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This paper is focusing on the Engineering Mathematics course that was conducted on an online platform due to the Pandemic of Covid-19. Mathematics instructors are being forced to digitize their course materials, such as videos of lecture topics over the Internet, but lack a detailed survey that addresses how students interact with course content, the tools available during class, and the available equipment at home. This presence challenge has been encountered through before and after class surveys to close the gap on the abovementioned issue through online learning. Throughout this study, the needs of students of the various departments involved were taken into account for the calculation of their satisfaction feedback that was investigated. The survey results also indicate that the problem of Internet coverage over time no longer exists for most students. Only the result of audio equipment instability due to the non-standard good quality of the equipment used during the online learning course was rated 18.3% out of 100%. The engineering mathematics content was delivered as planned and no critical learning issues were identified.

The concept of “make-to-order” (MTO) type companies is to produce the products just-in-time and improve the customer satisfaction. These types of company produce a high variety with low volume requiring a frequent setup operation. The shorter setup time will reduce the manufacturing lead time and hence increase the productivity. Unfortunately, most of the MTO type companies suffer with high setup time. Thus, single minute exchange die (SMED) concept is developed which consist of four stages: internal and external setup are not distinguished, separating internal and external setup, converting internal into external setup and streamlining all aspects of the setup operations. The main objective of using SMED concept is to accomplish setup time in less than 10 min. In this case study, the SMED concept being applied to convert internal setup to external setup which involves the activities of ink preparation and test printing. In the stage three of SMED concept, feasible solutions has been applied to fulfilled the objective. The result of implementing SMED concept in MTO type companies is the improvement in the productivity and reduction in the setup time. The improvement of productivity for this case study was 29.15%.

Product quality is an important issue in all manufacturing industry nowadays to meet the customers’ requirement. In this regard, most of the factory has a special department namely Quality Control (QC) Department which control the product quality. The studied factory is a flexible printed circuit board manufacturer which is located in Bayan Lepas, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia. QC Department of the studied factory has high amount of work-in-progress (WIP). Therefore, the products have to be sent out to subcontractors for quality inspection. However, this method is not economically effective. Hence, the objective of this study was to develop an improved inspection method which will reduce the overall inspection time of the current inspection method (CIM). By reducing the inspection time, productivity of the department will increase and subsequently reduce the amount of WIP. This study is focused on the improvement of one product only. Before the improved inspection method (IIM) of the selected product was developed, performance of the CIM was evaluated by using one of the graphical productivity analysis charting techniques which is flow process chart. It was found that the IIM was able to reduce the inspection time of whole inspection process by 85.06 sec for every 12 panels inspected.

The impact of floods is the most severe among the natural calamities occurring in Malaysia. The knock of floods is consistent and annually forces thousands of Malaysians to relocate. The lack of information from the Ministry of Environment and Water, Malaysia is the foremost obstacle in upgrading the flood mapping. With the expeditious evolution of computer techniques, processing of satellite and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) images for river hydromorphological feature detection and flood management have gathered pace in the last two decades. Different image processing algorithms—structure from motion (SfM), multi-view stereo (MVS), gradient vector flow (GVF) snake algorithm, etc.—and artificial neural networks are implemented for the monitoring and classification of river features. This paper presents the application of the k-means algorithm along with image thresholding to quantify variation in river surface flow areas and vegetation growth along Kerian River, Malaysia. The river characteristic recognition directly or indirectly assists in studying river behavior and flood monitoring. Dice similarity coefficient and Jaccard index are numerated between thresholded images that are clustered using the k-means algorithm and manually segmented images. Based on quantitative evaluation, a dice similarity coefficient and Jaccard index of up to 97.86% and 94.36% were yielded for flow area and vegetation calculation. Thus, the present technique is functional in evaluating river characteristics with reduced errors. With minimum errors, the present technique can be utilized for quantifying agricultural areas and urban areas around the river basin.

With the advent of the industrial revolution 4.0, the goal of the manufacturing industry is to produce a large number of products in relatively less time. This study applies the Taguchi L27 orthogonal array methodological paradigm along with response surface design. This work optimizes the process parameters in the turning of Aluminum Alloy 7075 using a Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machine. The optimal parameters influenced the rate of metal removal, the roughness of the machined surface, and the force of cutting. This experimental investigation deals with the optimization of speed (800 rpm, 1200 rpm, and 1600 rpm) and feed (0.15, 0.20, and 0.25 mm/rev) in addition to cutting depth (1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 mm) on the turning of Aluminum 7075 alloy in a CNC machine. The outcome in terms of results such as the removal rate of material (maximum), roughness on the machined surface (minimum), along with cutting force (least amount) were improved by the L27 array Taguchi method. There were 27 specimens of Al7075 alloy produced as per the array, and the corresponding responses were measured with the help of various direct contact and indirect contact sensors. Results were concluded all the way through diagrams of main effects in favor of signal-to-noise ratios and diagrams of surfaces with contour diagrams for various combinations of responses.

With the implementation of the Internet of Things, the agricultural domain has become data-driven, allowing for well-timed and cost-effective farm management while remaining environmentally sustainable. Thus, the incorporation of Internet of Things in the agricultural domain is the need of the hour for developing countries whose gross domestic product primarily depends on the farming sector. It is worth highlighting that developing nations lack the infrastructure for precision agriculture; therefore, it has become necessary to come up with a methodological paradigm which can accommodate a complete model to connect ground sensors to the compute nodes in a cost-effective way by keeping the data processing limitations and constraints in consideration. In this regard, this review puts forward an overview of the state-of-the-art technologies deployed in precision agriculture for soil assessment and pollutant monitoring with respect to heavy metal in agricultural soil using various sensors. Secondly, this manuscript illustrates the processing of data generated from the sensors. In this regard, an optimized method of data processing derived from cloud computing has been shown, which is called edge computing. In addition to this, a new model of high-performance-based edge computing is also shown for efficient offloading of data with smooth workflow optimization. In a nutshell, this manuscript aims to open a new corridor for the farming sector in developing nations by tackling challenges and providing substantial consideration.

Increasing the count of transistors packed within integrated circuits necessitates efficient communication architecture such as Network-on-Chip (NoCs) to deal with scalability, bandwidth, latency, and optimized CPU core utilization goals. To extend the applicability of Moore’s law, multiprocessor architectures have been introduced, which in turn requires a higher level of synchronization and concurrency to enable enhancement in system performance. This research deals with global communication for NoC-multi-core system using the Intelligent Adaptive Arbitration technique to enable task parallelization by showing a perspective for the deployment of Intelligent Adaptive Arbitration on different NoC architecture(s) to enable parallel computing with fair bandwidth distribution and low latency. This research also opens up room for the various network-on-chip topology to constitute a unification of the latest trends of intra-chip communication.

Satellite images have nowadays become an important tool for studying geographical features ranging from small areas to large areas, easily accessible locations to complex field, small streams to lengthy rivers. Kerian River which is situated in northern Malaysia and runs through the state of Perak, Kedah and Penang is investigated in this study using satellite images. The river originates in Bintang range in Perak flows in western direction and discharges in the Straits of Melaka. The geomorphological features such as length of river, river basin size, width of the mouth of river, flood prone areas, agricultural land in proximity of the river, etc. are studied using satellite images such as LANDSAT-8 OLI images, Google Earth Pro images and Google Map images. The ease of using satellite images in analysing lengthy rivers such as Kerian River which cannot be analysed by field work in short span of time is elaborated in the study.

The consumption of reactive dyes in batik industry has led to serious concern in monitoring the heavy metal level in wastewater. Due to a necessity of implementing the wastewater monitoring system in batik factory, a Heavy Metal potentiostat (HMstat) was designed. The main goal of this study is to understand the optimal design concept of the potentiostat function in order to investigate the losses of accuracy in measurement using off shelves device. Through lab scale design, HMStat is based on inexpensive and easy to use components integrated with a NI myRIO controller. Where the myRIO was equipped with built-in ADC and DAC components. In this paper, the accuracy test and detection of cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) elements were conducted on HMstat. The results were compared with the Rodeostat (an open-source potentiostat available in the online market). The accuracy of HMStat were higher than 95% and within the precision rate of components used. The HMstat able to detect Cd and Pb at −0.25 and −0.3 V respectively. Similar potential peak were obtained using Rodeostat (Cd at −0.25 and Pb at −0.3 V).

A study is presented of the influence ignition timing controller to initiate spark ignition by using single cylinder engine. Crank position sensor (CPS) is used to actuate spark ignition from the engine. Arduino controller is connected to a circuit receiving CPS signal to actuate spark ignition timing. The circuit is used to filter the CPS signal for the controller. An accelerometer is mounted to the nearest location of the engine piston. While ignition pulse is connected from the controller to identified engine speed. The engine rotational speed is between 1000 to 4000 rpm. Instrustar DAQ is used in recording the signals from the controller and accelerometer to be analyze and compare with previous research. The analyzed signal identified knocks by different ignition timing. It shows different types of knocking and pre spark timing intensively. The location of pre spark timing is shown each knocking occurs.

This article introduces a novel approach for identify partial pose estimation using template matching method. The algorithms performs 2D correlation matching on tested image to CAD database by using regional shape representation in order to get the similar object pose in CAD database. The descriptor named outer box method, it is useful for rescale or aligning object size in both different images of tested image and CAD database image and also provide interest point for segmentation in image registration stage. The proposed algorithm were experimentally shown to be robust to apply on scale changes, various complex shape, unstructured CAD database and mixed CAD model database. Last part, the identified pose and its retrieved pose angle was calculated and achieved high accuracyin range ±0.388˚ to ±1.471˚.

River water quality is a serious concern among scientist and government agencies due to increasing anthropogenic activities and uncontrolled industrial discharge to rivers. The present study was conducted near the river mouth of the Kerian River to assess heavy metal pollution during COVID-19 pandemic-lockdown conditions and post-COVID-19 pandemic-unlock conditions. Twelve samples of shallow, middle, and bottom depths were collected at four locations along a 9.6 km reach. A concentration of eight heavy metals including Cadmium, Chromium, Copper, Iron, Manganese, Nickel, Lead, and Zinc were extracted through atomic absorption spectrometry. Total suspended solid was measured during laboratory experimentation. The results showed that, during the pandemic, concentrations of Nickel, Zinc, and Iron were high at shallow, middle, and bottom depths, respectively. Decreasing orders of heavy metal concentration are variable at different depths due to either their high sinking tendency with other existing components of water matrix or the anthropogenic source. However, almost all values of heavy metals are under the permissible limit of National Water Quality Standards of Malaysia and Food and Drug Administration. A possible reason for the lack of heavy metal pollution may be the restriction of anthropogenic activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, no significant differences were observed in total suspended solid.

Heavy metals are highly toxic, carcinogenic, and non-biodegradable and may cause harmful effects on human health and the environment. To reduce or eliminate heavy metal contamination, it is necessary to accurately determine the amount of heavy metal in the environment. Traditional detection techniques are expensive, bulky, and not suitable for in-site applications. The electrochemical technique using a potentiostat instrument is a reliable alternative as its potential to fabricate on a small circuit for in-site application. “Black boxes” nature of most commercial potentiostat leads to various development of lab-build potentiostat. Most lab-build potentiostat was designed for general purpose used. This paper focused on development and evaluation of potentiostat specific for heavy metal detection. The development consists of a readout circuit of electronic components together with NI myRIO-1900 as a controller system. Linearity and accuracy of the readout circuit were evaluated. Single and simultaneous detection of copper (Cu), cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) were tested. The results show that the proposed design has good repeatability comparable to a commercial potentiostat.

Even though heavy metals are naturally occurring compounds, in recent years, anthropogenic activities have introduced them in excessive quantities to different environmental matrices, imposing severe threats to the ecosystem. This chapter is focused on the occurrence of heavy metals in Malaysia, reviewing their potential sources, their existence in water, sediment, and aquatic life. However, despite the contents of heavy metals found in water, sediment, and aquatic life, they remain within the permissible limit. Heavy metals are known to be nondegradable and hence can lead to bioaccumulation in humans or animals. Avoiding heavy metals from entering the environment is, therefore, critical. From the literature survey undertaken in this chapter, it appears that the leading cause of heavy metal pollution in rivers is from industrial establishments and perhaps from the inadequate treatment of heavy metal–polluted wastewater discharging into rivers. Therefore treating wastewater is essential to ensure that no heavy metal ions are released into the environment. In undertaking this initiative the initial step is by having a proper detection device such as having sensors that can monitor the concentration of different types of heavy metal ions found in wastewater. Among the various technologies that are available, sensors utilizing nanostructured transition metal oxide are seen as an effective technique for the detection of various metal ions. The removal of heavy metal ions from wastewater can be accomplished in several ways of which metal oxide has been used for removal purposes. Clay and traditional oxides have also been used as an effective absorbent for highly concentrated heavy metal ions in wastewater, whereas nanostructured metal oxide semiconductors can be used to absorb and reduce the minute amount of heavy metal ions via photocatalysis process.

This article encompasses the method related to image segmentation of the Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM) images of Acacia Mangium Wood derived Activated Carbons under different conditions. Image segmentation using Hue-Saturation-Value (HSV) thresholding method was adapted to identify the different pattern composition in the grayscale images by varying the intensity Value (V) and keeping Hue (H) and Saturation (S) to zero, and each pattern was considered as one type of element that constituted the Activated Carbon. The algorithm was developed to compute the percentage of each pattern using non-zero pixels, and on the basis of different patterns, different elements having certain percentage of composition were recorded. Later, these results were compared with the Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS) to cross check the difference in percentage of each element present at the surface of the Activated Carbon. Part of this result is published in the article [1], “Comparison of surface properties of wood biomass Activated Carbons and their application against rhodamine B and methylene blue dye” Surfaces and Interfaces vol. 11 (2018) pp1–13.•The methods involved will be useful for characterization of Activated Carbon materials.•Image segmentation using HSV thresholding will inspire other researchers to apply similar concept on other materials.•Different patterns obtained for FESEM images using HSV thresholding was able to determine the presence of multiple elements present in the prepared Activated Carbon samples., Graphical Abstract Graphical Abstract Image, graphical abstract

Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) based Quad Serial Peripheral Interface (QSPI) Flash Controller becomes popular in embedded system for QSPI flash access. However, as the differences of QSPI flashes available in market are increased drastically, creating a QSPI Flash Controller that can support various QSPI flashes becomes a challenge. Partial Reconfiguration (PR) is introduced to enhance QSPI Flash Controller by implementing each QSPI protocol as a partial reconfigurable module. When a QSPI protocol is needed, the corresponding PR persona is loaded into FPGA. In this paper, FPGA resources required to facilitate PR has no significant difference compared to conventional design. PR able to generate bitstream which is 94% smaller compares to full device bitstream. Thus, PR operation time required to change the QSPI protocol is 61% shorter than time required for full device configuration. The design implementation of single QSPI protocol in a persona is simpler and more scalable.

In the present investigation, the non-recrystallization temperature (TNR) of niobium-microalloyed steel is determined to plan rolling schedules for obtaining the desired properties of steel. The value of TNR is based on both alloying elements and deformation parameters. In the literature, TNR equations have been developed and utilized. However, each equation has certain limitations which constrain its applicability. This study was completed using laboratory-grade low-carbon Nb-microalloyed steels designed to meet the API X-70 specification. Nb- microalloyed steel is processed by the melting and casting process, and the composition is found by optical emission spectroscopy (OES). Multiple-hit deformation tests were carried out on a Gleeble® 3500 system in the standard pocket-jaw configuration to determine TNR. Cuboidal specimens (10 (L) × 20 (W) × 20 (T) mm3) were taken for compression test (multiple-hit deformation tests) in gleeble. Microstructure evolutions were carried out by using OM (optical microscopy) and SEM (scanning electron microscopy). The value of TNR determined for 0.1 wt.% niobium bearing microalloyed steel is ~ 951 °C. Nb- microalloyed steel rolled at TNR produce partially recrystallized grain with ferrite nucleation. Hence, to verify the TNR value, a rolling process is applied with the finishing rolling temperature near TNR (~951 °C). The microstructure is also revealed in the pancake shape, which confirms TNR.

The flow of rivers and streams carries many particles like sand and silts due to erosion phenomenon which are commonly termed as sediments. Sediments transported along the water flow distributes into either bed load or suspended load. The heavier particles settle down the river bed and form the bed load. While the lighter particles gets suspended along the surface of the water body and are termed as suspended load. The change in sediment concentration affects the hydromorphology of rivers to a great extent. The current study focusses on the measurement of the suspended sediment and reviews the various suspended sediment samplers based on different technical parameters such as working principle, accuracy and specifications. Different mechanical samplers such as bottle and trap samplers, pump samplers; electronic samplers such as Acoustic backscatter profiling sensors (ABS), etc. and optical samplers such as Optical backscatter point sensor (OBS), Optical Laser diffraction point sensors (LISST) and many more sensors such as impact sensors, nuclear sensors and conductivity sensors are reported and compared in this review.

The behaviour of river can be perceived by analysing the sediments to a substantial extent. Computation of sediment weight per unit volume of water, sediment distribution along the quantifiable parameters of water body and mensuration of amount of useful as well as detrimental contents of sediments entails for sediment water sampling. The design and outline of an effortless and uncomplicated water sampler is presented in this paper. Although a number of manual, semi-automatic and fully automatic samplers are in attendance, there is a gap in asking price of previously available samplers and the present tool. The cost of sampler can be limited by designing for its specific purpose. The present sampler can only be used for top layers of water body ( < 5 feet). But the same sampler can be modified for collection up to 10 to 15 feet. Design stresses of materials and force acting on the sampler is used to examine the safety of components used at the critical points. Manual design calculations and experimental use of the instrument in Kerian River, Malaysia evinces the approval of the design. The trouble-free design and facile use of the device will assist in suspended water monitoring for research in an economical way.

The use of deflectors as augmentation devices to improve the power performance of a 3-bladed conventional Savonius turbine has been investigated by analyzing the deflectors’ effects on self-starting capability and power performance at various deflector angles. Two deflector plates positioned at the upstream of the turbine were tested inside a closed-circuit wind tunnel at an air flow speed of 7.0 m/s (equivalent to 0.4 m/s water flow speed). The self-starting capability of the turbine was characterized in terms of the coefficient of static torque, CTS at various advancing blade deflector angles and returning blade deflector angles of δA = 15°, 30°, 45°, 60° and 75°and δR = 30°, 60°, 90°, respectively. It was found that the CTS profiles were generally higher than without any deflector. The increment of δR showed that it had a significant effect on the CTS profile due to the reduction of drag force on the returning blade as compared to the variation of δA. The study highlighted that the CTS profiles shifted away from the no-self-start conditions (CTS 0) with the presence of deflectors. The experimental results also revealed that the coefficient of power, CP significantly improved for the case with the deflectors, particularly at δR = 90°. The highest CP of 0.183 was achieved at δA = 75° and δR = 90°, which was also the optimal deflector configuration for the best self-starting characteristics. Thus, deflector augmentation may be a practical solution to improve the power performance and self-starting capability of the Savonius turbine in hydrokinetic applications, particularly at the low speeds of narrow and shallower rivers commonly found in rural areas.

The variation in stream flow velocities depends on the riverbed slopes. In upstream areas, where slope is steep, the magnitude of velocity is high, whereas in downstream areas, where slope is gentle, the magnitude of velocity is slow. The focus of this study is in the downstream area, where variations in the magnitude of velocities are due to high tide and low tide situations. Due to sea level rise, flooding occurs with high tides in several coastal regions which causes road closures due to submerged in water and public inconveniences. Velocities in high tide conditions need to be examine for safety and health risk of people. Therefore, the main objective of this study to assess the variation in velocity values of stream flow at both high tide and low tide condition near river mouth. One dimensional Hydrological Engineering Centre-River Analysis System (HEC RAS) simulation was conducted 9.4 km along reach of Sungai Rompin. A total of 188 river cross sections were used at an interval of 50 m. Other river geometries such as river central line, riverbanks and flow paths were constructed in RAS mapper of HEC RAS. The unsteady flow was run in both high tide and low tide conditions. The outputs of the simulation were compared and analysed. The results revealed that the stream flow velocities reduced up to 60% in high tide condition when compared to the low tide condition near the river mouth.

Composite drilling is a hole making operation that is mainly involved in aircraft manufacturing industry. The poor machinability of the composite materials causes the cutting tool to wear faster and increasing the production cost. Ignoring the tool condition would be a bad idea for the production as worn cutting tool tends to damage the highly expensive composite panel of the aircraft. Tool condition monitoring (TCM) is required to keep the process in balance between cost and quality. This paper presents a system to perform tool condition monitoring of a drill bit flank wear using image processing approach. The real industrial sample of carbide drill bit which was used to drill carbon fibre composite panel is obtained directly from the manufacturing assembly line. The images of the drill bit are acquired from the top view for every 100 holes using the developed hardware system. Edge detection is used to detect the boundary of the cutting lips and the images are compared with the reference image of the brand new drill bit using image registration method. The wear rate of the erosion flank wear measured is recorded at average rate of 0.0198% per hole and considered worn at maximum amount of 25.48% wear.

This paper presents a study on quadrotor using PID controller together with the application of Kalman Filter. Purpose of this project is to study effect of separate Kalman filter in overcoming the signal noise and gyro drift in the attitude sensors and simulate the PID controller which controlling the quadrotor dynamics through damping the vehicle oscillation. In this research, simulation of Kalman Filter in filtering the noise from the inertial moment unit (IMU) and PID controller in damping on unstable oscillation has been conducted to observe the performance of the quadrotor.

In general, Aerospace industry has been developing significantly throughout the economy as demands on technology in advanced transportation is increasing. Furthermore, as a multi-billion dollar industry, the efforts is needed to sustain high quality of products for safety, minimizing waste during process and increase in a pace of manufacturing. Therefore, Six Sigma tool which is DMAIC approach is chosen to presents a case of an efficient and systematic method of improvement cycle ‘Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control’ to define and analysis defect, hence to improve the quality of production in aerospace industry. In this study, the focus is done by studying how the implementation of Six Sigma on an aerospace company especially to solve the problem of uncertainty condition of Delta-E for Panel Coating. By using the DMAIC approaches, defects and problems that arise in the production line of the company are being sorted out and solved. Trials and experiments were also conducted on the company’s production line and the data is being collected for analysis and study purpose. Through observation and data taken from above problem, analyzed results perform remarkable solution to be applied by Aerospace Industry.

This paper presents a tree climbing robot which moves spirally around a pole-like tree of having a circumference of around 40 cm. The aim of this work is to ease the work of inducing Aquilaria trees. The designed robot is able to climb with overall weight of the robot can carry is limit to 10 kg. The robot utilizes the wheel mechanism as the locomotion of the robot. Driving module uses two DC motors, and the robot also uses a set of springs and castor balls as a supporting mechanism. To achieve the robot spiral climbing morphology, two DC motors are used as the steering module. At the current stage of development, the angle of climbing is controlled manually by DIP-switches. The advantages of this robot are low cost, uses simple mechanism, easy to control and fabricate. The robot has been built and successfully tested on a tree trunk and PVC tube. Experiment has been carried out to evaluate the speed performances of the prototype. Results indicate that the robot is able to climb in spiral motion with largest error recorded at 13.9%.

In contrast to the machining of metallic materials, drilling of the fiber reinforced composite materials presented unique challenges as its cutting behavior differs in several aspects. This work presents an analysis to determine the drilling characteristics in carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) composite using HSS twist drill, HSS brad drill and carbide dagger drill. The study is based on Taguchi’s method and analysis of variance (ANOVA). The experiments were conducted to quantify the statistical contributions of the spindle speed and feed rate for those three drills. The results indicated that the feed rate is recognized to make the most significant contribution to the thrust force, which reflects the hole quality and tool wear. In overall, brad drill promoted better hole quality at the exit side. A low thrust force, insignificant hole defect and hence, better drill condition was obtained with this drill at a cutting speed of 800 rpm and feed rate of 0.04 mm/rev.