the importance of the quiz. I believe the quizzes served as a benchmark for myself to test my grasp of the topic, rather than just for the sake of marks. Furthermore, because of quizzes, I am forced to revise the chapters before each class. This allowed me to stay current with the learning process. It saved me from having to cram everything for the test again. As a result, I had more time to do exercises before each test. In addition to the quizzes, we were given numerous individual and group assignments. It greatly aided my understanding of the topic while answering the question. It also serves as a revision for the test. Dr. Azizul even marks the assignments and returns them to us. From this, I learned from my mistakes and will not repeat them in the test.

Finally, for this course, we completed a mini project. It contained 21 processes and so many streams, just like a real chemical power plant. In this project, my teammates and I worked together to solve the calculations for each process. My teammates and I did the calculations and compare with each other. We divided the tasks and began working on them after determining the correct answers. We had multiple meetings to update each other on our progress on the project and to aid each other when needed. This mini project gave us an idea of how the final year project will be. I used my Excel knowledge from Dr. Azizul Azri bin Mustaffa's ISP seminar "Introduction to Microsoft Excel and Basic Engineering Calculations" during semester 1 to complete this mini project. I'm delighted the seminar session knowledge helped me complete the mini project. Not only that, but my teammates and I must create a presentation slide and explain to our classmates how we solved the mini project. It was a wonderful session since I had the opportunity to see how other team members approached the same question using different ways. This helped me in improving my presentation and teamwork skills.

In a nutshell, this course taught me many new things, and enjoyed the learning process because of Dr. Azizul. My experience was completely opposite of what my seniors informed me, and I feel that whether anything is good or not is determined by how an individual perceives it. This taught me not to use my experience to influence my junior's decision. Dr. Azizul has always claimed that this class is boring because just a few students reply to him in the class. Personally, I believe it is due to a lack of diversity among students of different races. Even I am hesitant to speak because the majority of the students in the class are Chinese, and I am afraid of being judged if I am incorrect. Anyway, it was a fantastic course; I had numerous ups and downs during the course, much like a roller coaster, but I treasured every bit of it. I am grateful and will remember all Dr. Azizul taught me and become a successful engineer in the future.