Samini Balakrishnan, a UTAR Master's student, bagged the first prize for the Postgraduate Category of the Shell Inter-Varsity Student Paper Presentation Contest 2009 (S-SPEC 2009). The event themed 'Engineering Creative Innovation for Global Technology Challenge' was held from 16 to 17 March 2009 at University Teknologi Malaysia in Skudai.

For her achievement, Samini won cash prize (RM 2000), a trophy, a certificate and a field trip sponsored by Shell Malaysia.

S-SPEC is an annual event organised by a Student Chapter organization at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in collaboration with Shell Corporation as the sponsor. The 2009 contest was open to all undergraduates and postgraduates from all courses and disciplines and attracted the participation of students from local and foreign institutions of higher learning.