N e w s l e t t e r o f E n g i n e e r i n g S c i e n c e P r o g r a m m e

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ESP Associate Ernest Chua Receives Coveted NRF CRP Grant

NUS GREEN ENERGY researcher

Dr Chua Kian Jon Ernest and his team

won the recent 9th NRF CRP grant call

for their project entitled: “Air

Conditioning Systems: A novel hybrid

co-generation-based district cooling to

achieve 0.65 ±0.5 kW/Rton”. Professor

Ng Kim Choon, from the Department of

Mechanical Engineering, is the overall

programme PI for this project.

This project aims to realize a quantum

improvement in the energy efficiency of

air conditioning systems. It calls for the

implementation of a hybrid cogeneration

strict cooling system with the decoupling

of sensible and latent cooling for an innovative approach to providing air conditioning. The generated cooling is

distributed to all buildings in Singapore via a centralized district network – a practical cooling system for a small city

state Singapore.

One key part of this proposal focuses on the moisture removal (hence the latent load) of the air supplied to buildings

using a state-of-the-art vacuum-assisted membrane-based dehumidifier. Membranes are developed to sieve out

water molecules after a threshold air flux. The membranes allow water vapour permeation at high fluxes and at the

same time block air penetration resulting in efficient air dehumidification. This novel approach enables the

chilled-water temperatures to be raised from the conventional 5oC to a higher supply temperature 12oC; translating to

a marked reduction in energy consumed. In addition, the synthesized membranes will provide added functionalities

including pollutant sensing and air disinfection.

This project meets the NRF’s Energy National Innovation Challenge to develop a cost-competitive solution for

deployment within 20 years to help Singapore improve energy efficiency, reduce carbon emissions and increase

energy option.

The proposal, if deployed island-wide, can potentially yield an estimated energy savings amounting to S$600 million

annually at today’s electricity prices and cooling needs. Another tangible benefit is the corresponding reduction in

Singapore’s carbon emissions of about 4% below the business-as-usual (BAU) levels, which is highly significant given

Singapore’s commitment to reduce its emissions by 7% to 11% below the 2020 BAU levels.

Dr Ernest Chua and his team, comprising ESP & ME students and a research engineer, are working on air membrane-dehumidifier which will eventually

be tested on large-scale air-conditioning systems.

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Dr. Ho Ghim Wei’s Research Team Discovers New Transparent Conductors, Paving the Way for Cheaper and ‘Greener’ Electronics

A research team led by Dr Ho Ghim Wei from the NUS

Engineering Science Programme and NUS Department of

Electrical & Computer Engineering, has come out with a

novel water-based method of fabricating “transparent

conductors” – a world’s first, paving the way for much

cheaper and energy efficient electronics.

Transparent conductors (TCs) play a critical role in many

electronics, for example, glass touch-control panels, “smart”

windows (or electro-chromic windows), flat panel display and

solar panel. As the name suggests, they are optically

transparent and electrically conductive which act as a window

for light to pass through to the active material beneath. In

order for them to be effective, such TCs are fabricated

currently from doped indium based metal oxides.

A primary metal used in TC films, indium is a soft, silvery-white metal occurring

naturally in association with zinc and some other metals and it is extremely rare -

less than 6,000 metric tonnes are available in the world. Other compounds such as

aluminium-doped zinc oxide are being used as alternative materials which help to

lessen the amount of indium needed. There are still drawbacks - for example, such

compounds are highly dependent on the environment they operate in.

The research team PhD student Kevin Moe’s synthesized a compound consisting

of zinc oxide (ZnO) with a small amount of gallium on glass panels to make a novel

kind of TCs. He discovered that his TCs perform just as well as commercial ones -

and come with a host of advantages to boot. A significant advantage is that the

process involves ‘green’ chemistry and does not pose any significant process

hazard or environmental concern. He uses a method known as “low temperature

aqueous synthesis” which is water-based.

Said Dr Ho, “For starters, this process, as its name suggests, does not require high

heat and so this helps to lower the cost of the product. We use ZnO which is

abundantly found compared to other oxides currently use in the production of TCs

to further reduce the cost. The process also allows great scalability as we can

produce numerous TC films simultaneously. Another added novelty is the ability

to grow the TC in a three-dimensional fashion for enhanced performance.”

Patterned three-dimensional TC electrodes were fabricated to produce films of optimised surface areas and

roughness for an increased charge collector density and directed charge transport, as well as enhanced light

scattering capabilities which are especially well-suited for photovoltaic applications.

The team has filed a U.S. patent for their invention and recently published one of their research results in the

journal, Energy & Environmental Science in March 2012. Also, the news was covered by TODAY newspaper on the

28th Sep 2012. This is the first time that such a method is reported for TCs used in solar cells. They are also cur-

rently exploring new applications such as flat panel display, “smart” windows and thin film transistor for their novel

method.

A new kind of transparent conductor

Professors from Osaka University visit ESP

Prof Masaaki Ashida and Prof Tadao Nagatsuma from the School of Engineering Science, Osaka University, visited

ESP Office on the 14th December 2012. As the two professors are experts in photonics and optics, they were taken

on a tour of the microscopy laboratories of ESP. They also had a lunch meeting with Prof Wang, A/Prof Khursheed,

Dr Daniel Pickard and Dr Andrew Bettiol to discuss collaborative research relating to Photonics and Optics.

Osaka University is spearheading the formation of an International Engineering Science Consortium with NUS, KTH

(Sweden), University of California Berkeley (USA) and University of Toronto (Canada) as its members.

Top: Transparent conductor on glass.

Bottom: Magnified image of the three-dimensional transparent conductors on glass.

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ESP Competition: Construction and Testing of Earthquake-Resistant Towers By Koh Soo Jin Adrian (ESP Associate)

This was the first of many design projects that ESP students have to undertake as part of the curriculum. The

students are required to fulfil two objectives: to determine Young’s Modulus of two types of wooden sticks with

different stiffnesses using a beam-bending experiment, and to construct a tower with a restricted number of wooden

sticks to resist horizontal base acceleration.

Prof Wang Chien Ming delivered a lecture on beam theory, which spurred the students to think deeply into designing

their beam experiments and collection of data to determine the Young’s modulus. The competitors displayed great

resourcefulness, including sourcing for product information of the wooden sticks. Ultimately, they found the

properties of Balsa and Bass wood.

Armed with the properties of both types of wood, the

students proceeded to design, analyse and construct the

model tower. Lectures on the fundamentals of structural

dynamics and the Finite Element Method were presented

to the students. All the teams were aware that their

structure should have a fundamental frequency in excess of

the maximum prescribed base excitation frequency of 5.0

Hertz. They are also aware that their towers should be

designed for good shear resistance near the base, and

minimize deflection at the upper floors. Most teams are

conscious of imperfect workmanship, which may result in a

less-than-perfect structure compared to the one analyzed

by the software. Some teams identified the possibility of

columns buckling under compressive load and dynamic

excitation. The eventual winner was a tower designed by

the team comprising Siah Kien Wei, Ang Zhen Yang, Ho

Shuyuan, Tan Si Jie Elain and Loh Chee Liang, which

sustained a peak horizontal acceleration of 1250 gals

(equivalent to a scale of 10 on the Richter scale).

On behalf of my students, I wish to thank IStructE Singapore Regional Group for sponsoring the prizes for the top

three winning teams.

First prize winners; Tan Si Jie Elain, Loh Chee Liang, Ang Zhen Yang, Ho Shuyuan & Siah Kien Wei posing proudly

with ESP Director, Prof Wang (second from right) and ESP Associate/Supervisor, Dr Adrian Koh (extreme right)

1st

2nd

3rd

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ESP Staff Win Awards

Ms Angela Loke and Ms Flora Wang were two of the three Faculty of

Engineering staff who were awarded the Quality Service Awards for

their exemplary service for the year 2012. They will receive the Cash

Prize and the Service Achiever Award Certificates from the OQM

Director in a function arranged for them on 6th February 2013.

ESP is proud that four of its office staff have received this coveted

award in consecutive years since 2010.

A/Prof Anjam Khursheed, Mrs Anna Robinson, Mr Tay Peng Yeow and Mr Chew Yew Lin of ESP received the Long

Service Awards from the FoE Dean in a ceremony held in recognition of dedicated and committed service in NUS on

19th November 2012 at the Engineering Auditorium.

Prof Ernst Rank Visits ESP

Prof Ernst Rank, Chair for Computation in Engineering, Technical

University of Munich, Germany gave a talk on “Isogeometric Analysis &

The Finite Cell Method: Two Approaches to Better Integrate CAD and

Numerical Analysis”.

In his talk to the ESP community on 14 Nov 2012, Prof Rank emphasized

that in recent years, isogeometric analysis (IGA) had gained huge

attention in the computational science and engineering community,

based on geometric models described by spline functions, as they have

been used very successfully in the world of Computer Aided Design. IGA

takes the very same functions to approximate e.g. structural

displacements by a finite-element-like approach.

He said that the big advantage compared to the classical FEM is the

excellent integration of design and analysis, and the high accuracy

obtainable by this new approach. IGA is especially well suited to

geometric models of thin structures, described by the shape of their

surfaces, so-called BRep-models.

The Finite Cell Method (FCM), on the other hand, can be integrated easily with the second class of frequently used

geometric models, the Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG). FCM is a fictitious domain approach with high order

shape functions, embedding a physical body into a larger, simply shaped domain. FCM relieves completely from the

necessity to generate a finite element mesh and thus reduces the engineering effort for a numerical analysis

drastically. Prof Rank shared recent results on the FCM, demonstrating its efficiency on complex examples from civil

and automotive engineering. Finally, he pointed out that a synthesis of the central concepts of IGA and FCM

combines the advantages of both methods in a seamless design-through-analysis methodology.

Assoc Prof Anjam Khursheed presenting the ESP Souvenir to Prof Ernst Rank

after the talk on 14 November 2012

FoE Dean Prof Chan Eng Soon presented the Long Service Awards to A/Prof Anjam Khursheed, Mrs Anna Robinson & Mr Tay Peng Yeow for 15, 10 and 30 years of service respectively.

Ms Angela Loke Service Achiever

Ms Flora Wang Service Achiever

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Recent Achievements of ESP Staff

Dr. Palani Balaya has been appointed a Topical Editor of the Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry for the topic on

"Batteries, Capacitors, Fuel Cells" for the period 2013-2015. The Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry which

published by Springer, Germany receives an increasing number of manuscripts in various fields of solid state is

electrochemistry, with an enormous growth rate especially in the fields of batteries, capacitors and fuel cells.

Besides, the scientific growth in Asia is at an incredible pace and indeed Asia is producing the largest number of

submissions on these topics.

Prof Wang Chien Ming was successful in obtaining the Australian Research Council – Discovery Project grant

amounting to AUD360,000 to develop microplane material models for graphene-oxide-reinforced concretes. The

project duration is 3 years (from 2013-2015). The principal investigator is Dr Duan Wenhui of the Department of

Civil Engineering, Monash University, Australia and the other collaborators are Prof Jay G Sanjayan and Prof

Zdenek Bazant.

Prof Wang Chien Ming delivered a special

lecture on “The Status of Very Large Floating

Structures” at the 2nd International

Conference on Computational Design in

Engineering, held in Jeju, Korea from 13-16

November 2012. He also gave a keynote

lecture on “Molecular dynamics simulation

results for buckling of carbon nanotubes

with small aspect ratios” at the International

Congress on Computational Mechanics and

Simulations, IIT Hyderabad from 9-12

December 2012.

and Students...

ESP Year 4 students; NgoYun Fun, Benjamin Kho & Chiam Fusong recently published a paper in the proceedings of

the International Conference on Engineering and Applied Science 2012 which was held in Hong Kong. The title of

the paper is "Maximising Incident Diffuse and Direct Solar Irradiance on Photovoltaic Panels Through the Use of

Fixed Tilt and Limited Azimuth Tracking". The paper presents the energy simulation methods and results of a PV

array designed for the Team NUS Solar Decathlon.

ESP Year 2 student Manickamalar Jothimani Pillay has to added to his credit two

achievements; Team Rookie of the Year (Judo) and NUS Half Colours. He received both

awards at a function held in the University Cultural Centre.

ESP Year 3 student Ding Zhiwei clinched the best student prize

for Mechanical Engineering ME4211 Module in Applied

Mechanics for this semester. He will receive the cash prize and

certificate from the Head of the Department of Mechanical

Engineering.

Ding Zhiwei is currently the top student in his cohort and aspires

to be a SCIENTIST!

Prof Wang presenting his lecture on Status of VLFS in CODE 2012, Jeju, Korea

Manickamalar Jothimani Pillay

Ding Zhiwei posing in front of the Hollywood Theatre, USA

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EG2604 Innovation Programme Project on Autonomous Lego Robot Navigation with Perception Capability

21 ESP students participated in EG2604 Innovation Programme to design and program Lego robots with perception

capability as well as to navigate around a circuit. In the construction of the robot, students have to consider the

dynamics of mounted sensors that include a webcam acting as its perception. While navigating along a prescribed

path, the robot has to correctly classify the objects seen through the webcam. Students need to investigate and study,

firstly, the mechanical form of the robot to carry the webcam, and secondly, the training and testing phases of the

object classification algorithm in order to achieve high accuracy of identification.

In order to make the project interesting and to draw out innovative talents of the students, a mini-competition was

organized. Students were divided into 7 teams, each comprising 3 students. The fun competition takes place on 12

Oct 2012 outside the ESP office (see pictures). Two independent judges from DSO National Laboratories with a

strong background in computer vision and robotics were invited to judge the competition. The students were

assessed based on several factors such as camera fixation, scene completion, timing, classification accuracy, program

flow, navigation program, robustness, mechanical stability and image quality. The score from the competition

together with the continuous assessment of the assignments handled out during the class were tabulated to

determine the overall winners. Attractive prizes were given out to the top three winning teams and also for the most

innovative team and best teamwork. This is the third successful run of the project on building Lego robots under the

Innovation Programme.

BBQ Night and Mooncake Festival @ PGP By Ryan Yang

After the midterm tests and quizzes, it was time for the

ESPian community to let down their hair. The Mooncake

festival cum BBQ night (6th October 2012) was just that.

A commemoration of the Mid-Autumn Festival served as a

great opportunity for the freshmen to interact with the senior

batches and enjoy a barbeque under the full moon.

The occasion started off in the afternoon with students

gathering at Prince George’s Park basketball and badminton

courts to play. To liven up the mood at the BBQ pit, Prof

Wang performed card tricks to a group of year 2 and year 3

students to engage their thinking minds. A few hours of

laughs and tiredness later, appetites were whetted.

Amazingly, the BBQ pit at Prince George’s Park was well

packed with ESPians despite the initial threat of rain. The fire

was started once the BBQ staples arrived and by 7pm the first

plate of satay hit the noisy benches.

The highlight of the night was when the ESP sub-club president, Li Bowen, brought out a mooncake the size of a

pizza and served everyone a piece. It was a lovely evening getting to know each other beyond the lectures and tutorials

that ended with a lightshow of sparklers. The ESPian community would like to thank Prof Wang and Dr Jeroen van

Kan for taking time out of their hectic schedule to grace the night with their presence.

Mrs & Dr Jeroen van Kan enjoyed the BBQ evening with the ESP students and Prof Wang (not in picture)

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ESP Graduates at NUS Engineering Alumni Dinner

In the NUS Engineering Alumni Gala Dinner held

at the NUSS Guild House on 12 October 2012,

ESP was allocated its inaugural table of alumni.

Being the most recent engineering programme

rolled out by the Faculty of Engineering, the ESP

table has obviously the youngest alumni among

the huge crowd of engineers.

Prof Wang enjoyed the warm fellowship with the

ESP alumni. He updated the alumni on the

happenings in ESP and at the same time was

pleased to learn that ESP alumni are doing well

in all kinds of industries. Truly, ESP has

empowered graduates to do whatever they wish

to pursue in higher studies or work.

From right to left: Tan Jian Hao – Design Engineer with Halliburton, Eunice Koh – Engineer with NEA, Tan Wenyou – Investment

Manager with SPRING, Prof Wang, Melvin Fong – Engineer with LJ Energy, Edna Seah – Solution Application Engineer with Schneider

Electric, Lew Jen Sern – Research Engineer with SERIS, Aqdas Nida – Research Engineer with NUS Department of Mechanical Engineering,

Franco Lim – PhD student in NUS Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Benjamin Kho – Final Year ESP Student.

Winners for ESP 3902 Solar Powered Unmanned Rover Competition The solar powered unmanned land rover competition was held in Blk E3A on 9 Nov 2012. The following teams were

the winners:

1st Prize to Team 1 comprising James Russell, Chen Yu, Liu Yi, Wang Chen & Pol Van Der Pluijm

2nd Prize to Team 5 comprising Waqas Hassan Cheema, Yao Jialiang, Boo Choon Hung Aloysius & Seng Vibol.

3rd Prize to Team 2 comprising Hou Chenxi, Goh Wen Fang Dacia, Michelle Julius, Yang Zhenzhi & Jonathan McGowan

ESP Welcomes New Assistant Manager, Ms Violet Tay and Management Assistant Officer, Ms Shanmuga Priya

Ms Violet Tay joined the ESP family in the position of Assistant Manager in Dec 2012.

Violet has many years of working experience in the private higher learning industry.

Prior to joining NUS’ Engineering Science Programme, she was an executive in a private

institution and was involved in students administration, career services and program

management. Violet will be in charge of general administration in ESP. During her

leisure time, Violet enjoys keeping fish and plants. These activities help her to relax and

to recharge to face new challenges. She also enjoys watching Korean dramas.

Ms Shanmuga Priya will join the ESP family in the position of MAO in Jan 2013.

Priya graduated from SIM(UOL) with a BSc in Management. Previously, she was

with OCBC as a loans retention officer. Priya will be in charge of undergraduate

student matters in ESP. Priya loves to travel and enjoys experiencing new cul-

tures along the way.

ESP family wishes both Violet and Priya, a successful career and good times in the Engineering Science Programme.

Violet’s motto: To see the

strength in every person!

Priya’s motto: To live life as it comes!

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For any enquiry or feedback, please contact: Engineering Science Programme National University of Singapore 9 Engineering Drive 1, EA #06-10 Singapore 117576

Website: www.esp.nus.edu.sg Tel No.: (65) 6516 8854 Fax No.: (65) 6775 4710 Email: espbox1@nus.edu.sg

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ESPians featured in Newspaper Articles

Prof Wang in front of man-made floating islands on the Han river, Seoul.

Dr Ho Ghim Wei was featured in TODAY newspaper on 28th Sep 2012 for a scientific discovery. She demonstrated that it is possible to replace ITO in dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) with a 3-D transparent conductor fabricated using a cheap aqueous method.

Prof Wang Chien Ming was featured in a full page article entitled

“My home in the sea? Building large floating platforms to compete

for space in the sea” on page 14 of Lianhe Zaobao, Sunday

14 October 2012. Prof Wang, who is an expert in large floating

platforms, suggested that Singapore could explore expanding

beyond the shoreline to gain space in the sea.

Dr Ho in the lab with PhD student Mr Kevin Moe

ESP Graduate Mr Tan Wenyou was featured in the Straits Times on 31 Dec 2012 with

Mr Chiu Whye Leong on the subject “Insider’s account of Gambling Addiction”.

Mr Chiu credited Dr Leong Kaiwen and Wenyou for helping him turn around his life

from gambling addictions and debts to resuming his studies reading Business and

Accountancy in UniSIM in the new year in addition to managing his food franchise

business on the sidelines.

ESP Graduates Tan Wenyou, Investment Manager in

SPRING Singapore, Foo Wei Jian, Electromagnetic

Engineer in DSO National Laboratories and ESP 3rd Year

Student Tee Ng Joey were featured under the heading

“Bridging Engineering and Science” in the current

edition of Brightsparks Magazine, dedicated to students

from Public Universities. Mr Ethan Sia of Brightsparks

said he was impressed by ESP students who are all

rounded in many aspects with exceptional talents.

Mr Zhao Dexin, founded Imperio Trading in

March 2010 before entering the Electrical

Engineering Department, NUS in the same

year. In early 2012, Mr Waqas Hassan

Cheema, student from Engineering Science

joined this company as its Marketing and

Sales Director. They were recently featured in

MyPaper as the Dynamic Duo of successful

Student Entrepreneurs for their good

business acumen. Dynamic Duo: Imperio Trading’s

Marketing & Sales Director, Mr Waqas Hassan and Founder, Zho Dexin

Mr Chiu Whye Leong & Mr Tan Wenyou

Mr Foo Wei Jian Electromagnetic Engineer

DSO Nat. Laboratories

Ms Tee Ng Joey ESP Year3 Student

Mr Tan Wenyou Investment Manager SPRING Singapore