Tuesday, 8 October 2019 – Third-year students at the School of Aerospace Engineering USM today attended a seminar called the ‘Aerospace Engineering Challenge’, which consisted of two talks.

The first session was a career talk given by one of the School’s 2007 alumni, Mr. Shah Rizal Ahamad Sha, who is now the Southeast Asia Regional Supply Chain Transition Manager at Collins Aerospace, one of the leading aerospace company globally. In his talk, Mr. Shah recalled his journey from being a student at the School, to finally working at one of the giants of aerospace engineering. He recalled how the Industrial Training experience that he went through gave him the motivation to pursue his interest in the field of composites and manufacturing in the aerospace industry. He also recalled his early career episodes at the Aerospace Composite Malaysia that gave him the opportunities to work with other engineers from international companies; such experience inspired him to pursue higher career ambitions and goals that finally led him to Collins Aerospace.

The second session was a talk by one of the fourth year students, Ernest Tay Yue Yang, who had the opportunity to work with Mr. Shah as a Collins Aerospace intern recently during the Industrial Training program. In his talk, Ernest described his challenging but exciting experience as an intern at Collins, which is one of the worlds’ largest aircraft component suppliers in the world. Working as a Supply Chain Intern from July 2019 till early September 2019 (10 weeks) with suppliers from all over Malaysia, he has had the opportunities to visit these companies, gained a wide range of knowledge on how the aerospace industry operates and see the opportunities that new engineering graduates could venture in. He also had valuable opportunities to learn from many experienced seniors in the industry each with different backgrounds, positions, and knowledge, ranging from senior operators to CEOs of the company.

To the third-year students, Ernest shared some important key points of working as an intern or even as a permanent employee and also tips on how to select a suitable internship. Many have supported him throughout his journey during the internship; foremost was his supervisor Mr. Shah who pushed him constantly and reminded him to be hardworking and that the expectation was for him to be a world-class leader; his lecturer, Dr. Zulfaa who encouraged him and reassured him that he was on the right track; Mr Aiman Hakim, the previous intern of Collins Aerospace who provided him with answers to his doubts and also reading materials as guidelines and lastly his friends at the university. 

At the end of the seminar, a souvenir was presented by Dr Zulfaa to Mr Shah as a token of appreciation for his enthusiasm to share his life lessons and experiences to students and his commitment to contribute back to his alma mater through the Aerospace Engineering Challenge, in which one of the third-year students will be selected (through a semester-long team project in the Flight Performance course) to intern at Collins Aerospace under the supervision of Mr. Shah.

Text by Ernest Tay Yue Yang, 4th Year USM Aerospace Engineering Student, 2018/19 Aerospace Batch Representative, and Collins Aerospace Intern Year 2019.