ENG - IBT -Overseas Study Trips

April 2008 - Overseas Study Trip (OST) to Perak - Water Rafting

	IBT students arriving at the water rafting campsite
Staffs and students having a group picture taken upon arriving at the water rafting area
	Staffs and students casually chatting before turning in for the night
Students and staffs posing for a group picture after water rafting

October 2006 - Overseas Study Trip (OST) to Taipei 101 in Taiwan, ROC

Taipei 101 – 1^st in the world for:

Tallest structural top at 508 m up
Highest occupied floor at 101 storeys above ground level, 438 m up
Fastest elevator at 1,010 m/min (60 km/h)

and the tallest building in the world for now, well, at least until the Burj Dubai is completed anyway! In comparison, consider the height of the following:

Malaysia’s Petronas Twin Towers – 452 m
Singapore’s Republic Plaza – 280 m
Singapore’s UOB Plaza 1 – 280 m
Singapore’s OUB Center – 280 m
Singapore’s Swissotel Westin – 226 m

During their Dec 2006 Term Break, 26 IBT students - accompanied by their lecturer, Mr Terence Wong – visited Taipei to learn all about its intelligent features, and it was a real eye-opener. But it wasn’t all heavy stuff, there was time for R&R (rest and recreation) too, as the following series of photos will show.

Taipei 101 - looking up from ground level. Rather reminds you of Jack and the Beanstalk, doesn’t it?

Our students (with Mr Terence Wong on extreme right) posing before the Observation Lobby in Taipei 101.

The world’s fastest elevator – 1,010 m/min is equivalent to 60 km/h or a car cruising at 4^th gear – a bit hard to imagine if you’re used to automatic transmission – but you get the idea!

Super high-rise buildings are designed to resist wind pressure & be flexible – this tuned mass wind damper helps ensure stability & comfort while ensuring flexibility in earthquake situations. Here are some of the damper’s features:

Largest passive, tuned mass damper in the world
Weighs 660 metric tons (that’s equivalent to 66 10-kg sacks of rice)
Measures 5.5 m in diameter
16 high-strength steel cables support the damper, each 9 cm in diameter and containing more than 2,000 strands of wire to increase flexibility and prolong service life

A 2,000 RT chiller – part of Taipei 101’s cooling system. Unlike conventional plants, this chiller plant operates on ice-based thermal storage. In the night, when electricity costs less, the chillers operate to produce ice, which is then stored in ice tanks. During the day, when electricity costs more, the chillers do not operate. Instead, the stored ice is melted and the energy absorbed in the process helps to cool the building. This helps reduce the building’s electricity bill.

Inside the building automation system (BAS) monitoring and control center. This essentially is the building’s nerve center, where all the intelligent systems are continuously monitored.