SYNOPSIS

This talk covers the current scenario on timber construction in Malaysia and the challenges faced by the engineers, architects and timber industries in the use of timber in construction. The presentation will also highlight recent and future development on timber construction in Malaysia and overseas as well as some studies on timber products. This presentation will include a discussion on design standards based on Eurocodes and Malaysian Standards as well as the requirement for CE marking on timber and engineered timber products.


SPEAKER BIODATA

Prof. Dr. Zakiah Ahmad is the Director of Infrastucture Engineering and Sustainable Management at Universiti Teknologi Mara. Zakiah obtained her Bachelor Degree in Civil Engineering and Masters degree at the Memphis State University, United States of America before continuing to take PhD in Timber Engineering at University of Bath United Kingdom.

Zakiah is specialising in timber engineering and timber composites. Her other interest includes nano-polymer composites as well as cement composites. She has over 15 years research experience in the fields of  the creep and fatigue of wood and natural fibre composites, the development of bonded-in technology for joints in timber structures, laminated veneer lumber (LVL) and glued laminated timber (glulam) as well as cement composites. Up to this date, she has secured and leads more them 30 numbers of research grants. She has published more than 300 papers in journals and proceedings. She has received several gold and silver awards on her research projects at national and international research competitions. She is also the recipient of best researcher award and gold consultant award.

Zakiah has served as consultant, committee member and advisor to numerous public agencies and institutions on timber engineering related projects. She also has been appointed as visiting professor/research scientist at BRE Research Institute, University of Bath, United Kingdom, Centre for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, School of Chemical Sciences, Mahatma Gandhi University India and Timber Research Institute, Kyoto University Japan.

She played an essential role in the Malaysian Standard committees as the Chairman and committee member for timber structures group, committee for reviewing Malaysian Uniform Building by Law and as Malaysian delegates/representative for ISO technical committee for timber structures. She also active in giving keynote papers on timber related topics at numerous seminars and conferences at national and international level.