Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
NRPjr Project
Synopses 2020
Page 2 of 13
NANYANG RESEARCH PROGRAMME (JUNIOR RESEARCHER) Overview of Project Titles 2020
Project Code Category Project Title
EEEjr01 Engineering Water Dielectric Resonator Antennas
MAEjr01 Engineering Development of Extrusion Material for Food Application
MAEjr02 Engineering Conductive Pen and 3D Printing Applications
NIEjr01 Engineering Exploring Local Micro-Climates With Open-Source Sensors
NIEjr02 Sciences Development of Graphene / Metal Interfaces for Large Spin-Orbit Interaction
SCBEjr01 Engineering Analysing the Impacts of Cold-Chain Dependence of Vaccines via Life Cycle Analysis
SCBEjr02 Engineering Determining the Environmental Sustainability of Oral Drug Packaging via Life Cycle Analysis
SPMSjr01 Sciences Visualizing Scientific Concepts in Nanoelectronics
SPMSjr02 Engineering Treating Cheap Commercial Metal Foams to be Effective Catalyst Material by Surface Engineering
SPMSjr03 Sciences Magnetic Materials for 2D Spintronics
Page 3 of 13
NANYANG RESEARCH PROGRAMME (JUNIOR RESEARCHER) Project Synopses 2020
EEEjr01
Project Code EEEjr01
Title Water Dielectric Resonator Antennas
Category Engineering
Description Water has a lot of interesting features: transparent, flexible, and readily available. In addition, it has very high dielectric constant and potentially low loss. Therefore, antennas based on water can be compact in size and easily reconfigurable. This project is to study a suitable dielectric resonator antenna based on pure water, which can be used in wireless local area network (WLAN). Extensive simulations will be conducted to determine the suitable shape of the water container so that the antenna can operate at a few useful frequencies. A prototype may be fabricated near the end of the project to verify the design concept.
Type of Project Offered as
NRP Junior Enrichment Project
College / School School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering
Target Group Sec 3 / Year 3 and Year 4
Group Size Pair
Specific Knowledge NIL
Other Requirements NIL
Back to Table of Contents
Page 4 of 13
MAEjr01
Project Code MAEjr01
Title Development of Extrusion Material for Food Application
Category Engineering
Description There is a world-wide effort to improve standards of care for the elderly population. Poor presentation of food, difficulty in eating, lost in eating ability causes malnutrition in the aging population. In this project, the student will explore the use of 3D printing technology to print food, and develop soft material that can be extruded for food application.
Type of Project Offered as
NRP Junior Enrichment Project
College / School School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
Target Group Sec 3 / Year 3 and Year 4
Group Size Pair
Specific Knowledge NIL
Other Requirements NIL
Back to Table of Contents
Page 5 of 13
MAEjr02
Project Code MAEjr02
Title Conductive Pen and 3D Printing Applications
Category Engineering
Description The project will explore design and fabrication of component made by 3D printing with direct writing of electrical or electronics functions. Example of such applications are embedded electronics and 4D printing.
Type of Project Offered as
NRP Junior Enrichment Project
College / School School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
Target Group Sec 3 / Year 3 and Year 4
Group Size Pair
Specific Knowledge NIL
Other Requirements NIL
Back to Table of Contents
Page 6 of 13
NIEjr01
Project Code NIEjr01
Title Exploring Local Micro-Climates With Open-Source Sensors
Category Engineering
Description You will be using open-source environmental sensors (based on Arduinos) to build a dataset of the microclimate around your home, over a period of time spanning the duration of the project. You and your team-mate will use the datasets to compare the microclimate from your two respective sites, and make reasoned inferences and analyses regarding the variation in the patterns of the data observed. The sensors can be configured to measure variables such as light, temperature, and humidity. They can be self powered and can be configured to run-off regular handphone battery-pack chargers. For extension activities, you and your team-mate could explore modifying and customising the sensors, and / or modifying the source code, and / or thinking about different ways of housing the sensors and weatherproofing them, possibly using fabricated parts which you yourselves design. You wil come away with a more informed understanding of how and why microclimate varies over time, using empirical data gathered from your respective local (home) environments. Your study can contribute to wider datasets which the research team are already building in Singapore as well as in other countries in ASEAN.
Type of Project Offered as
NRP Junior Enrichment Project
College / School National Institute of Education
Target Group Sec 3 / Year 3 and Year 4
Group Size Pair
Specific Knowledge None specific.
Other Requirements You should be prepared to analyse the data you generate using freely available statistical tools found online, as part of your final report and presentation.
Back to Table of Contents
Page 7 of 13
NIEjr02
Project Code NIEjr02
Title Development of Graphene / Metal Interfaces for Large Spin-Orbit Interaction
Category Sciences
Description Spintronics (means spin + electronics) deals with the spin of electron for the development of futuristic logic and memory devices with ultra-high speed and high storage capacity. To achieve futuristic spintronics devices, high spin current to charge current and charge current to spin current inter-conversion efficiency is need. Till date, maximum inter-conversion efficiency is reported to be 33% in tungsten and need to be improved to realize spin devices for practical applications. To enhance this inter-conversion efficiency, system with large and tunable spin-orbit interactions is required. In the present proposal, we propose a 2 dimensional graphene / metal interface which can result in the large spin orbit interaction due to the presence of free electron in the graphene and difference in the chemical potential at the metal-graphene interfaces. Hence, in the present proposed research, graphene interfacing with metal is opted to develop new cost effective and non-toxic high spin orbit materials. Approach can help in the progress of the spin-orbit engineering to achieve large charge to spin conversion efficiency which is highly desired to accelerate this emerging field of research and application. The proposed research not only places an academic impact but also create a technological impact.
Type of Project Offered as
NRP Junior Enrichment Project
College / School National Institute of Education
Target Group Sec 3 / Year 3 and Year 4
Group Size Pair
Specific Knowledge Good hands-on the experimental science and keen to learn basic Physics and Chemistry.
Other Requirements NIL
Back to Table of Contents
Page 8 of 13
SCBEjr01
Project Code SCBEjr01
Title Analysing the Impacts of Cold-Chain Dependence of Vaccines via Life Cycle Analysis
Category Engineering
Description A majority of vaccines requires full cold-chain dependence during their transport and storage to preserve their viability. The use of cold chains in transportation (e.g. refrigeration, cold room, etc.) generates high energy wastage and carbon emission to the environment. Recently, there are movement to reduce the cold chain dependence of vaccine by shifting to dry powder vaccines that can be transported and stored at ambient temperature. However, this remains far from actual implementation, therefore the more realistic approach is to reduce the cold-chain dependence, instead of completely removing it. In this project, we aim to determine the environmental sustainability index of having a full cold-chain in vaccines' transportation and storage by performing life cycle analysis (LCA). Different cold chain cycles will be investigated to determine the impact of slight reduction in the cold-chain energy on the environment. The project will start with literature review on different cold chain cycles, followed by building the inventory of data regarding their environmental sustainability (e.g. mass and energy consumption for their process, toxicity to the environment, etc.). This project is 100% non-laboratory based, only LCA software will be used.
Type of Project Offered as
NRP Junior Enrichment Project
College / School School of Chemical & Biomedical Engineering
Target Group Sec 3 / Year 3 and Year 4
Group Size Pair
Specific Knowledge Interest in Chemistry, Biology, and passionate about environment.
Other Requirements NIL
Back to Table of Contents
Page 9 of 13
SCBEjr02
Project Code SCBEjr02
Title Determining the Environmental Sustainability of Oral Drug Packaging via Life Cycle Analysis
Category Engineering
Description Oral solid dosage form, particularly tablets and pills, remain the most widely used form of drug formulations for human ingestion (>70% market share) owed to its simple and well known manufacturing process, physical stability over time, and ability to control the dissolution once ingested via coating. The widespread use of oral tablets/pills, however, also means that there are large amount of packaging materials of these tablets lying around in our environment. Most packaging materials are made up of polymers, which some of them have better environmental sustainability profile than the others. Recently, there are interest in completely shifting to biodegradable packaging for oral tablets similar to the shift towards biodegradable food packaging. In this project, we aim to determine the environmental sustainability index of different oral tablet packaging materials by means of performing Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), including those materials that are already used in the market as well as those that are currently still in development. The project will start with literature review on different oral tablet packaging materials, followed by building the inventory of data regarding their environmental sustainability (e.g. mass and energy consumption for their manufacturing, toxicity to the environment, etc). This project is 100% non-laboratory based, only LCA software will be used.
Type of Project Offered as
NRP Junior Enrichment Project
College / School School of Chemical & Biomedical Engineering
Target Group Sec 3 / Year 3 and Year 4
Group Size Pair
Specific Knowledge Have interest in Chemistry and passionate about environmental sustainability.
Other Requirements NIL
Back to Table of Contents
Page 10 of 13
SPMSjr01
Project Code SPMSjr01
Title Visualizing Scientific Concepts in Nanoelectronics
Category Sciences
Description The objective of the project is to visualize complex and abstract scientific concepts in nanoelectronics by designing 3-dimensional (3D) images and/or videos. Visualizing scientific concept and principle in nanoelectronics is extremely crucial in scientific studies. In fact, these visualizations, including image and video, are always used in research articles published in scientific journals. From equipment schematic to scattering mechanism and to working principle, they are all means of visualization in order to pitch the difficult and abstract research concepts to readers. Without the images and videos, research work cannot even be understood by scientific researchers in the same research field. However, visualizing scientific concepts can be challenging. In order to construct a good scientific visualization and elaborate the concepts, sufficient understanding on the concepts is a must factor. Furthermore, a good artistic design can also significantly empower the visualizations. In this project, the student will focus on visualizing schematics and working principle of nanoelectronics using the 3D modeling software. The intended type of nanoelectronic device to visualize is the field-effect transistor utilizing nanomaterials. The field-effect transistor is a vital device structure in information technology. It uses an electric field to control the electrical conductivity of a material and store binary information inside.
The project will be structured into different levels: (a) Modeling atomic structures of nanomaterials, such as ultrathin film; (b) Design a field-effect transistor structure and the electrical circuits; (c) Rendering images of electron injection and electron scattering process with different perspectives. (d) Making a video to demonstrate the working principle of a field-effect transistor.
Some representative images can be found on my group website http://www.ntu.edu.sg/home/renshaw/miscellaneous.html. Throughout the project, the student will be educated with scientific knowledge of physics, technological concepts of field-effect transistor and skills of 3D modeling. This knowledge and skills will be very useful for the further career of the participants. For instance, the student who wants to do research in future will find that the skills are useful for publishing the scientific paper and making a presentation. For the student who wants to work in the field or industry mixed with science, technology, and design, it will be the best fit and a great opportunity.
Type of Project Offered as
NRP Junior Enrichment Project
College / School School of Physical & Mathematical Sciences
Target Group Sec 3 / Year 3 and Year 4
Group Size Pair
Specific Knowledge Physics.
Page 11 of 13
Other Requirements NIL
Back to Table of Contents
Page 12 of 13
SPMSjr02
Project Code SPMSjr02
Title Treating Cheap Commercial Metal Foams to be Effective Catalyst Material by Surface Engineering
Category Engineering
Description Water splitting reaction refers to the fundamental reaction that water molecules decompose into hydrogen and oxygen molecules. This is an uphill reaction and requires a theoretical energy input of 1.23 eV. In practice the voltage is higher than 1.6 eV because of extra energy required for absorption, resorption, potential drop at contact interfaces etc. Therefore, in order to make this reaction technologically viable for the generation of hydrogen (energy carrier), it is important to deploy catalyst to make the reactions happen easily. The most effective catalyst are usually precious metals such as Pt, Pd, Ir, Ru, etc. It would be much more desirable to develop cheap catalyst that are based on non-noble metals.
Commercial Ni foam is a potential cheap catalyst for water splitting reactions but it requires a voltage input more than 2.0 V. Its performance is very poor because of large pores and non-favorable electronic surface states. In this NRP project the student(s) will learn the basic knowledge about water splitting reactions and the role of catalysts. He/she will employ some facile but effective methods to modify the nanostructures of commercial metal foams, and then conduct physical characterizations, and evaluation of the suitability of the treated metal foam for catalyst. He/she will receive close guidance from lab members.
Type of Project Offered as
NRP Junior Enrichment Project
College / School School of Physical & Mathematical Sciences
Target Group Sec 3 / Year 3 and Year 4
Group Size Pair
Specific Knowledge Secondary school knowledge of Chemistry and Physics.
Other Requirements NIL
Back to Table of Contents
Page 13 of 13
SPMSjr03
Project Code SPMSjr03
Title Magnetic Materials for 2D Spintronics
Category Sciences
Description In this project, we will investigate different 2D magnetic materials for a room temperature 2D MRAM devices. The relevant physics includes: How to use magnetic material in 2 dimensional world, How to increase the working temperature of 2D magnet and how to
understand the microscopic origin of 2D magnetism.
Type of Project Offered as
NRP Junior Enrichment Project
College / School School of Physical & Mathematical Sciences
Target Group Sec 3 / Year 3 and Year 4
Group Size Pair
Specific Knowledge NIL
Other Requirements NIL
Back to Table of Contents
