Abstract. In recent years, the effect of overinflated tyre pressure and increased heavy vehicles' axle load on flexible pavements has become a subject of great concern because of the higher stress levels induced and damage caused to road pavements. This paper aims to evaluate the effect of variable tyre inflation pressures (using actual tyre contact/footprint area) to determine the responses of flexible pavement. A full scale experiment was conducted on a heavy vehicle with 1:1:2 axle configuration, 10 R 20 tyre size and attached trailer with constant axle load. Measurements were made for actual tyre-pavement contact area. KENPAVE linear elastic program was then used to analyse the effects of the measured actual tyre-pavement contact area and the results was compared using conventional circular tyre contact area. A comparative analysis was then made between the actual contact area and the conventional circular tyre contact area. It was found that high tyre inflation pressure produce smaller contact area, giving more detrimental effect on the flexible pavement. It was also found that the temperature of tyres when the heavy vehicles are operational give less significant impact on tyre inflation pressure for the Malaysian climate.

The attainment of program outcomes for Solid Mechanic course offered to the Diploma in Civil Engineering students is evaluated. It was found that most of the students were incapable to demonstrate graduate attributes which applying knowledge of mathematics, natural science and engineering fundamentals and the ability to analyse engineering problems. Therefore, this study investigates the impact of physics and maths scores on the students’ performance of solid mechanics. Analysis of the previous results in physics and maths shows that there is a clear link between students’ fundamentals knowledge and the understanding of solid mechanics. Meanwhile, this study also aims to find out the root causes that led to the high failure rate of solid mechanics. A quantitative method was employed and a total of 180 students responded to the survey. Results of survey indicate that most of the students perceived that they had limited time to gain deep understanding of the course and they could not visualise the complex problems in solid mechanics. Majority of the students admitted that they did not manage to solve all questions during their final exam, and they were indeed not well prepared for it. Hence, the problem of high failure rate is feasible to be solved provided both lecturers and students making efforts in striving the success of this course.      Keywords: Solid mechanics, Program outcomes, Failure rate, Problem solving, Applying knowledge

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In the sphere of education, testing and enhancing students' comprehension is not a simple process. This is mirrored in the assessment results, where particular courses have a high failure rate. On the UiTM system, the high failure rate is defined as the proportion of students who fail a subject that exceeds the threshold of 25 percent. Therefore, topics exceeding this limit are deemed incapable of meeting the Academic Quality UiTM objective. In this study, Basic Hydraulic courses is chosen to be a pilot study as the failure rate is high for few semesters. A creative strategy and method of teaching and learning is being proposed to increase students' understanding of the course's content as to overcome the related issue. A smartphone application known as Sahabat Maya Pelajar (SMa2P) has been introduced and integrated into the teaching and learning process. According to the examination records of the Basic Hydraulics course at the Faculty of Civil Engineering at UiTM Johor, the failure rate of this course is decrease. This is shown by comparing results between semesters of 20204 and 20212 which indicate the course failure rate decreased by 22% in the latter semester. Therefore, it is crucial to improve students' performance and comprehension by using digital tools as this platform able to incorporate interactive teaching approaches into classroom activities through smartphone application.

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