Arkib Mashizaki Keikan: Trip to PG Power Plant

The power plant

The visit was a brief one. But the briefness of how things went, thought us many things. Puan Hayati, our lecturer brought us on this trip so that we learn the ways of engineers, in live. How they think, how they brought their knowledge to practical use and lots of other cool exilirating stuffs.

We entered the power plant, with lots of things expected in our mind. Before, Puan Hayati said she told the "Power-Plantiers" that we are bunch of highly intelligent kids (well, I don't know how true that is, but lets hope so...). And before, we were given an assignment regarding a power plant problem. Because of that, our minds were pouring with questions.

As for myself, this would be my first time seing a-non-academician-engineer at work (my dad's an academician-engineer, I see him nearly every day!). I thought "real" engineers have very low PR, but that perception of mine instantly change when one of the engineers introduced himself with an ear-to-ear smile. "My name is Hanaffi..." he said, after he walked slumberly to the front of the majlis. Man, he's really friendly...

We went around the power plant and looked at some turbines, some boilers and the control room. Man, all the things were "extraterrestrially" humungous! Unfortunately we were unlucky enough as to see the isi perut of those things. It was just not our day (from that point of view). It would be kinda of cool to see all the turbine's blades and stuffs. Another thing that I realise was that the power plant was very cleen or at least tidy.

The visit to the control room was a long one. Sedar-sedar, we were divided into a few small groups. Some were listening to Mr. Hanaffi explaining, some were taking pictures with other engineers, and some were posing as though they themselves were engineers!

Time went by quickly. Suddenly we were told that its already the time to return. Nearly everyone (I think) were still not satisfied, perhaps they wanted to know and see more. But still everyone obeyed and walked out of the main building. In those last opportunities, many took pictures of all sorts. Weird these kanak-kanak riang are! Then all "balik"ed...

Here was what I got or learnt from the visit:

Engineers are those who put knowledge and ideas to practical use.
Even engineers are friendly and have good PR! (Kagum dengan Mr. Hanaffi)
Cleanliness of the working environment affects quality of products.
Better my understanding on turbines, boilers and other thermo systems.
We must plan ahead, so that tak tertinggal lagi yang wajib! (Btw, Islam is so practical that in a condition when solah time is nearly over we can even solah in the bus. The wudhu' can be 'ganti'ed with tayammum.)