YOUNG MEMBERS COMMITTEE

Technical visit to AsiaSat Taipo earth station By Mr Victor SO On 13 February 2009, the YMC organised a technical visit to the AsiaSat earth station at the Tai Po with 20 members participated. Asia Satellite Telecommunications Co Ltd (AsiaSat) has been Asia's premier regional satellite operator since its establishment in 1988 and is a dedicated pioneer in advancing satellite communications in Asia. AsiaSat's satellites are monitored and controlled around-the-clock by the state-of-the-art satellite control facilities in Hong Kong including the Stanley earth station and Tai Po earth station where the satellite control centre is located. The participants arrived at the Tai Po earth station at 2:30pm and received a warm welcome by Mr Kenneth Chow, Manager of Engineering Department. Mr Chow introduced the overall picture of satellite communication industry and miscellaneous facts of communication satellite such as the manipulation of satellite attitude and the origin of disturbance to satellite attitude. The requirements and launching site of rockets which take the communication satellites to the predetermined orbit were also discussed. Another two presentations focusing on the communication facilities including the baseband microwave equipment, the tracking antenna and uninterrupted power supply (UPS) and the principle and methodology of using antenna to support the telemetry, tracking and control (TT&C) activities for satellite fleet were conducted by other representatives of the station. The visit continued with a site tour to the satellite control centre (SCC) led by Mr Tik Yau, Manager of the centre. SCC is the control and monitoring centre where the operation engineers keep updating the status of satellite fleet. Operation such as maneuver is performed at the commanding terminals in SCC. The round the clock centre serves as a customer service centre for satellite news gathering (SNG), which is an ad-hoc bandwidth application for broadcaster. After the visit in SSC, we were led to visit other site facilities including the antennas and backup generators. The visit ended with a question-and-answer session and a lot of questions regarding the unique habitat of the satellite industry were raised by the participants. We would like to take this opportunity to express our sincerely thanks to the AsiaSat, in particular to Ms Linda Cheng, Mr Kenneth Chow and his colleagues, for arranging this interesting visit and sharing with us their valuable experience in the operation of the satellite earth station.

The YMC members at AsiaSat enjoying their visit

Technical visit to Super Terminal 1 By Mr Wallace YIP On the 20 February 2009, the YMC organised a technical visit to Super Terminal 1 at the Hong Kong International Airport. Super Terminal 1 is the largest single terminal in the world with a designed annual maximum capacity of 2.6 million tons. It is built, owned and operated by the Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Ltd (HACTL), the world’s leading air cargo terminal operator serving over 70 airlines. Participants arrived at the terminal at 3:00pm and were welcomed by Ir Eric Tong and his colleagues. Ir Tong gave a briefing on the background of HACTL's mission and introduced their automatic cargo handling system. To provide participants with more understanding, a miniature model of Super Terminal 1 was used to illustrate the locations of the cargo handling process and building structure. The visit continued with a tour to the workstation located on the 3rd and 4th floor of the main terminal building where the distribution and packing of both importing and exporting containers are processed. Meanwhile, the HACTL's colleagues introduced their soul systems such as the box storage system (BSS), the container storage system (CSS) and the bulk cargo distribution system (BCDS). Typically, all containers would be primarily stored, transferred and retrieved through the CSS which is equipped with more than 3,500 storage positions and 12 computer-controlled stacker cranes. The CSS has a direct interface with the airside and enables a direct access to the apron. For the process of bulk cargo handling, BCDS, a chain of automatic conveyors, acts as the interlink bridge in between the main terminal building to transport and distribute the boxes of cargo to different floors. Afterwards, the awaiting bulk cargoes for import and export would be transferred and stored into the BSS with around 10,000 storage positions. The whole handling process are controlled, monitored and completed by computers. The visit ended with a sharing session. The participants expressed their interests on the cargo handling system and found the visit informative. This visit enabled the participants to understand and experience the nowadays operation of an efficient and reliable cargo handling systems with highly automated facilities in Hong Kong. We sincerely thank the HACTL for their kind arrangement of this visit. We would also like to express our special thanks to Ir Eric Tong and Ms Karen Cheng for their hospitality.

The YMC members visiting HACTL

Life project management series 2 - seminar on financial management study By Miss Ada MAK On 25 February 2009, two experienced financial consultants from Convoy Financial Services Ltd, Mr Finsen Choi and Mr Pharaoh Yam, presented on a seminar on financial management. More than 50 engineering professionals participated in this event. First of all, Mr Choi presented the basic concept of financial planning including four stages, namely, foundation, capital preservation, capital growth and speculative, which stands for different kinds of savings and/or investments. Depending on different age groups’ financial needs, suitable combination of the investment tools in the four stages should be carefully planned in order to achieve the best outcome of asset management. Then, Mr Yam gave advice on financial planning strategies under the economic downturn happening worldwide, through applying various analysis tools, investment concepts and worked examples. He thought that the market nowadays is quite difficult to have great changes since the economic growth slowed down due to the economic deflation in the United States, uncertainties on investors and the discounted banking interest rate happening in the world’s leading banks. He explained that it was expected to have a better investment market due to the rapid economic growth of the PRC and the slowing down of economic deflation in developed countries in the short future. Since financial planning is a life-long process for everyone, he suggested that we could still have a discussion on the financial planning solution with their independent financial advisors (IFA). IFA, like the convoy, is a middleman between clients and financial product providers who provides financial planning solutions and investment advice to clients on how to select suitable products to manage their asset. The seminar offered useful asset management knowledge to our fellow members. It was a good chance for us to have a better understanding on the role of IFA, financial products available in the market and the key factors to consider a life-long financial planning. On behalf of the YMC, we would express our gratitude to the two guest speakers for delivering a fruitful presentation.

Mr Pharaoh Yam presenting his advice on financial planning strategies under the economic downturn

Technical seminar on the practice of reinforced soil design and construction in Malaysia By Mr TSE Sai Chung On 26 February 2009, the Hong Kong Geotechnical Society, the GE Division and YMC jointly organised a technical seminar on the application, design, material specification and construction of reinforced soil walls (RE wall). The seminar was delivered by Ir Dr Nehemiah C H Lee, Managing Director of Nehemiah Reinforced Soil Sdn Bhd, who came from Malaysia. Over 100 participants attended this seminar. The seminar began with an introduction on the development of RE wall and material used for the reinforcement such as geosynthetic and anchor reinforcement. Ir Dr Lee then described the basic concept of RE wall by showing human load acting on a little sand bund with and without twigs which acted as reinforcement. He revealed that RE wall was widely used in residential, industrial and infrastructure projects due to its technical and economical advantages over conventional forms of construction. Ir Dr Lee presented photos of RE wall with impressive facing panels which showed that RE wall not only provides solution on stability but also gives aesthetics and landscaping design to the environment. After the introduction, Ir Dr Lee explained the design of RE wall with reference to the BS8006:1995. The design is to safeguard against the occurrence of ultimate limit state (ULS) and the serviceability state (SLS). Ir Dr Lee advised that mode of failures including overall instability, sliding failure, overturning failure and bearing failure, known as the external instability must be checked during design. Internal instability such as rupture and pull-out of reinforcements should also be checked. He also mentioned that the Geoguide 6 published by the GEO is a good design guide for the design of RE wall. In the second part, Ir Dr Lee presented the findings of some recent research studies including centrifuge model test to model the failure mechanism of RE wall and field pull-out test for reinforcement. Comparison between the predicted and field data of the lateral displacements of RE wall was also presented. Finally, Ir Dr Lee briefly described the construction method and sequence for constructing RE wall. The seminar ended with a question-and-answer session and a number of questions related to drainage and RE wall stability were asked. On behalf of all organisers, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to Ir Dr Lee for his informative presentation.

Ir Dr Eric Li (R), Immediate Past Chairman of the GE Division, presenting souvenir to Ir Dr Nehemiah Lee (L) The seminar was well attended by over 100 participants

Career talk for building services engineering student at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University By Ms Cindy MAN and Mr AU Chun Chiu On 26 February 2009, the YMC and the HKIE Student Chapter - the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) organised a career talk for building services engineering (BSE) students at the PolyU. Two honourable guest speakers were invited to introduce the profession. They were Ir Kenneth Li, Chairman of the BS Division, and Ir K F Yee, Committee Member of the BS Division. Another three young engineers, Mr Patrick Huang, Ms Loretta Lee and Mr Wallace Yi, were invited to share their experiences at the later part of the talk. Over 40 students attended this event. The talk started with an introduction on the HKIE and YMC by Mr Ernest Tsang, Committee Member of the YMC. Afterwards, Ir Li delivered a fruitful presentation. He introduced the BS Division and work prospect of BS engineers in Hong Kong, which included working in a contractor, consultant, facility management (FM), supplier and developer. It was followed by an introduction on FM supporting with case studies by Ir Yee who is currently working in FM. FM is very complicated, it includes maintenance and operation, contingency and emergency response to fault, safety management and customer services, etc. In next session, three young engineers shared their working experiences with the students. They shared what kind of characters a BS engineer should have and their challenges faced at their workplace. Furthermore, they shared their views on how to overcome changes from a student to an engineer and gave some advice to students on how to equip themselves before graduation, such as good writing skill and oral presentation in English and Putonghua. One of the young engineers quoted a statement from Wikipedia, "Building services engineering brings buildings and structures to life." This was very encouraging and improved self-esteem of students. The talk ended by a question-and-answer session with positive responses received. Many questions were raised by students in view of job prospects and their career route to become professional. With speakers from different sectors, their experience sharing benefited the students. We would like to express our gratitude to speakers from the BS Division for supporting this activity.

Speakers with the YMC and Student Chapter Committee Members Ir Kenneth Li answering questions raised by the students