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30 June 2025, 11:43 PM

This Semester 2 of the 2025/2026 session, I enrolled in the mass balance class section 4 led by Dr Azizul Azri Bin Mustaffa. Due to Ramadan, I am taking an online mass balance course for the first two weeks.

At first, I was delighted to take this course because it involved Microsoft Excel software. Aside from that, this makes me inquisitive because mass balancing is a difficult topic for this semester. Throughout the year, the first chapter, which addressed basic engineering calculations, has been intermediate because it is a review of the Introduction to Engineering Course. The second chapter focuses on chemical equipment in industry such as distillation column, Flash distillation and more. This chapter is not exceedingly difficult but should be remembered. The third chapter discusses the single and multiple mass balance for nonreactive Species. It also examines the process specifications, Degree Of Freedom and mass conservation, which are a little confusing due to the complexity of the question. For reactive species, I learnt about reaction extent, molecular species balance, and atomic species balance. This issue requires a significant amount of effort to fully understand each strategy, yet solving the challenge is quite enjoyable. The next topic, single phase and multiphase systems that related to Real gas, Temperature dew point and bubble point, is quite difficult because it requires a significant amount of time and lot of practice to understand.

This shows me that the things I'm learning aren't hard, but they do take a long time to completely understand. This has also taught me that I need to adapt my learning method to understand more effectively. From the summary, I concluded that the topic covered in mass balancing is difficult and unpleasant. Otherwise, with our lecturer's supervision and group discussion, this topic is both enjoyable and simple. This taught me that I need to be proactive in terms of rapid learning and that I need to practice more questions to have more experience solving this problem. I also need to work on obtaining additional resources to help me better comprehend this course.

There were a lot of quizzes, assignments, and exercises along the way to help me understand the basics better. Usually, it's given after the class has finished the chapter. I also must do a small project in Microsoft Excel to solve problems with the production of Ethyl Acetate. When I must do an assignment, exercise, and a mini project all at the same time, I get tired. I think that when I do an exercise or assignment, I always waste time on just one question. This would make it hard for me to manage my time well. This shows that I need to learn in a way that helps me master how to solve material balances. Aside from that, the question makes more sense to me. Additionally, because I did not thoroughly check before submitting, I am making the same mistakes again. I also have trouble with quizzes. I always solve problems quickly rather than carefully considering the question. This causes me to overlook crucial information or misunderstand it, which frustrates me when trying to find a solution. This experience taught me that to avoid making any mistakes in this course, I must be aware of my areas of weakness. If I can control my weaknesses, this can also help me perform better academically. To sum up, everything I have learnt has been extremely helpful. This taught me that everyone makes mistakes, but that these mistakes can help me become a better version of myself for the next generation. I should work on improving my ability to accurately analyze information and solve problems without overlooking any information.

  Our teacher assigned us this homework at the end of May as a little project to test our ability to utilize Microsoft Excel to solve a material balance problem and need to present to our lecturer during the end of the semester. I was excited at first that I could use Excel to solve the problem, but when I looked at the problem description, I felt lost. I also feel nervous during the presentation time because I need to present a lot of things in a short period of time. During the problem identification, I had a lot of problems, like figuring out what the problem was, writing down a lot of process specifications, and more. I also need to lead the team to solve it in a certain amount of time. Otherwise, I was able to get the team to finish the project quickly before showing our Lecturer’s how far we had come. I can also learn a lot about leadership, time management, communication, and critical thinking skills from the mini project. I need this skill to be a successful engineer. I learn how to check my progress with other members and how to lead the team to solve the problem with Excel through leadership skills. I also need to make sure that each of my teammates knows what they need to do. I discovered that having effective communication skills among teammates is beneficial. This will motivate me to learn more about and comprehend my teammates. Finally, I gained some knowledge about critical thinking skills, including how to better control process flow and compute solutions based on the equipment used. Time management is particularly crucial since it may increase the project solution's accuracy. In addition, it is also important for me in terms of presenting our project to our lecturers. I learn from this that having this ability helps me as an engineer. I must therefore manage my time well to finish the project by the deadline. My ability to communicate and lead the team for the project depends heavily on my leadership and communication abilities. I've also learnt that my presentation skills, like my slides, need to be enhanced so that everyone can follow my team's presentation. This overview taught me not just how to solve a problem, but also how to tackle it together. The advice from our lecturers and friends has made me more interested in learning something new and never giving up on it. I am also grateful to be part of this journey.