Rowie's Scribbles

Coming from a family of accountants (literally) and having several friends working in the field, I know a thing or two about the path from high school to accountancy in Malaysia. First question an aspiring accountant should ask him/herself is exactly what type of career do I want in this field? Career options 1) Auditor An auditor verifies the accuracy of financial reports/statements. A big part of the work is to cross check the accounts against the reports produced and this is tedious work indeed. This I'd an important task because an auditor will inform the public through his/her verification that the statement/report can be trusted and they can make informed choices about investing with the company etc. 2) Accountant An accountant prepares the reports and manages the account of a company. He/she ensures the account is balanced, ie every transaction is supported by proof of record and there are no hidden/missing funds. They are able to make financial decisions by ...

I submitted this article to Cheresources so I thought to publish it here as well. It's mainly directed to students who aren't sure what chemical engineering is all about; a situation I was in 4 yrs ago :) I remember the time when I’d just finished my pre-university course and wondered: what career do I want to do?  I was a brilliant student, business and accounting was NOT for me, and I knew I wanted to go into something science-related but I didn’t want to be involved in research.  Be a doctor? Nah I’d probably accidentally kill someone.   Be a teacher?  I lack the patience and the passion for that. I came across the term “chemical engineering” and decided to do some reading on that.  I had trouble understanding what it pertains to and I wished that someone provided an explanation about it back then!  I took a risk accepting an offer to study chemical engineering and four years later, I’m grateful that I took that chance!  So here’s my countd...

Since the finals is coming this Tue, I should have some interest in what I'm studying.  Pfft.  Depreciation is the systematic allocation of an asset's cost over its depreciable life. Business assets can be depreciated only if they meet the following basic requirements: The property must be used for business purposes to produce income. The property must have a useful life that can be determined, & this life must be longer than 1 yr. The property must be an asset that decays/gets used up/wears out/becomes obsolete/loses value to the owner from natural causes. The general equation is: There are 3 depreciation methods (that I understand so far :p): 1. Straight-line depreciation 2. Sum-of-years'-digits depreciation 3. Declining balance depreciation Consider the following example: B=$900, N=5yrs, S=$70 1. SL depreciation 2. SOYD depreciation 3. DB depreciation Both methods achieve the same result (S=$70 in year 5) but the graphs would differ.  There, I kinda remember how to u...

Seems like I will need a new file just to compile all my plant design notes. Patents, spreadsheets, online notes etc...Now I'm simply piling them on my cupboard, 1 thick pile of papers... *sigh* This Wednesday is the big day, when we present our plant design progress to the panel who are out there waiting to drain the blood from our veins....We've to present introduction, market survey, plant location & most importantly, spreadsheets of mass & energy balances. *sigh* We're rushing to finish everything, it feels like there's not enough time to complete it but this is the 1st time I truly feel that we've NO CHOICE in the matter. It's do or die at this stage.  I've been thinking of new articles to put up here: 1. Beyonce's canceled (I don't believe it's postponed , as people so gullibly believe) concert...because Malaysia has terrorists? SHAME! *Sugar plum princess wrote a letter to the Malay Mail about it & it was published 2. Coverage ...

Oh well the holidays had to end sooner or later; though I won't say I had much of one (with debating tournaments here & there), I can sympathize with my fellow uni mates groaning as 6th July looms closer...I sympathize even more with the newbies, some of whom may be living out of home for the very 1st time... *recalls arriving at UMP at night after PDPSZA *chuckling as the gang teased the newbies walking out  " Tahan ye, 1 minggu je " (Hang on, just 1 week) *chuckles* Well I completely understand why people would dread returning to university...less than magnificient living quarters, the stress, the people...it may be hard to adjust back to the hectic schedule. However, we must do what we must & coping is the best solution. Let's do a quick & hopefully fun review of what to do to get back in gear: 1. Pace yourself We get that it's tough to juggle so many things at one time but that doesn't mean you've to do work continuo...

I was dead bored & wondered if the grades for Petrol & PCI were out yet, which I thought, nah ...But I was bored so I checked it out & they were out! Here are my grades for sem 6 :) Chemical Plant Utilities Lab A Chemical Engineering Lab III A Engineering Graphics A OSH in Chemical Industries A Petroleum Technology A Process Control & Instrumentation A Project-Based Proposal Writing A Unit Operations II B+ (darn it!) My GPA is 3.92, my CPA now is 3.72...Still on track but Unit Op is a damn shame! 2 more semesters to go folks!

Well this has been an...annoyance that I've carried with me for a long time. Perhaps I've decided that people should know what I think about exams & copying. It may be petty/childish of me to post this but I'll feel better. If you cheat in exams: 1. You are without shame 2. Obviously you didn't study 3. You don't deserve the marks you get SHAME ON YOU! A few weeks ago I sat for the final exam of Engineering Graphics. I struggled to focus, to try to remember what I've revised but I was frustrated because people were whispering around, asking their buddies for the answer, their buddies were whispering the answer back & I turned into a very tense, pissed off exam candidate. It didn't soothe my soul to know the lecturer was giving hints to students. Copying in tests is something I've come to tolerate, perhaps not accept. But this is the FINAL EXAM. At least have some decency to uphold the basic rule of exams: NO CHEATING. I gues...

By popular request, I'll start with a tutorial question: Step 1: Write out transfer function & response function Step 2: Obtain response functions for each case Step 3: Draw the graphs on the same plot Step 4: Give conclusions based on the plot Ta-da! :)

An easy one, I could use the reference! :D Question 9.10-5 Solution Tsk too simple!

The results are out! I scored what I needed to achieve my goals! Here they are! Whoop! BIOPROCESS ENGINEERING B+ CHEMICAL ENGINEERING LAB II A CHEMICAL REACTION ENGINEERING II A- ELECTRICAL TECHNOLOGY A ENGINEER & SOCIETY A ENGLISH DYNAMICS 3 A SCIENCE & ENGINEERING MATERIALS A UNIT OPERATION I B+ My GPA is 3.76, my CPA is 3.78! I've finally reached that 1st class honors mark! Yayy! I want to thank all my friends & the lecturers for supporting me & helping me to achieve what I needed! Thanks all! Family, you're the best! Rock on! I'm cheery, aren't I? Who cares! Woot!

This is Assignment 5 for Bioprocess Engineering Sem 1 08/09...Thanks to Shi for teaching me how to solve this question! You may choose to carry out matrix operations in Matlab or Microsoft Excel, I chose Matlab for this solution. Question: Solution: A pretty easy question, be careful with the matrix operations though, a careless slip would be extremely frustrating!

Well since the possibility of this topic emerging in the finals this sem, I thought it couldn't hurt to try out a question related to this. Question: Solution: Credit to Shi, she was the one who figured out the solution! Thanks loads!

This is a very simple question about bioreactors (final chapter in CRE2), the question was taken from Chemical Reaction Engineering by Octave Levenspiel (Wiley). Question: Solution: Feel free to ask questions/offer suggestions/corrections!

Just a short guide on how to answer the first question for Chemical Reaction Engineering 2; you don't need to know how to compute the hyperbolic functions sinh x, cosh x, coth x to solve this question, just a trusty calculator & accurate typing hehe :) Question: Solution: Feel free to comment & ask questions, I will try my best to answer! :)

Well with finals coming we'd to learn the Ponchon-Savarit/enthalpy-concentration curve method for Unit Op. This method is used in the Distillation chapter to determine the number of theoretical trays needed with given specifications. I'm just gonna give a brief tutorial on how to use this graphical method. I'll do it via pictures, you may click to see the larger version. The question The solution The diagram The diagram drawn is just a rough sketch, the correct answer is 3.9 trays + 1 reboiler. I hope this is helpful in some way; it sure helped me to remember the method better haha :) Feel free to correct/ask questions! Thank you :p