Saturday 17 September 2011

ERCAD: MY FIRST FE SOFTWARE DEVELOPED TOGETHER WITH MY STUDENTS


Alhamdullilah, after almost 4 years of devotion, my postgrad students and I have finally completed an engineering software named as Educational Reinforced Concrete Analysis and Design software or ERCAD Version 1.5. List of my students, listed as board of directors of Scylla Operation Sdn. Bhd. is given at the bottom of this article. The source codes of the software have been written totally by my students hence the claim of Malaysia first 100% homegrown software. ERCAD automates the analysis and design of RC structures for low and medium rise buildings. For the analysis, finite element method has been employed in obtaining the values of the stresses, forces and displacement whilst BS 8110 is the basis for the design procedure. The development of the software is benchmarked against two established software; ESTEEM and ORION.

Figure 1: Plan view modelling feature

The project have been funded by KPerak Inc with the collaboration of CREAM-CIDB. KPerak is a Perak State Government agency that responsible for the development of Perak into a fully developed knowledge-based economy state by 2020 through various ICT initiatives. The project received about RM1 million investment from KPerak.


Figure 2: 3D-Rendering feature
The software has been beta-tested at a consulting firm in Subang for two months and obtained approval from various universities. The software also has received support letter from Jabatan Pengajian Tinggi, MOHE for commercialization purposes. As far as sale and marketing are concerned, we have started the activities in August and so far able to sell 7 units while more deals to be sealed under next years budget.
Figure 3: FEA ouput (bending moment diagram)

As a byproduct of this project, all the eleven students of mine has established a company called Scylla Operation Sdn. Bhd. The establishment is to ensure the continuity of the work and to fill the vacuum that exist in this country; Scylla Operation is the first company that able to write finite element software fully from scratch without the need to venture with international parties in source code development. Visit Scylla Operation at http://scyllaoperation.com/.

Figure 4: Detailing output (beam)


Figure 5: Detailing output (slab)

Figure 6: Detailing output (column)


List of my postgrads student cum BOD of Scylla Operation Sdn. Bhd is given below:

Mohd Hamidi bin Harun

Mohamad Iqbal bin Badli

Abdul Azim bin Mohd Samiin

Mohd Al-Akhbar bin Mohd Noor

Mohd Zhafri bin Jamil Abd Nazir

Muhammad Nor Hafidzi bin Mahat

Norhidayah binti Rasin

Mohd Farhan bin Mohammad Foad

Erwan Hafidzi Kasiman

Mohd Shahrul Nizam Ardianshah

Mohd Sharaffuddeeen Suhaimi



8 comments:

Dr. Bentara said...

congrats doc... this is a new dawn!

Ghab said...

I am delighted to Congratulate you and your students as you celebrate the completion of your ERCAD Version . It is an honor to know what the Malay minds can do with a strong commitment collectively . After of much schism among the Malays and non Malays , they are intercepted off guard .

It is an applicable piece of content in the arena of digital age whom every Malaysian can be proud of . Learning , teaching and application via computer by mean of the ERCAD Version certainly will appreciate the acceleration of understanding to the subject . Moreover , the software will encourage the users to be more innovative in their fields resulting competency to technologically applicability , safety and sound .

I guess , this software will help to accurately engineered the structural aspect of the building constructed from being easily collapsed due to stress , weight and gravity , Shabas .

Airilsametok said...

Dr Ben and Abg Ghaf: Thanks. I will extend your comments to my students so as to keep them motivated.

DeeI said...

Kudos to you and your devoted group of students upon accomplishing the engineering software. It was indeed a sure sign of one's commitment towards a good cause and effort. Proud that Malaysians Malays are able to produce highly competitive product...my sincere congratulations on your success...MALAYSIA BOLEH!!

Airilsametok said...

Deel: Thanks for the motivational and encouraging comment. We really need it.

gagakHitam said...

well this will be a good starting point & example for our malaysian student to start engaging in this sort of high level intellectual activity..wish you all good luck..

Azizul said...

Dear Dr. Do the software have the trial version? kinda interested since it was developed by my colleagues. damn it I am so jealous that I am not one of them! anyway congrats Dr!

Airilsametok said...

Azizul: I am afraid there is no trial version. The reason being,its already cheap maa...you can have ERCAD for RM 100 but mind you that ERCAD is strictly for educational purposes. I said this because I believe you have graduated and now working as an engineer. So you still can buy it as souvenir and a sign of support for us....we need your support bro. And we are releasing the industrial version upcoming January. This version you can use in your work but hehehe...the estimated price would be around RM 10,000 but still cheap maa compared to ESTEEM and ORION; both would cost you more the RM 50,000 for a standalone. Thanks.